[enraged]

I haven’t been paying attention to all this but I am curious. How do you convert something virtual into something tangible? If I had a million could I buy a house? Or a boat? Or gold?

[MrB]

If you find a product supplier that accepts bitcoin, yes.

[JRandomFreeper]

The dollars in your checking account are only electronic entries in a database. You don't think there is actually cash sitting in a bank, do you?

See the M1 vs M3 money supplies data.

/johnny

[oblomov]

You can convert them back to USD via an exchange (e.g., Mt. Gox, Coinbase)

[Star Traveler]

You can actually use Bitcoins to DIRECTLY buy something, if the seller is also a user of Bitcoins and wants to be paid in that currency.

Just think of it as having Russian Rubles or the Chinese Yuan. You can buy anything with those currencies if the seller will accept them. The seller may not accept them and his demand may be that you must pay him in French Francs. If that is his demand, then you’ll have to go to the “exchange” and convert whatever currency you have into French Francs.

It’s the same with Bitcoin. If that is your currency you’re holding at the time, you’ll have to go to the exchange and get French Francs for your Bitcoins.