[grania]

It's as real as any electronic bank account balance on anyone's phone or computer

That's why I choose to bank in the real world. We can argue about if paper money is real, sure, but it does have an agreed-upon value that makes it so. I can walk into the local bank, write a check, and they will give me cash.

That's a big difference. Money has a real-world manisfestation. Bitcoins do not, unless you find someone who will trade a bitcoin entry for real goods.

At least with the tulip ponzi scheme of old, when it collapsed, some people had very pretty flowers.

[Tonytitan]

I can walk into the local bank, write a check, and they will give me cash.

Until you can't. For whatever reason.

Granted, I am referring to extraordinary, unlikely circumstances here but not out of the realm of possibility these days.

[Hardastarboard]

All exchange, whether money or barter, is based on faith (trust if you will), to a degree. That's why business is a civilizing influence in the world. In order to get what I want or need from someone else, I have to figure out how to give equal value that they will accept, and do so in good faith. Otherwise we're back to a Viking plunder economy.

Liberals are of course too economically illiterate (OK - I'll accept stupid, too) to ever comprehend even the above basic fact.

One last thought - the points in the first paragraph above are not mine - I think they came from my favorite economist, Dr. Walter Williams. Even if they didn't, I want him to have credit.