[beaner]

I don't think the things you're saying are really accurate. Bitcoin isn't used very much for payments because it isn't easy to use it for payments. The scaling technology to enable it is in development but not good enough yet. Once payments hit a certain critical level, the network slows. Lots of people spend Bitcoin when they can.

Additionally, lending and borrowing is becoming a really popular application for crypto. You should take a look into things like Compound, Dharma, dYdX, nuo, BlockFi, and others. [1] Decentralized lending + borrowing with collateral is super hot, with amazing interest rates. On dYdX right now you can get a 6.2% APY on USDC, which is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. My bank savings account only gives me 2.2%. That's a 2.8X multiplier on the best bank rate available right now. And not on a volatile asset - a pegged-to-USD asset.

It's actually practical - more practical than traditional finance - if your goal is to save via compound interest. The idea that crypto is sitting around doing nothing isn't accurate at all.

But besides all that, the idea that "money sitting there doing nothing" is bad is wrong anyway, since the money that "does something" becomes worth more. This argument confuses numbers for value. Economic output doesn't care about how we quantify it, it cares about resource allocation. The value of our flappy paper tabs changes to reflect economic activity and its own scarcity in the economy, not vice-versa.

[1] defipulse.com

[benj111]

I picked on bitcoin because there will only ever be a limited number of coins, I could just have easily picked on gold. This is in contrast to the USD, where more can be printed bringing about inflation.

Money that "does something" ie gets lent to businesses to expand, or to people to buy houses is being allocated, its being allocated to something productive, whereas under the mattress isn't. Under the mattress isn't economic activity, lending it out is, or can encourage it at least.