Nobody else in /. is reading this and I'm done humoring you. You clearly have no idea how modern economies work and instead rely on throwing your ideas against the wall to see what sticks ('gun-backed!..I mean...The US government only accepts US dollars!...nowait...Petrodollars!'). And none of it does. So frankly I don't care what other ideas you have and want to try throwing. If you think that means you win by default because I give up, then I'll admit it. You win.

Except I still have a decent understanding of how the US economy works and you haven't been able to retute any of my specific points, and you're still rather ignorant. So who really won?

I must say, your lack of intellect is truly stunning.

Only if she uses the safeword.

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.

*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.

WRONG

Yes, credit unions do lend out the money you deposit, how else do you expect to get that .01% interest? But since my credit union has a certain amount of (legally required) cash on hand to handle normal expenses, the value in my account isn't fake at all - I can withdraw it all at any time. FDIC (really NCUA) insurance makes sure that if the credit union fails or runs out of cash that the value in my account is still valid.

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.