I guess the question I’m really chasing an answer to is what would a future look like that justifies Bitcoin’s price?
The future used to look like a medium for anonymous, untraceable transactions beyond the control of governments for the sorts of goods that you need that to safely deal in. That was the primary, object-level selling point of Bitcoin. Then Silk Road got broken by law enforcement. The newer rivals have their own would-be killer apps to give them real value. I’m not sure what Bitcoin’s unique value proposition is these days. For anyone who has some Bitcoin and is willing to say: when did you last use it to buy something, and what?
Bitcoin is (currently) pretty much useless as a medium of exchange. It remains of some practical use as a store of value resilient to certain legal risks (e.g. as the answer to the question Eliezer asked in this Facebook post), and in general with a risk profile uncorrelated with other assets. Its strength over other cryptocurrencies for this use case is based primarily on being the most established Schelling point. It’s also possible (though not looking particularly likely) that future software changes will eventually make it useful as a medium of exchange again.
The future used to look like a medium for anonymous, untraceable transactions beyond the control of governments for the sorts of goods that you need that to safely deal in. That was the primary, object-level selling point of Bitcoin. Then Silk Road got broken by law enforcement. The newer rivals have their own would-be killer apps to give them real value. I’m not sure what Bitcoin’s unique value proposition is these days. For anyone who has some Bitcoin and is willing to say: when did you last use it to buy something, and what?
Bitcoin is (currently) pretty much useless as a medium of exchange. It remains of some practical use as a store of value resilient to certain legal risks (e.g. as the answer to the question Eliezer asked in this Facebook post), and in general with a risk profile uncorrelated with other assets. Its strength over other cryptocurrencies for this use case is based primarily on being the most established Schelling point. It’s also possible (though not looking particularly likely) that future software changes will eventually make it useful as a medium of exchange again.
I think it’s safe to say it doesn’t have a unique value proposition anymore. It just has market share.