[knarf]

I'm just too lazy to do the research, but ...

As I understand it, if I give someone 453K, Do I get some kind of fancy coin thing in the mail or armored truck, or a piece of paper that says, I own "a" or "some" bitcoin ?

[gw-ington]

I'm just too lazy to do the research, but ... As I understand it, if I give someone 453K, Do I get some kind of fancy coin thing in the mail or armored truck, or a piece of paper that says, I own "a" or "some" bitcoin ?

In your example, you'd see an entry in your online e-wallet saying you own 10 bitcoins. No physical "coins," no pieces of currency or other paper, etc. If you really want a paper hardcopy, you can print a copy of your e-wallet screen that lists your 10 bitcoins. 10 bitcoins x $45,300/per = "453K".

[amorphous]

Think of it as a kind of Swiss Bank Account with a secret account code only you know. What you get is a certain amount of a limited number of (never more than aprox. 20M) BTC (or fraction) entered into your account through a kind of open and distributed ledger which requires an unimaginable amount of processing power to operate depending upon the number of computers working on it worldwide.

The reason why it's valuable is because the world's main money supply is created by these guys in endless quantities, which is why most only exist on computers as well, due to a severe paper shortage actual printing would create: