[cactus2093]

> they don't solve any above board problem more efficiently or with lower expense than existing technologies

You've picked two arbitrary criteria, which certainly don't cover the entire range of useful properties that anybody in the world might want. And even still, you're only right about one of them. Cryptocurrency is very inefficient from a power consumption standpoint, no denying that. Not sure what you mean about lower expense though, sending money internationally (in a perfectly above-board way, like placing an order or supporting relatives in another country) can be a lot cheaper via bitcoin than alternatives like Western Union. It's also useful as a store of value that's not tied to a single government, so similar to gold in its intrinsic value but with the benefit that it doesn't take up physical space and can be sent and received much more easily.

I'm still quite bullish on bitcoin itself, for these properties alone, I see these properties as basically a floor on the value that it can provide and even just for for this use there's room for a lot of growth. If Ethereum-style contracts/apps and all the other kinds of things discussed in the post also gain wide adoption (which certainly seem like far from a sure thing at this point, but also not completely crazy), that's just a bonus.