Frost, the reason gold is valued is not because it is useful but because others value it. The reason gold can take this role is because it is rare.

Currencies like the US dollar were valued because they were backed by gold. However after the gold standard was abandoned, the US dollar was still valuable because others valued it. The rarity of the US dollar is managed by a central source, the government.

Bitcoin is trying to provide an electronic decentralized version of the US dollar. Its rarity maintained by the increasing difficulty of creating a bitcoin.

The people who helped create the currency (the early adopters) were able to print money like the government. It may benefit them enormously but rarely are things equal (the world isnt fair, get over it).

The issue for you is that bitcoins may never be valued by other at all. Right now using bitcoins is like walking into a town that uses monopoly money and tries to convince you to convert at an exchange rate of $10 US for $50 Monopoly. In this analogy the early adopters would have warehouses of monopoly money, just hoping it catches on.

Update: Currently there are 5 million bitcoins, with an exchange rate of $0.25. Clearly there is hording, artificially raising the price of a bitcoin. Classic pump and dump.

They = bitcoins

Hmm, it does exist but no poker. No explicit odds.

Though it is interesting, its surprising that it isnt tied into an exchange from US <-> Bitcoin.

Arent bitcoins the ideal way of transferring money to/from online gambling websites as they are anonymous, which avoids the safe port act entirely.

If the bitcoin exchanges work then the US$ <-> bitcoin is easy. All that is left is a gambling website that accepts bitcoins.

Why doesnt this exist?