Lots of stuff is being written about Bitcoin recently, but one puzzle that remains… and yet no one asks: If Bitcoin uses computer power to generate (‘mine’) the coins, what is that being used to calculate? Is there another layer within the onion that needs peeling? Are we calculating something that can be used: financial data, nuclear weapons data, DNA sequencing, …spaceship trajetories? What is that computing power being used FOR? We know the benefit that a Bitcoin is worth money, but where does that money ACTUALLY come from? Who finances Bitcoin operations?

Why on earth do people trust Bitcoin? Beats me.