> Most people can understand government fiscal policy (to a useful extent anyway). Very few can understand an algorithm even when it's explained to them. They v

> Most people can understand government fiscal policy (to a useful extent anyway). Very few can understand an algorithm even when it's explained to them. They vote in the government and currency in it's current form (e.g. USD) has worked for generations. Trusting the government seems much safer. Do you know what people trust more than anything else? Other people. Trust in government feels so fundamental, but actually it is based on the fact that OTHER people trust the government, too. People trust a lot many things they don't understand, too. People trust https, for example. They feel safe because "everybody else is trusting it, too". IMHO, this kind of normative ethics ("it is correct because everyone else says so") is why many societies have totally acceptable behaviours which are obviously wrong to outsiders : whipping women if they dare to drive in Saudi Arabia, ignoring abject poverty as it stares you in the eye in India (or even the West), punishing non-religious or sexually "deviant", etc; Coming back to BitCoin : the burgeoning community that believes in BTC has the potential to reach critical mass and create the kind of numbers that will serve as a foundation for the kind of trust that the government, for example, or religion (despite being provably nonsensical), enjoys today. TL;DR : it's not that people trust the government, they trust what other people trust. A good enough number of people trust BitCoin.