The extraordinary ability of the bacteriophage Qbeta replicase to amplify RNA outside the cell attracted attention of molecular biologists in the late 60's-early 70's. However, at that time, a number of puzzling properties of the enzyme did not received a rational explanation. Only recently, Qbeta-replicase began to uncover its secrets, promising to give a key not only to understanding the mechanism of replication of the genome of the bacterial virus, but also to the solution of more general fundamental and applied problems.