[uh-quan]

Bitcoin produces a money that cannot be debased by inflation on a whim and which is very hard to forcibly confiscate. It can be transferred in minutes to any place on the globe, across any number of borders and past any capital controls, with transactions that cannot be stopped or censored by even the most powerful and invasive government on Earth. It's a safe haven from fiat currencies and almost a perfect medium of savings.

Unless we are working with a weird and strict definition of "tangible," I'd say it's tangible good that is, rightly, valued by many millions of people.

[notJim]

This seems detached from reality.

* Governments can and have confiscated bitcoin

* they can stop transactions by blocking access to wallets and exchanges etc

* They're a terrible medium for savings, unless you want your savings account to routinely swing wildly up and down in value

* 99.9% of people interested in Bitcoin do not care about these supposed benefits (which I'm skeptical even exist.) Yes there are the handful of goldbugs and libertarians, but most just want to see the number go up.

[uh-quan]

This is all well-trodden ground.

First, if you are concerned about things like confiscation, then you take the recommended security steps such as running your own node. At that point confiscation is indeed difficult (not impossible) and blocking access is essentially impossible. A government would have to prevent you and anyone who could act on your behalf from having any access to the Internet in order to stop the transaction being propagated on the network.

As for savings: I stand by my assertion. In its early years, yes, bitcoin is going to be volatile. But as anyone who has held bitcoin for 3+ years knows, it retains and grows value over the course of years exceptionally well. Savings implies a medium- and longer-term horizon — think years, not months — and on that horizon bitcoin has always been a winner.

I think there are more people in this world who care about the harms of inflation and capital controls than you are giving credit to. I care about preserving my wealth from debasement, as do all of the people I happen to know who hold bitcoin. And I suspect I might have a better feel for the "pulse" of bitcoin users than your 99.9% estimate, which (forgive me) strikes me as being detached from reality.