Bitcoin has been one of the most amazing currencies to watch in the history of mankind. First of all, the value of Bitcoin is only as strong as the trust that the Bitcoin community places in it, which means it holds an intrinsic value and not a real value such as gold, silver or land.  Those commodities will always hold value, and can be traded no matter what happens in the world.  If someone were to pull the plug on our power grid, bitcoin would literally become absolutely worthless in an instant.  So would paper currencies however, so their existence has actually provided precedence for the creation of the new digital currency.