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The maximum number of bitcoins is limited to 21-million. This is quite different than fiat currency which can be inflated away by unlimited printing of new notes. That makes bitcoin and similarly designed cryptocurrency a better -- much better -- store of value than fiat currency. The dollar, for example, has lost 95% or so of it's value over the past hundred years. It hardly qualifies as "money" if part of your definition of money is that money is a store of value.

Bitcoin has also become a usable currency, as many companies now accept it as payment.

Since bitcoin was invented, hundreds of other cryptocurrencies have been introduced. I am especially keen on one which is designed to minimize the price volatility experienced by bitcoin (it went from 10 cents a coin to over $1200 a coin and is now at about $400 a coin). I'll be writing about this and related matters at http://cryptocurrency.academy.

Cryptocurrency is not a fad -- it is as logical a progression as debit and credit cards and Paypal etc were. One of the first niches ripe for cryptocurrency is international money transfer. Multitudes of folks will be delighted to transfer cryptocurrency at vey low cost instead of paying Western Union or other wire transfer fees.

But what gives bitcoin VALUE? You can’t beat it into rings or jewelry like silver, gold or copper; it has no decorative or industrial use like diamonds; you can’t eat or wear it, or even hit an attacker over the head with it.

What’s to keep me from starting my own coinage, buying all the stuff I’ll ever want and slipping away into the night?