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Excuse me for stepping into this conversation, but I've been intrigued the the Bitcoin concept for awhile, and it seems like there are a couple folks here who know a lot more about it than I do, so I thought I'd test my understanding. My points have nothing to do with Alyssa Milano, so apologies if I'm going too far off topic.

Everything I've read about Bitcoin in the popular press focuses on it's value relative to some other currency, usually the dollar. People buy Bitcoins for dollars and sell them for dollars, like any other commodity. There are miners who create more bitcoins by spending a lot of time and energy running complex computer algorithms (which I don't understand), but beyond that, the supply of bitcoins is pretty much fixed. I'm not sure why people want to own Bitcoins because they don't seem to have any intrinsic value. The only reason I can come up with is that their value fluctuates relative to other currencies and hence buying and selling them creates opportunities to make (or lose) money.

From what I understand, the above trading activity misses the point of Bitcoin completely. If Bitcoin catches on as a currency and, for example, people can buy anything they want by using Bitcoin, and get paid in Bitcoins, then governments might eventually be completely out of the currency loop, have no control over the supply of money, and can't spend more money than they have. Inflation would end forever. I'm sure that's why nobody in government wants Bitcoin to catch on, but from my perspective, it sounds like a very good idea!

I understand there are lots of roadblocks to Bitcoin ever being accepted as a currency; it won't happen anytime soon, but it would seem to be a really good thing if it catches on. Meanwhile, to me, buying and selling Bitcoins for dollars seems pretty risky.