What has fuelled the surge, which began about a week after the cryptocurrency touched US$10,000, is the fact that bitcoin futures trading will start this weekend. But going mainstream could prove to be the undoing of bitcoin, which in the recent frenzy has largely shaken off its seedy past as a currency of choice for black-market deals online.

These sellers and their realtors believe they will find buyers, particularly among a subset of people in their 20s and 30s: tech-savvy men with decent jobs and maybe a libertarian bent who, by getting into cryptocurrency early, now command significant digital capital. Disillusioned or spurned by the burst of the housing bubble in 2008, younger investors who bought into bitcoin, an unregulated currency that functions outside the grips of traditional financial institutions, are now interested in putting their digital currency to work in the physical world.

For every quarter when bitcoin and altcoins rise and rise there are many more months when regulation changes, banking feedback, holiday season, tax notifications, scandals, pump and dumps, general economy, internal infighting, forks, jurisdiction support all drive down the price of ETH and other coins which reduces crypto activity and makes crypto holders feel stressed and poor.

But back to the question of trying to establish an "intrinsic value" for Bitcoin. It's not simple. The dollar has intrinsic value because you need dollars to pay taxes in the United States. The government accepts no other currency. So if you're going to engage in any kind of commerce whatsoever, you need to use dollars. This creates real value for the currency. Gold has real value because it's shiny and can be used for jewelry. Other commodities get their value from industrial purposes.

The flu pops up throughout the world every year, but the virus is at its most dangerous when a new strain emerges –  such as the H7N9 bird flu currently circulating in Asia. So far, H7N9 has sickened more than 130 people and has proven fatal to over a third of patients hospitalized with the disease, according to researchers.

You know about Bitcoin, that supposedly hot new digital currency that everyone must have. Come on. Admit it, gold owners. You gave serious consideration to adding some Bitcoin to your portfolio or maybe you actually pulled the trigger and bought some before it collapsed.You might laugh at the lunacy of Bitcoin, but is it any different than the lunacy of gold?

I do not believe this theory either. But people in ancient times look like monkeys. Maybe that's why it's called theory.

I agreed with you and to buy from coins with a gain

Maybe the question we should be asking is: Which came first, the proto-chicken or the proto-chicken egg?