"Government force" is just one of many things that gives the dollar value. The greater thing that gives the dollar value is the millions of people willing to accept it as payment. The government mandate helps drive acceptance, but it's the acceptance itself that gives the value, not the mandate.

Bitcoin can grow in this space because merchants choose to accept it as payment. The end result is the same. Sure, they may decide one day that they'll no longer accept it... but for today, they do, and that's enough.

Until you can accept that a currency does not require government force for it to be useful, you won't be able to rationalise Bitcoin. Maybe Bitcoin will be the experiment to prove this point for you and others.

All value is a belief, whether dollars or bitcoins or gold. The merchants accept it due to the belief that tomorrow or next week or next year they'll be able to redeem their Bitcoin for other things they need.

If people ceased to believe they need to live in houses and buy posh cars, those things would be worth zero tomorrow. Ideas, intellectual properties, are often considered to have value despite being as intangible as Bitcoin.

Everything has value because of belief it can satisfy a present or a future need. Or even more basic: it has value because some human somewhere believes it has value.

Maybe the belief that Bitcoin will still be exchangeable for goods a month or a year from now is wrong, but I think it likely will. Others do too. There's your belief.

Maybe we're all wrong.

Maybe the US Government will go down tomorrow, and USD will be worthless.

Hedge your bets appropriately.