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by datadata 1457 days ago
Flowers were not a commodity before there was a market for them. Internet did not have commercial value before the speculative wave, in fact very little profits were made even by the end of the dot com boom. Agree there is rife speculation in crypto, but rife speculation does not prove that there won't be future sustained value. When dot com boom imploded it was because people similarly thought there was no value in the internet.
1 comments
bendtheblock 1457 days ago
Flowers are used for decoration, dies, teas, scents. Sometimes they may be overvalued.

Crypto doesn't have any underlying value. It's just greater fool investing, there is no underlying cashflow, asset or company. Future cash flow comes from greater fools buying in.

When you say "the internet" I think you mean the wave of web1 companies? Same as flowers above, there are real uses and value creation, which can be priced in many ways.

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datadata 1457 days ago
In 1999, what web1 companies had cash flows or even a business model that could become profitable? In hindsight it is obvious because we know that things worked out, but at the time it was just speculation, and the crash was the market calling it worthless. Similar objections then around what underlying value is and how the tech was useless. The ways to monetize often were invented much later (eg search ads).

If you were a middle age farmer, sure you might like to look at or smell a flower but you would be crazy to say stop growing wheat and plant tulips. But as society advances markets can emerge to serve needs of people that were not possible before.

I agree crypto tokens is just speculative investing. But that doesn't imply that the value doesn't stick-- it doesn't have to either collapse to zero or go up forever. Monetary premium is a real thing and necessary for humans to transact. You can't predict what money we will use in the future.

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bendtheblock 1457 days ago
it does imply that the value doesn't stick - in fact that's exactly what I'm saying. there is no value beyond the expectation that another greater fool will buy it from you in future.
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