Ok, one thing I'm trying to understand... the math problem that CPUs must solve is solely to decide (in a fair-ish way) who receives their "free" coins as more virtual currency gets released? It's not actually doing any useful work that a third party is paying real-world $ for?
Very interesting if this is the case, since it would initially have zero tangible value, this would only grow due to speculators exchanging it with a real-world currency... seems like a chicken and egg situation, but I guess if there's $4m worth floating around it must have worked.
