Credits in your PayPal account are really just USD-backed - they are not a unique currency themselves. Other 'digital currencies,' such as Facebook Credits, can be created out of nothing and without limit, so they are not serious money.

Most 'digital currencies' are not really digital currencies at all.

Bitcoin is two things which share a name. One, it's a payment system, and two, it's a currency. You use the Bitcoin payment system to send bitcoins as currency from one account holder to another. The transfer is instantaneous, carries no fee, works anywhere in the world, and is private.

When we started ShapeShift, a future world of natively digital assets was very theoretical.

I'm much more confident with crypto than with banks or fiat currency because I can actually control it, and the money supply is transparent, stated up front. It makes online shopping a lot easier and a lot safer.

I was very excited about a currency that was not controlled by a central government, that could be a free market currency. That was all the incentive I needed to dedicate my life to it.