@Paul: What's woefully ironic is that the European Central Bank has been shouting "ponzi" about Bitcoin since October 2012. Central banks like the ECB and Federal Reserve are at the top of the currency issuance pyramid. Where's the anger? The answer is there's no need to be upset about any of this, because any and all currency systems, Wall Street stocks, and investments in general primarily benefit those who "get in early". If anything, people are mad jealous because everyone knows they could've got in on Bitcoin at a ridiculously low price by some crazy stroke of luck akin to winning the lotto. Remember, Bitcoin is a global currency, with a market cap of just under $10B. That is a tiny, tiny thing in the scheme of things and you're lucky the Merc is even willing to write this article about it, given how often Bitcoin is lambasted by the media.

There's nowhere you can turn to in this world and not face investments that benefit its earliest adopters. It's quite healthy to see this, but even healthier is to recognize that Bitcoin is infinitely more fair as a system than the Federal Reserve system which is run by old, wrinkly white men in top secret locations. Conversely, Bitcoin is open source computer code owned by no man, company or government. That is simply refreshing. Because Bitcoin is open source, if you think the system is unfairly benefiting its early investors, you're free to make your own clone of Bitcoin and launch your own currency. It's been done 100s of times, and we keep coming back to Bitcoin because it has the largest userbase and the most real world companies supporting it. Take Coinbase for example, which just raised a $25,000,000 round from Andreessen Horowitz.

Bitcoin is not only interesting from a freedom-from-the-Fed perspective, it's a genuine innovation: it was the first technology ever to solve the Byzantine General's Problem. Essentially, human beings participating in an online network have never before been able to agree upon the allocation of value between them without a third party. Because Bitcoin solves this, it doesn't need companies or governments to work, meaning we don't need a hierarchy of any kind to manage money. No hierarchy needed, no government needed, no Federal Reserve needed, no banks needed.

All of this makes Bitcoin particularly well-suited for the Internet. You can accept money directly from your users, without involving a bank or government, and without expending any more effort than posting your email address.

Only 21,000,000 Bitcoins in total will ever be created. For a global currency, that makes each unit very, very rare. The revolutionary aspect of Bitcoin alone, combined with its rarity, makes each BTC practically a collector's item. 1000 mBTC, which is the next unit down, has been worth as much as $1240. This is serious money, and we're not even close to seeing widespread adoption. We're not even to where the iPhone was in 2006. This is like the Internet in 1992.

As more and more people wake up to the fact that Bitcoin is here to stay, the price will naturally increase.