[wpietri]

Well, the price of ETH is higher than the price of the energy needed to mine it. The energy consumed has demonstrable value, but that's yet not true for ETH. As many people have said here, it's experimental. And of course, there's a fair bit of financial speculation going on. But as far as I know, it's generating no significant value on its own.

[tudorconstantin]

What does it even mean "demonstrable value"?

If a person is willing to spend money (for energy, or for buying crypto on an exchange), we can say crypto has "demonstrable value" for that person, no matter what they want to do with that crypto.

[wpietri]

By your theory, every Ponzi scheme and pigeon drop has demonstrable value.

I agree that spending money and receiving value are correlated. I just don't think they're identical.

[softawre]

Does it have value to society? That is the question. Of course it has value to people if they are willing to pay for it.

[wpietri]

I think something only has value to people if they purchase it repeatedly and end up satisfied with the outcome over the relevant time scale. People pay for speeding tickets, but nobody's very excited about them. You can ask many ex-smokers (and any emphysema patient) about the value of cigarettes. And as a kid I had to learn a lesson about ordering stuff advertised in comic books; I was willing to pay, but often didn't receive value.