Bitcoin is as disruptive to the banking system - it essentially makes SWIFT redundant - as Napster was to the music industry.

But the problem that Bitcoin has - all do the other similar currencies of which Open Coin/Ripple and Freicoin (demurrage) are particularly interesting - is that for true P2P credit creation and clearing, no currency is strictly necessary.

Having said that, 'asset-based' currency - such as land-based geographically, and energy-based across borders - is an outcome of 'Peer to Asset' Prepay investment (Russia is now insisting upon prepay in all its oil transactions with big middlemen), and will certainly facilitate credit clearing and transfers of value.

I am also getting a lot of BitCoin questions from various people. I think right now the interest is mostly in it being an upwards pointing blue line. Sad but predictable.

But I can see it, and its successors, being accepted long term for services were establishing the buyers identity is semi-legitimate and mutually desirable: VPNs, email hosting, certain telco services, etc etc.

Chris comments:

"The general consensus is that the financial crisis in Cyprus, which led to proposals to raid domestic bank accounts, set off a panic among Spaniards, who feared that the tumult would cross the Mediterranean and put their savings at risk. So large numbers of them converted their euros into digital Bitcoins."