My money is worth something, because all the Eurozone governments recognize it as valid money, accept it as payment, and make sure everyone else in the Eurozone does likewise. So it’s backed by, ultimately, the collective economy of most of Europe, and the authority and power of all the governments thereof, and of the European Union.
Whereas bitcoins are valuable, because people invested in bitcoins deem them valuable. They have all the worst qualities of commodity-based money and fiat money – nothing physical backing them up, and no actual states or even major corporations guaranteeing that they are going to remain valuable. Unlike stocks, there’s no system of dividend or any functional business, of which the stocks are shares of.
And as seen by the fluctuations, when China moved to tighten their bitcoin ban, bitcoins don’t actually make your investment free from government interference, quite the opposite! All it takes is the US govt or the EU deciding to follow China’s example, and bitcoin’s busted.
