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I think Bitcoin is the Linux of payments. Everyone always talked about the potential to completely change the desktop (consumer use) but the real impact was the network/backend (Sun/NT machines) So Bitcoin is exciting to me but not as a payment method. But as a backbone it gets really interesting.

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I like the analogy, but not being a finance person I have no idea - is Bitcoin particularly compelling "as a backbone"?

Less bitcoin itself, but the blockchain technology that backs the currency has a number of novel uses. The idea of a public, cryptographically secure and verifiable ledger could be used in everything from voting to domain name registration.

Your reply is the most valuable & important response of this entire conversation so far. Thank you for saving my faith in the HN community.

For international fund transfers, yes. It doesn't require using correspondent banks. It's a direct, point-to-point transfer of value.

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