Which half?

Or you could buy my Paper Aeroplane (TM) for half the price? Just needs a gentle push and will fly for 6 seconds (results may vary).

You've never cleaned a naval vessel toilet before, I take it? (neither have I, I just thought I'd ask).

...

That might be more accurate...

Can I just ask your opinion, how does this protect someone who buys into Bitcoin from it actually being a Ponzi scheme?

This is a good point. Credit card companies and banks use promisory notes (credit) and we trust them that the electronic transactions become real at the other end.

The problem with Bitcoin is it is a floating currency and it is prone to price fluctuation that means its meaningfulness as a means of monetary exchange is currently dwarfed by its speculative importance.

And consider this also: Bitcoin mining depends on processing power. Who has most of that? The very people no one trusts anymore (finally!). Money does not just have to be based on a finite resource, but an honest resource. It needs to be off the grid, independent of power companies (no power, no electricity to do your Bitcoin transactions!), telco's (no internet, no Bitcoin). To store value I would still favor metals, and for day to day anonymous purchasing there are better ways.

1. Cash
2. Barter
3. Disposable credit cards purchased with cash

But what about Bitcoin? It allows you to stow away massive amounts of money in an untouchable way... kind of nice but it's not without its problems. Is it in society's interest that people can move huge amounts of money without them or the government knowing? It can be very much to our detriment, such as being unable to stem the proceeds of crime that flow out of a country into another, unable to check the movement of money by foreign government sponsored subversion, and so forth. I know that nobody has been realistically able to stop the illegal transportation of gold, but why should we make the task of money laundering easier than before?

For example, the gun was an improvement on the bow and arrow, both of which communicate the same message. There are certain uses of this technology that would dramatically improve the lives of ordinary citizens.

Yeah, and what customers? Electronic trading supercomputers.

None of this makes a difference to honest trading except to ensure its loss making properties.

It actually doesn't matter what the EU political leaders understand, but the big change is that they have to find a new way to sell the bullshit ideas that they represent to the public now that the public recognizes said ideas as bullshit.

I love Bitcoin, it's so honest, so fair, so real, so future-proof.