All other options like this share the property of a centralized trusted source mediating your transactions. The entire point is Bitcoin is like "cash for the I

All other options like this share the property of a centralized trusted source mediating your transactions. The entire point is Bitcoin is like "cash for the Internet" in that once I hand someone $20 in BTC it's just like handing them $20 in physical cash. I have no third party either telling me I can't make that transaction, or with the ability to reverse the transaction after the fact. This is a feature, not a bug. Anything to disintermediate financial institutions that like to apply political and corporate policy on who I can conduct business with is a good thing in my opinion. This means my options when the third party frauds me are the traditional options employed by folks dealing with cash transactions since money was invented. I can sue them in court, forget about it, or round up some friends with lead pipes. I think many folks completely miss the point. Cash is useful. Cashless society is about the worst dystopia I can imagine - with unaccountable third parties and government able to track your every spending move, while simultaneously applying their political or legal policy to every transaction. Bitcoin's first step into introducing cash-like digital currency is the innovation, and it clearly is needed. Certainly not perfect (privacy could be far better, security is a real problem, etc.) - but it's far better than anything that had previously come along. Comparing venmo to bitcoin is simply not a comparison - they solve entirely different problems. Venmo lets you send money from your bank account to another bank account with all those political and legal restrictions applied to your transaction. Bitcoin effectively lets you send cash to anyone you want, in any amount, and no one can stop that transaction from happening because they didn't like the person you are sending it to or what you were buying.