Someone correct me if I'm wrong because I'm not an expert by any means. bitcoin is an electronic currency that isn't government regulated or controlled by a third party. This allows it to be used cheaply in comparison to other currencies. If I wanted to send you 1000000 USD in bitcoin it wouldn't cost either of us anything. If I wanted to send you the same amount in gold it was cost a small fortune in insurance fees. If I wanted to send you the same amount from my bank account, it would cost other transfer fees.

There is another advantage, being that bitcoin can easily "balance" the transaction. When I pay you with bitcoin, that bitcoin is subtracted from my funds, and added to your funds. Credit cards for example do not do this, visa only creates debt which is then balanced at a later date. Debit I believe is balanced by your bank, acting as a third party. All in all, bitcoin has lots of advantages and no disadvantages that I can think of, unless your the government and you want to know who's buying what from where. But I think even the government is pro-bitcoin, as long as they can regulate it.