I was a bit taken aback that the tone of this submission was, "See! Bitcoing worked!"
Uh, no one outside of a few small circles has any idea what it is. And any currency as volatile as Bitcoin is broken.
And Bitcoin isn't just a currency, it's a lot of things. One of them is a store of wealth, like gold, and it's doing wonders in that role.
Just one of the many, many ways bitcoin is better than gold as a store of exchange-value: embedded security. No armored trucks, no vaults.
And look at China. BTC's recent rise is partially attributable to the fact it's a so-far-legal method of moving ¥ out of the country. And their government looks to be in support. The reason it's illegal to exchange yuan for foreign currency is so it doesn't leave the system and lose value. With BTC, the yuan is received by the buyer as something of value, instead of something to be "disposed of," thereby not diluting its value.
Ie. BTC can move currencies without making them lose exchange-value. That's not a small deal.
BTC may for the time being move currencies without any perceptible loss in exchange value but the exchange value of BTC will go up per yuan with greater demand. The yuan will devalue against BTC but maybe this isn't a big problem because BTC isn't a major world currency .. yet ?
one critical bug in the main bitcoin client and the value will become zero (or close to it).
whilst I like the idea of bitcoin, I'm not betting my retirement on being able to draw out my BTC balance in 40 years
