According to the labor theory of value, the value of anything is derived from the amount of labor required to produce or obtain it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_theory_of_value. Thus, the value of gold is derived from the amount of labor required to dig it from the ground. Analogously, the value of Bitcoin is derived from the amount of labor that's required to build, run, and sustain a crypto-mining apparatus (definitely not an easy task to do). There, Bitcoin has value! In fact, its source of value easier to comprehend than that of the dollar, which seems to appear out of nowhere.