If you never saw the TV show, try to find it on YouTube of NexFlix....Max Headroom....their currency was basically a thumb drive with a light on it that showed how much credit you have/had. Bit Coins as I understand it are similar to that, but they can be traded on the market, raising and lowering the “credit” value. IF we end up with that kind of currency, we’re screwed.....a few key strokes and you’re broke....not in the traditional sense....i mean everything is gone.....

If money is defined as that which is used as a medium of exchange then for some it fits that definition. Most people are not using it as a medium of exchange so it isn't in general circulation in the economy. Most of us are using debit cards and thus are using a digital currency as money.

Looking at money from the view of the issuer, that is to say, the government, it is a method of account and that seems to be their sole interest in money. Value is a subjective concept. Government has actually destroyed the value of their currency when it is debased to being a "method of account". Naturally, since money is no longer a thing of value to government we see soaring national debts. The consumer will use the "money" the government prints but eventually it will inflate the amount until it is valueless, as is what we have seen occur in Venezuela.

Bitcoin is, of course, a digital currency that rivals the governments digital currency so eventually government will try and do away with the competition and maintain its monopoly on the issuance of "money" by somehow making it illegal. Essentially, for taxation purposes, government wants to know who has money so the know who to tax and how much. Taxes will keep the general populace from saving or "hoarding" cash and accumulating wealth. The wealthy of course will always have loopholes or tax havens. Bitcoin does not appear on the government's books so it is a kind of tax haven at the moment.

I have reservations about bitcoin because it is an electronic form of money and if the grid goes down so does your access to bitcoin. It is just too easy for government to make it inaccessible or just outlaw it and start hunting down who has it. Having said that it is a "sounder" form of money than the government's digital currency which is not even money to them anymore but just a method of accounting. The qualities of money are its fungibility - its ability to be divided into small or large amounts, and the confidence it will be accepted in the future as a medium of exchange. The longer its future as a medium of exchange looks to the individual determines how sound it is considered to be. Trust and confidence in its use as a medium of exchange is its mainstay. Give everyone a UBI (universal basic income) and it will become valueless, a mere token.

Thus we see that real wealth is not "money" it is the goods and services or production of society. All that money is is a convenience in trade and a sound money would also be a store of value over time. Bitcoin is better than government issued currency because it restores the concept of private property to money. Government considers their money belongs to them but you can use it if you behave.

The thing about Bitcoin is that it's based on an agreement that it has value by virtue of its scarcity. And that's all. It's not based on any precious-metal standard or GDP, just scarcity, meaning it has only the value that people give it.

I mean, Bitcoin's first real use was on the Silk Road, because it could be used as a medium of exchange to buy black market goods in anonymity.

The only reason its skyrocketing now is because gold has shot up as far is it reasonably can and the US dollar is expected to shrink considerably in value, and people are looking for another currency investment that will hold value. But the minute the banks press the legislatures to make Bitcoin illegal, it will go right back to being a niche currency for transacting on the black market.

But like all speculation, all that matters is that you get in and get out before the value plummets.

I agree Serg97 - seems peculiar to me that the way to acquire bit coin is to purchase it w/MONEY - greenbacks, US Dollars...so it seem incongruous to me the idea that bit coin should or could be a practical subplant for real money.
Those who argue in favor of and who "use" bit coin seem to think it's a bulwark against the collapse of the US economy and the global economy. I don't see how that could work

BitCoin is the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.