Although bitcoins are more like cash than like credit cards, their ethereal nature allows you to lock them up in ways that cash that cannot be: encrypt them (i

Although bitcoins are more like cash than like credit cards, their ethereal nature allows you to lock them up in ways that cash that cannot be: encrypt them (i.e. you encrypt the files that contain the private keys). This is not a solution that bitcoin itself needs to build into the protocol. It's just something that we already have that should be used when using bitcoin. People are taking a while to get used to the idea of securing a decentralised currency.