BTC is a commodity. Bitcoin is a proof-of-work system. It's useful because it proves that you've spent resources generating BTC. This means someone can charge for otherwise relatively free actions such as signing up to a website, posting on a forum or sending an email. This forces spammers to incur higher costs, making spam less profitable and reducing the overall amount.
Agree. I've been coming up with some pretty decent analogies to explain the value of bitcoin to people.
Briefly: the world has no money, God drops a big mountain on the earth and says, "there's gold in them thar hills". A bunch of guys with pick axes go and get the "money". The time, capital, etc to get the gold is the inherent value in it. Otherwise it really has no value.
The same can be said of bitcoin. I then explain to people to imagine looking at their online banking statement. I explain that it's only digital; it's not really there. If all that bank's customers went to the bank not everyone would get their money even though the register says they have it. IT'S DIGITAL. It starts to dawn on them.
