"I have a tough time imagining how governments can really stop people from using it as a currency if they really want to, just as governments haven't been able to stop people from using bittorrent for piracy. You can flat out make it illegal but it's a really hard thing to crack down on. But that said, Bitcoin is more exciting for it's underlying technology (the blockchain) than as a currency. It's a relatively secure, publicly query able database of transactions - there's all sorts of innovations (most of which yet to be imagined) which can be built on top of it. A very simple example is that you can build a document service which would function much like notaries, and probably eliminate the need for the later. As a currency, I don't really see it becoming a currency of choice for most people. But I do see it filling in some valuable niches. It solves the long vexing problem of how to enable micro-transactions. It'll probably replace western union for transferring cash overseas. My..." - Eric P