All currency values ever are completely speculative, the value of a currency is a shared mass consensual hallucination, this even applies to gold. There is no i

All currency values ever are completely speculative, the value of a currency is a shared mass consensual hallucination, this even applies to gold. There is no innate reason that it should ever have been considered as a form of money except by the consent of those that offered and accepted it as such. Bitcoin is no exception to this, but that is largely irrelevant with regards to the realities on the ground of how people are currently trading with btc rather than trading in btc. Those trading with btc just want a fast digital medium of exchange, they have taken to pricing their goods and services in a local fiat currency with more stability than btc (which is pretty much anything with the extreme market swings in btc right now) and a proviso that the conversion will be done at the time of the transaction. So, effectively they are simply treating BTC like cash. Due to the superfluidity of the exchange itself they can afford to ignore the actual exchange rate. Those trading in btc are hoarding it with the expectation that the price will rise as scarcity increases due to other people speculating in it as well as the network hash rate of the mining effort spiralling upward. These two points taken together was the core of my hypothetical idea about buying / selling agents that are effectively exchanges coupled with merchant service providers. It reflects the reality on the ground and plays well with both sectors of the market. Just to answer the obvious points also, something you can print on your inkjet when you're twelve is also printable by any other inkjet holder. The BTC in your account are unique and the total supply of BTC is expanded by a well understood mathematical process at a predictable rate and distribution, not fiat declaration of a central bank. This is what is meant by bitcoin is not a fiat currency. I also have enlightening perspective changing quotations from jesuits saved up just in case, and I am a militant atheist. I guess I'm just weird like that. :)