> I still don't understand how economists can say that BTC has no "intrinsic value,"
It really annoying to me that people keep putting up this straw man. What economist is saying that BTC has no intrinsic value and is thus worthless? Really? You learn in ECO101 that currency only has value because of what you can exchange it for. Money demand is not a fringe concept in economics--its a core concept that anyone in any branch of economics that deals with currency and money thinks about several times a day.
The fact that you can only do business with the vast majority of american society in USD is what gives the USD value. We got to that point because the US government said that US currency should be acceptable to pay off any debts in the US, including taxes. The fact that dollar exists and is the common currency in the US is tied to the law, but its exchange rate and purchasing power is (aka its 'value') is tied to other factors completely.
You can make the argument that the long term value of BTC is zero because there's nothing that guarantees it continued existence, like US law guarantees the existence of the dollar. But thats totally separate from the value and exchangability of BTC to US.
> You can make the argument that the long term value of BTC is zero because there's nothing that guarantees it continued existence, like US law guarantees the existence of the dollar.
The Internet guarantees the continued existence of BTC.
It really annoying to me that people keep putting up this straw man. What economist is saying that BTC has no intrinsic value and is thus worthless? Really? You learn in ECO101 that currency only has value because of what you can exchange it for. Money demand is not a fringe concept in economics--its a core concept that anyone in any branch of economics that deals with currency and money thinks about several times a day.
The fact that you can only do business with the vast majority of american society in USD is what gives the USD value. We got to that point because the US government said that US currency should be acceptable to pay off any debts in the US, including taxes. The fact that dollar exists and is the common currency in the US is tied to the law, but its exchange rate and purchasing power is (aka its 'value') is tied to other factors completely.
You can make the argument that the long term value of BTC is zero because there's nothing that guarantees it continued existence, like US law guarantees the existence of the dollar. But thats totally separate from the value and exchangability of BTC to US.