That's not the problem with crypto. In economic terms, nothing has intrinsic value. Value is purely subjective. It exists only in the minds of individuals.
The only way that it might at some point have actual value is if one of the hundreds of crypto companies out there (most likely Bitcoin or Ethereum) becomes widely accepted as an alternative payment medium.
Here you're on the right track. What's missing for each of the crypto "currencies" is a price system. You can spend bitcoin, but only by converting the value of it into another currency, like the dollar. Nobody puts bitcoin prices on anything.
“In economic terms, nothing has intrinsic value.”
anything that has utility value automatically has intrinsic value ... things like food, fertilizer, fuel, medicine, building materials and a host of other raw materials and manufactured good necessary to sustain life ...
In economic terms, nothing has intrinsic value.
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Yes and no.
Yes - if all in the world people suddenly stop eating eggs, their value will become 0. But that’s unlikely!
The value of some entity is set by the supply demand balance.
But most stuff on the market has some real value - people can eat it, enjoy it, cuddle it, drive it etc. Not bitcoin.
Bitcoin was supposed to be a money alternative. There are some entities which will accept bitcoin for payment.
But apparently, as a money, bitcoin is very clumsy. It takes a long time to clear the payment and since the bitcoin value fluctuates so widely, by the time it clear, one side makes killing, the other looses money.
I have read an article where they tried to buy pizza with bitcoin. It took the whole day and afterward the pizza costed them like $200.
So now, the bitcoin is purely speculative.
It is great for criminals for money laundering, moving stuff across the borders and saving ill gotten gains.
All the other suckers are bound to loose!