I’m with you. I’ve also wondered if everything crashes or the power goes out, how do you access your bitcoins? Why are bitcoins valued in dollars? If the dollar goes away what will the value of the bitcoin be? How will it be converted goods or services? I understand bitcoin’s price but I can’t grasp it’s value.
If you don’t understand a given prospective “investment” stay away from it, there’s a good reason you don’t understand it, it doesn’t make sense. To me, this whole cryptocurrency thing is actually worse than the “fiat money” that most cryptocurrency fans love to rant about. It’s far more easily manipulated, it’s nebulous, it’s only got the value that those who are willing to trade fiat currency for it decide that it has, on any given day. It’s totally at the mercy of the internet and the power grid. Have some people made a lot of fiat currency off of the speculative run-up over the past year? Sure they have. How do you make money in cryptocurrency, though? By trading it for that eeeevil fiat money.
See my post 16.
IMO cash is great for when the lights go out but only for a short period while people still accept it.
FYI, private companies do print physical bitcoin with the numbers on the paper or coin. Typically given as gifts. However you would need access to the blockchain to verify it wasn’t “spent”.
“Why are bitcoins valued in dollars? If the dollar goes away what will the value of the bitcoin be? How will it be converted goods or services? I understand bitcoin’s price but I can’t grasp it’s value.”
Bitcoin has no “official” value. It’s valued a certain amount based on the current market at various exchanges. During times of high volatility, different exchanges can have very different prices for 1 bitcoin. It is based on the bid-ask system like the stock market. The price increases when there are more buyers than sellers to achieve equilibrium. Likewise, the price decreases when there are more sellers than buyers.
Think of it like an ounce of gold. It always stays the same but dollar and euro value of it changes every minute based on sales at various gold exchanges worldwide.