Not long ago, the world was awash with venture capital in search of the next Yahoo or Amazon.com. No product, no experience, no technology, no business plan -- no problem. You could still get $40 million from investors to start up your dot-com. And you could get people to work around the clock for stock options and the promise of millions. Then, around April 2000, it all came crashing down.

Smart investors, esteemed analysts, and the business press found themselves asking:

• Who knew people wouldn't rush out to trade in their U.S. dollars for a virtual currency called...