Bitcoin ?

[dyresand]

I remain skeptical it's secure and/or can't be snooped thru via the CIA or Mossad or KGB  . . .

Well, there is Cryptonote based currency which is untraceable XMR (Monero) is one of the most popular crypto-based currencies out now.
And it's a forked version of ByteCoin BNC. All transactions themselves are secure and untraceable I.E. third parties such as domesticated spying or otherwise
cannot track down where the coin is coming or going.

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When you understand that money in a regular bank is just a number on a database, bitcoin becomes just another currency... just another number.

There used to be an age when the money available to banks was related to the amount of actual valuable metal (or other commodities) that the bank possessed. The money we used, coins and bank notes, were backed by something that was actually worth something.
Nowadays, our bank notes are backed by promises of future profits... and last 2008 we saw just how feeble that system is. And it's heading there again.

What makes something valuable?
What makes money valuable? The fact that everyone agrees to exchange it for goods? That some goods are valued a particular amount, others are valued at another amount, and so on and so forth.

Bitcoins are being valuable because some people are interested in them... they attributing value to them. As long as someone is willing to exchange regular currency for bitcoins, they will be valuable. As soon as people stop that, bitcoins will become like credits on an online game.

Mainly after the financial crash peoples trust in the dollar was.....err...not very good and as a result, cryptocurrency became very popular very fast.
In fact, if the economy crashes yet again we will see the ever popularity of cryptocurrency even altcoins that aren't worth much spike in value very quickly. 
Bitcoins the currency made by the average person for the average person. Though.. mining BTC isn't a worthwhile endeavor unless you have the resources
but there is still other coins out there worth mining.