Every government forces its citizens to pay taxes in the local currency. You seem to be taking two separate issues (the economic output of the US, which is not always in dollars given the huge amount of exports we have) with US tax policy and...I don't know...confusing them?
So?
It is religion (or at least faith). People believe without proof that it has value.
Is Bitcoin open? Sure. That doesn't automatically mean it has intrinsic value. I can't trade the source code for the Linux kernel to a Microsoft developer - it has no value to them.
Err..no:
Backed by the economic output of the US.
How about asking doctors if they still trust Vioxx? Some of them knew there were problems before its release.
From a fiscal standpoint, they're the same thing. In fact, Bitcoin is worse as it's backed by absolutely nothing.
The Magic part should have been a tell to most people.
Let me answer your question with a question. Do you trust the US Dollar less because of the Leaman Brothers collapse? Trusting or not trusting a currency (virtual, or fiat) based on the actions of one player, regardless of how large, makes no sense. I believe in what Bitcoin is about, I trust it more than I trust the banks and government. I still need fiat money to pay my bills, but would prefer to live without the banks who have already shown to not be trustworthy.
*headdesk*
I'm going to say this as simply as I can:
Bitcoin is also fiat currency
There's nothing backing it. Zero, zip, zilch. At least the US dollar is backed by the full faith and credit of the US government, and it's been that way for 40 years. Bitcoin hasn't lasted 10.
that I ever trusted Bitcoin in the first place. I didn't.
Of course, your credit union already operates on the principle that your money gets pilfered from your account and handed to someone else as a standard practice while you're shown a fake balance, which is what makes deposit insurance absolutely necessary.
WRONG
Yes, credit unions do lend out the money you deposit, how else do you expect to get that
If my credit union fails, my deposits are insured up to $250,000 by the government. When Mt. Gox disappears, there's nothing. All your bitcoin are belong to someone else. I guess you could buy insurance independently against your deposits if you really wanted to go Galt about it. It'd probably cost a lot though, and there's no guarantee that you'd get paid back in bitcoin.
It doesn't need to be backed by a tangible asset. It needs to be backed by something of value. Until now, that value was the exchanges, and their value has now decreased to 0.
And many of your deposits in traditional banks are insured against failure by the government.
Well there goes the Internet
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They're still trying to do their own thing, regardless of where the rest of the world is going.
Now, is Microsoft a different company and more open to open source? Yes. I have an open source package to control Azure (and they support Linux on it). They've been supportive of the local OpenStack meetups. They're a bit less hostile to dual booting systems. The costs and licensing have come down a good amount. The Xbox 360 is a really nice gaming system. They have way better backwards compatibility than Apple.
But they're still at heart the same company. The UI they started in Windows phone made it to the Xbox, then to Windows 8. That kind of UI just doesn't work on laptops and they should have figured that out. The Xbox One was going to squash game resale and borrowing. Live is a pretty big disaster, and every update to Windows 7 tries to include some new version of Bing, hoping I'll install it.
Can I install different browsers in Chrome OS? Don't know, don't care. Chrome OS is a small fraction of the laptop market, and my Android devices have various choices for browsers and most importantly, I can set the default browser and have that service every http link I come across, same with most other apps.
"The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy." -- Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards
