In ancient times, people's wealth consisted of their crops. Tyrants, warlords and other 'government' officials, as always, wanted control over people's wealth. When some people resisted these tyrants, the warlords rode in and burned the crops, thus keeping the people under submission. One day, some people discovered the potato. With fields full of potatoes, it didn't matter if the tyrants rode in and burned the crops. The real value of the potato lies underground. The only way the overlords could control the people's wealth was to dig up all the potatoes. That would require a lot of work, and one thing tyrants hate more than almost anything else is to have to work. Thus, although the tyrants could frequently create havoc and harass the people, they could no longer steal the people's wealth very easily. Could Bitcoin be the financial equivalent of the potato for the people?