> The dollar is backed by culture and tradition, the government has no control over whether or not you want to use or accept a dollar for goods.
The government has control through the legal system which is the ultimate recourse for dispute over payment of goods, and it exercises this control by assessing damages, when a dispute is resolved through the courts, in US dollars.
> if bitcoin ever becomes currency, who says courts won't have power to enforce payment via bitcoin?
Bitcoin is currency.
What it is not is legal tender.
Courts in the US have the legal power to enforce payment in bitcoin or Euros or chickens or hours of service or any other form now. They also have well-established rules that they only do so in manners other than the legal-tender currency established by the government in certain exceptional cases.
I agree, except for the part where you say bitcoin is currency.
Most people will not accept bitcoin as a medium of exchange. I cannot go to my local grocery store and buy something with bitcoin. I can, however by something with dollars. Thus bitcoin is not yet a currency.
The government has control through the legal system which is the ultimate recourse for dispute over payment of goods, and it exercises this control by assessing damages, when a dispute is resolved through the courts, in US dollars.