Is Bitcoin any different from the gold pieces that my 9th-level Ranger collected?

[DetlefK]

3. I don't think so...

Normally, a currency is backed up by something that's a stable long-term-investment, like state-issued bonds or a gold-stash.

But as far as I understood it, Bitcoin is just a new intermediate in the flow of money, not a new currency itself. An amount of currency A is transformed into Bitcoins, then transfered, then transformed into currency B. Therefore it's more of a good than a currency and therefore its value is regulated by supply and demand.

If a currency has no real-life counterpart, no insurance, no back-up, then it's pretend-money.