Also, full disclosure: I own ~1.5 bitcoins now; I bought 3 bitcoins a couple of years ago just so that I could play around with writing my own bitcoin client (I am a software developer), got bored, gave it up, and shelved them. I lost 1 bitcoin to my own software that I was writing (I used my software to try to send that bitcoin out as an initial test of my software and somehow 'lost' it 
), but managed to retain the other 2. I sold ~ 0.5 bitcoin recently on eBay just to recover my initial investment and guarantee a small profit. I am holding the other 1.5 bitcoins because I don't really care that much about ~$1,000 now versus what might be a life-changing amount of money later should Bitcoin really take off. But really, I would rather my Bitcoin value go to 0 because the government took my advice and created a virtual currency with a fairer initial distribution. I'd happily pay $1,000 for that.
), but managed to retain the other 2. I sold ~ 0.5 bitcoin recently on eBay just to recover my initial investment and guarantee a small profit. I am holding the other 1.5 bitcoins because I don't really care that much about ~$1,000 now versus what might be a life-changing amount of money later should Bitcoin really take off. But really, I would rather my Bitcoin value go to 0 because the government took my advice and created a virtual currency with a fairer initial distribution. I'd happily pay $1,000 for that.