As it is a finite resource, wouldn't bitcoin's value behave in a way similar to a precious metal? I just did a little bit of looking into digital gold. According to Wikipedia, all issuers of DG keep actual bullion on hand that is equal to the amount of DG they 'print'. However, the big difference I see between BTC and DG, is that DG could be issued without the gold to back it if the providers decided to change their scheme. New BTCs (aside from the ~21M) can't be issued by their very nature. For that reason alone, I'm not sure which I trust more. -Which is pretty funny, considering how arbitrary BTCs creation was.
;) I bought $5 worth. We just had a lottery around here last week that reached $300M. My wife and I bought 5 tickets, just so we could dream about our minuscule chances for astronomic wealth for a couple of days. My guess is that $5 in BTC is a safer bet, and at least it won't be dispelled as quickly.
It has been an exciting year for bitcoin. Do you still have your $5 stake? It should be worth over a grand by now.
That $5 was lost when the exchange I was using was "hacked". I forgot the name of it, but I think the owner just stole it. At any rate, I bought more when they were ~$13. That's done well. But geez, I wish I could go back to when I first posted this. I could retire if I wanted to. :)