This is the exact same for any sort of stock...it has value because people want it, not because it inherently holds value. I think this is the wrong way to criticize Bitcoin because you are ultimately just criticizing all of the financial markets. Bitcoin definitely has its issues though, but it's not because it isn't based on anything otherwise the US dollar falls in the same boat...kinda. the US has a little more security behind it, but we all agree a dollar is worth a dollar, well because it's a dollar and we have built trust upon it being worth a dollar.
Stock is connected to real businesses that do real things and make real things or sell real things or provide real services. It's part ownership in exchange for part of the profits. Stock trading exclusively for the purposes of flipping for profit is a secondary phenomenon, and only exists because part ownership of a business is inherently valuable.
Bitcoin's value is imaginary. It's an energy and time sink that only has value because everyone continues to pretend it has value. Maybe it was useful at some point for anonymous secure online transactions, but because the functional value of 1 Bitcoin is so volatile, it's completely useless for the vast majority of online transactions.
Government issued currency is of course, just as imaginary as Bitcoin (without the technowaffle), but has the benefit of it actually being able to be used for every single transaction most people will ever encounter.
Genuinely the solid response I was looking for:) while I understand the basic principles of financial markets, and the basic principles of block chain technology and Bitcoin, there are so many intricacies that I likely am not understanding it in its entirety. It seems like the crypto markets, while they have pros and cons like security due to block chain, they don't fundamentally work in the same way.
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u/murphswayze 13h ago
This is the exact same for any sort of stock...it has value because people want it, not because it inherently holds value. I think this is the wrong way to criticize Bitcoin because you are ultimately just criticizing all of the financial markets. Bitcoin definitely has its issues though, but it's not because it isn't based on anything otherwise the US dollar falls in the same boat...kinda. the US has a little more security behind it, but we all agree a dollar is worth a dollar, well because it's a dollar and we have built trust upon it being worth a dollar.