> The incorruptibility of the ledger is the value.
It cannot feed me, it cannot protect me from the elements, I cannot grow food on it and is not a tool to help me create something desirable by the others. Hence it has no value.
You cannot call it wealth to describe its value. You are just saying that the value of it is in itself. Which is what I am supporting as well.
In order for me to exchange it for goods, as you described, there must be someone who has the goods and is willing to exchange them for bitcoin. There is no real reason for someone to do so.
It is not an apocalyptic scenario. That’s what 90% if the population fight for, day in day out. Food, protection from the elements, security.
You are throwing away the possibility that there is an intrinsic value in Bitcoin, more related to socio-economic-political concerns, than survival. There is not only one domain in life.
An incorruptible ledger resistant to the control of any individual, corporation, or state. Bitcoin may fail in its implementation of this goal. The future is still to be determined.
Bitcoin's underlying technology creates the possibility of decentralized governance, starting with currency, which is the connecting link between actors in societies based on economy.
Why such a future might be beneficial to mankind is that banking and finance being controlled by a few has led to errors with systemic consequences.
See the 2008 financial crisis and hyperinflation in Venezuela and Zimbabwe. See the seizure of funds by governments from individuals in Greek and Cyprus, scenarios where many of the affected did not write their own doom (others wrote it for them).
Because it being the first successful implementation...it has 9 years of history at this point. It has proven itself resilient to hacks, ddos, Chinese bans, threats of regulation, exchange scandals, and bad press, and yet the protocol just keeps humming along. It being the first, all other cryptos are traded in terms of BTC. The network effect, and the mind share of BTC are substantial at this point. BTC has one largely fixable problem: it doesn't scale. Lightning network tests prove that it can if a second layer is added. Once this rolls out, the game will change.
They printed a lot of fiat money without loaning it to people that can produce goods. The result is not enough loan pressure to "buy" the fiat papers over goods. On the good side, I guess they have some enforcement and a lot of violence :(
A limited supply coin does not guaranty a need to exchange goods over that particular coin and not another.
It cannot feed me, it cannot protect me from the elements, I cannot grow food on it and is not a tool to help me create something desirable by the others. Hence it has no value.