Originally Posted by DWB

They are fiat, which if you want to split hairs could mean the same thing, but saying "virtual" it usually means online. To go a step further, using the USD for example, it is even worse than fiat because it is actually debt. So people who save USD are essentially saving IOU notes. Nothing more. USD savers are losers, literally.

At least bitcoin isn't debt. It may be fiat, but if they can ever work out the illegal use aspect of it so govs and banks won't shut it down, as silly as it sounds, putting money in bitcoins makes more sense than saving US dollars, providing you still have internet access in the morning and a hacker didn't wipe you out while you are sleeping. Short term bitcoin will make a lot of money, no doubt about it. Long term, I just don't see how it will last, because the fact it supposedly is not regulated (even though there will only ever be 21 million of them), is the exact reason banks and governments may want to dispose of it. Looking back through history, anything they can not tax or control, they make illegal.

If the owner of bitcoin had any real long term goals, he would be getting some heavy duty lobbyist in Washington right now to help ensure the survival of it. Otherwise it's a coin toss.