BitShares (BTS) is a brand of open-source software based on the as blockchain technology as used by Bitcoin. Unlike bitcoins, which do not produce any income for their owners, BitShare can be used to launch Decentralized Autonomous Companies (DACs) which issue shares, produce profits and distribute profits to shareholders.
As such, BitShares is about making profitable companies that people want to own shares in, by creating return for the shareholders. The first DAC launched by this proces was called BitSharesX, a decentralized asset exchange based in Hong Kong. BitShares was originally launched under the name of PhotoShares (PTS); it was later renamed to BitShares (PTS) and "reloaded" in November 2014 by merging several products into BitShares (BTS)
I was a little nervous to buy into Bitshares a few months ago, because I read somewhere that Bitshares was dead. Now, with a profit of over 1600%, I'm glad I didn't listen. If this is what a "dead" coin looks like, then let them all die...