Can bitcoins be used for something else?

[Elwar]

One of the major arguments I see against bitcoins is that they have no value outside of just being a currency, which requires that people have faith in it for it to continue or else it fails.

Well, I kinda understand the hashing thing but not too much. But couldn't the work being done by the terabytes of processor speed be used for something else?

Like some outside source uses the results of all of this for something beyond just as an effective currency.

I don't know what that could be outside of a very elaborate random number generator or such...but if it could then that would ensure that it would continue on for a long time.

Just a thought. If I knew more about it I'd have better ideas.

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[Stephen Gornick]

Well, I kinda understand the hashing thing but not too much. But couldn't the work being done by the terabytes of processor speed be used for something else?

This question gets asked frequently.  Unfortunately, there's not been a single suggestion that leads to a solution that will do what bitcoin's proof of work based on hashing does (which is, essentially, a method to prevent someone from cheating).

  Here's a good thread on that:
  - http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=3262.0