It's not a perfect analogy, so no, it's not as simple as literally just picking any number between 0 and 21 million. You're using cryptographic principles to calculate a long string of letters and numbers for this new "lottery ticket" which is the end result of the "work" you're putting in.



Actually, the real world works similarly, too. Big companies and well connected people with government contracts are paid with dollars that have been created out of thin air. Since they are the first to be paid with these dollars, these dollars have more buying power. As soon as they are spent into the economy, the buying power of every single other dollar in existence is diluted a bit more by this new dollar. This causes prices to rise, which essentially means the dollars in my pocket are worth less today than they were yesterday and we're constantly getting fleeced by inflation caused by other people being able to use all these newly created dollars first.

Essentially, the only difference between a dollar (whether paper or a digital dollar in my bank account) and a Bitcoin is that a dollar has the coercive power of the Federal government behind it to mandate its acceptance to pay debts and to ensure its monopoly as the legal tender of the country.

The global monetary/financial system is really in a precarious state now. I think it's fair to call it a Ponzi scheme, too. Seriously, the Ponzi almost crashed in 2008 but governments and the big banks moved heaven and earth to prop it up and keep the house of cards from falling. I consider it a Ponzi because new money in the form of new debt MUST be continually be injected into the system or it WILL collapse.