| Isn't the intrinsic value of Bitcoin the fact that it is decentralized and that no government or other entity has direct control over it? Sure it's cryptographically secure, but what is the difference between that and a regular bank using encryption on their money transfer network? I think the reason it's hard to say whether or not Bitcoin is worthwhile is that there has never been a decentralized currency at this scale before, and for all we know, unless it can serve some kind of purpose that a regular currency issued by a country cannot serve, it's not that useful. This is why Bitcoin is used a lot by people from countries were their own currency is struggling. But with the central banks of many first-world countries printing money uncontrollably, some even bringing about negative interest rates, many fear the collapse of large economies in the near future. If that happens, Bitcoin will be a way to store your wealth and prevent all your money from becoming worthless pieces of paper. Other ways of doing the same would be buying gold or some other form of valuable goods and storing it in your house or have someone else store it for you somewhere, but obviously the fact that Bitcoin is digital makes it a much easier to use and viable option. But, we don't know if that will ever happen. Bitcoin itself also has so many problems. It's also arbitrary as to which digital currency to use since there are so many to invest in, some more popular than others, some have evolved to fix problems with previous versions, so it's really hard to say if all of this will amount to something useful. |
Bitcoin is the network to deliver it too. I say that right there.