[Nursie]

LOL.

Most people do trust cash, within certain limits, because they're not crazy libertarians. The value of bitcoin is every bit as illusory and consensual as paper money.

That it's not under central control and has a fixed supply is interesting, but doesn't give it intrinsic value.

[sturadnidge]

Actually the fixed supply is part of what does give it intrinsic value. Value is fundamentally anything that has utility _and_ scarcity. If the supply of BTC was infinite, it would have essentially no value (or at least it's value would diminish at such a rate that it would be useless for anything).

[Nursie]

Value is just what people think something is worth, it's a shared illusion, not an intrinsic property of ... anything much.

Having a static, fixed supply and independence from central control makes something valuable to you, not so much to me.

>If the supply of BTC was infinite, it would have essentially no value

But there are many other circumstances that could result in BTC having no value, regardless of scarcity. For instance if people stopped using it, at all. There would be no value in being the only one with bitcoin, regardless of how scarce they are.

edit: Probably not the best example, but either way, value is a perception.

[sturadnidge]

You misunderstand. Independence from central control has nothing to do with it.

I'm not defining value in the philosophical sense, which as you point out is entirely subjective, but you seem to be arguing against the generally accepted definition of value as applied to a system where something is exchanged in return for something else.

> But there are many other circumstances that could result in BTC having no value, regardless of scarcity. For instance if people stopped using it, at all. There would be no value in being the only one with bitcoin, regardless of how scarce they are.

Perhaps you need to re-read my comment. I never said scarcity alone was enough - if no one used it, it wouldn't have utility. You need both, hence my use of the word 'and'.

And thanks for the completely unnecessary downvote.

[jff]

> And thanks for the completely unnecessary downvote.

Have another, for whining about it!