Yes, I believe it was consciously designed to emphasize a few key dimensions that could make its balances uniquely useful as a circulating currency. So rather

Yes, I believe it was consciously designed to emphasize a few key dimensions that could make its balances uniquely useful as a circulating currency. So rather than being useful because of some physical and traditional qualities (like gold) or other practical consensus qualities (like state-backed fiat money), it bootstraps the necessary portability/divisibility/non-counterfeitability from cryptography and computer networking. On the other hand, Bitcoin has much less anonymity than is usually assumed (and often asserted, with hand-waving). So it's not a perfect mapping to traditional cash, or other idealized descriptions of cash/money. It's a new species of specie!