Did you make $20,000 today? Well, you could have. In fact, you could have made tons more money. All you had to do was own some bitcoin, the cryptocurrency. As I write, bitcoin is up 47% for the month, jumping by several hundred dollars a day.

What idiot doesn’t want to own this asset? Oh, that’s right. Me.

Because I don’t see it as an asset. Bitcoin is an imaginary thing with no official backing. There’s no person or entity that stands behind it. The currency is only as good as everyone who owns it or wants to own it. If more people try to sell, the price will go down. With more buyers, the price goes up.

But here’s the rub. There’s no specific use for bitcoin.

Useless imaginary stores of value that we trade for goods and services? We’ve got that covered. They’re called dollars, euros, yen, pounds, rubles, etc. Except those useless scraps and digital entries have something bitcoin doesn’t – a legally required purpose.

For every government-issued currency, there’s an entity (the government) that requires citizens use it to pay taxes and generally satisfy government debts, and citizens are required to accept it as payment for any debt. This is how nations protect their currency, by requiring its use on the threat of jail.

Bitcoin has no threat. If no one wants to buy, the currency stops trading and the price goes to zero.

Anyone who hates the idea of fiat money will find their perfect foe in cryptocurrencies. They are the essence of money based completely on faith.

That’s not to say bitcoin doesn’t have use.

The digital coin offers anonymity to buyers. And because it can be “withdrawn,” by using it to purchase actual currency or goods and services, anywhere in the world, bitcoin can travel across the globe without pesky customs officials or bankers observing the movement.

The secrecy and ease of transport make bitcoin very attractive… to criminals. That’s why purveyors of ransomware, the software that locks up your computer unless you pay up, demand payment in bitcoin and send you a tutorial on how to buy it.