Though that is true
There are a gazillion different soveriegn currencies. Most are worthless. Even those with value, technically arent worthnearly the value assigned to them.
"mining" is sort of a misnomer. It doesn't really create coin out of thin air. Printing money. It's more specifically a commission for using your computing power to verify and validate transactions on the block chain. Bitcoin is having problems right now as the popularity has caused comissions to soar and transaction times to slow. That's part of the "selloff" this weekend.
forking is somewhat of a problem, but one that tends to resolve itself when people vote with their feet.
Again, my dsclaimer, I don't know whether the ultimate value is higher or lower or multiples higher from here. But this is the future of Fiat money. There will be a few surviving crypto currencies.
I think a big turning point for governments came when the selling point of anonymity went away and transactions began to be tracked fairly effectively. Like a dollar bill, it doesn't have your name on it. But the moment you spend it, the whole world knows who last held that dollar bill.
#1). You have money. Other people want it. All of it!
#2). You want easy money. So does everybody else. They'll get it, too....yours! (and all of it!)
#3). You tell yourself you're smart. You won't lose your money. Fact: Other people are smarter,
