I see the arguement often that Bitcoin has no value and therefor it is worthless, it can't be used as an investment, it can't be relied upon and it won't last. However, I beleive that we have never seen anything like Bitcoin before; it is the first of its kind and therefor it is not possible to compare it to existing assets or stores of value.
When you think about Gold for example, it has always been used as a store of value and as a medium of exchange and sure, it has some intrinsic value because it has properties that make it really useful -
- It is the most malleable and ductile of all the metals.
- It is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity.
- It is resistant to attack by air, heat, moisture and most solvents.
It is also very hard to aquire, there is not much of it available and it looks nice. Because of those facts it was very good when used as a store of value. However, when we borrow those qualities from gold we are stopping it from being used for the exact reasons why it is valuable. If you take this to the extreme and all gold in the world was used as a store of value then all of those qualities that make it valuable would be nulified because gold would no longer be in use. Thus we are borrowing an item, to use as a form of money, when its true purpose belongs elsewhere.
However, when you think about Bitcoin, it has been purpose built as a currency - using mathmatics, computing and cryptography, Satoshi designed Bitcoin from the ground up to have all of the qualities neccesary for it to act as a medium of exchange and a store of value. The best part is; Bitcoin does not have some other intended purpose, its sole purpose and its best implimentation is to act as a currency - it was literally built for that job. It is really this lack of "value" that makes it a perfect fit to be used as a digital currency and it is the perceived "value" of other currencies that make them inferior.
