[yakubin]

>> Bitcoin is a digital currency that has no intrinsic value

> There is no such thing as "intrinsic value". The value gets assigned by people and market participants.

I'll leave out the discussion of the value of a company and fundamental analysis as off-topic here. Let's focus on currencies instead. The value of a currency is not its exchange rate. Just because Bitcoin is worth 38910.69 USD, does not mean it's more valuable as a currency than a dollar. 1 GBP being worth 1.25 USD doesn't push people to use GBP in place of USD. The value of a currency stems from two factors: liquidity and stability. The reason for the dominance of USD in international trade is the stability people around the world expect from it, compared to other currencies, as well as its liquidity (almost everyone accepts dollars, sometimes even more eagerly than their local currency). Bitcoin fails on both fronts. There are still loads of things I can't buy with Bitcoin (admittedly this aspect is changing). Stability^W volatility of Bitcoin is a meme since its inception. A currency whose value changes so dynamically is a shitty currency. It is more similar to a gambling game than to a currency (and has similar psychological effects on the players). Notice that noone ever "invests in a currency" (other than as a shorthand for investing in something that's sold in that currency), that would be nonsensical, given that the whole point of a currency is so that its value changes as little as possible. So... I guess saying that "Bitcoin is a digital currency that has no intrinsic value" is wrong mainly due to the first part of this sentence. Instead I'd say: Bitcoin is not a currency, but a speculative financial asset.

[jbjohns]

One of the biggest values of currency is that you must have it to pay your taxes.