Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Nothing, other than the expense and effort required to "mine" them.
Their hypothetical utility is a currency which cannot be tracked, supervised, or manipulated by any government. There is some real appeal to that.
That would defeat the purpose.
That depends on the seller... how reliable HE considers crypto to be, and also how badly he wants his finances to be opaque to city hall.
No. It's due to either pure speculation, or supply vs. demand. Since crypto must be "mined" there's not an infinite supply and if the practical utility is perceived to be high then it will be in demand and value will rise. Obviously we had a big speculative bubble that just popped.
The fundamental potential value is freedom from .gov. That's appealing to some, mainly criminals, perverts, and tinfoil hat types.
There has recently been a lot of speculation, based on the expectation that crypto would be appealing to many and that demand would grow faster than production.
Thanks for the point-by-point answers Rick.
They are in line with what I thought.
As an outsider looking on, it seems a rather unstable place to park personal wealth. (unless, as you say, the point is to hide ones wealth)
It strikes me as having some similarities to a chain letter, where at some point someone is left holding the proverbial bag. Also, as it creates money from nothing, it has to be extractive/parasitic. If that is indeed the case, it is ultimately harmful to a country and its economy.