[Semper911]

Got it. So it’s like a stock, there was an “IPO” of sorts, and now people are just trading on faith that there will be value when they want to sell.

But someone had to get the real money for the first set of bitcoins sold. Unless they just gave them away.

I guess it could work. For a while. Until there is a scare like a security breach or something that causes everyone to want to sell at the same time and the faith is diminished.

I am not trying to be a downer here, but it all seems sketchy to me. Honestly, I don’t see the point.

[Errant]

It takes awhile to get your head wrapped around the concept. It has kind of an abstract quality to it. Easier to understand than printing money out of thin air like the Fed does though. All Bitcoins are/were "mined" at some point. People got "real money" or whatever for the first Bitcoins mined, just as you can get "real money" or whatever for Bitcoins mined today or tomorrow.

Try this explanation: http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-explained-five-year-old/