Bitcoin is, at a very rough level, cash. If you give it to someone, you can't do any kind of automatic charge-back (lead pipes still work of course). You can'

Bitcoin is, at a very rough level, cash. If you give it to someone, you can't do any kind of automatic charge-back (lead pipes still work of course). You can't give the same cash to someone else (double-spending, easy with checks). You can't give someone cash you don't have (no debt / bounced checks). No transaction fee (technically. in practice, there may be none, or a very-tiny one compared to the amount transferred). No drivers license / social security number / home address required for either participant. Now imagine if you could send cash over the internet, to anyone. There are some extra tidbits (Bitcoin comes with a 'coin use history' essentially - all transactions are public knowledge, though the participants are anonymous. and other differences.), but that's basically the appeal.