With crypto, what are you buying?
I'm just asking because that was the only thing that made sense to me why a currency based on nothing has so much value.
You are buying TRUST. This is true for any currency.
What most people dont seem to realize;
The currency of this realm is FORCE.
Dollars are just promises, and it's hard to trust Federal Reserves and Central Banks when they print the stuff indiscriminately, devaluing, debasing and eroding the very trust we give them.
Russia now trades oil in crypto, China trades it in Yuan - the USD is no longer propped up by international trade the way it has been for the last 60+yrs.
To me the most interesting thing about Bitcoin is once it's all mined, thats it. Nobody can 'print' BTC.
As such it is a DEFLATIONARY currency by nature.
TRUST is distributed - anyone can possess a ledger. There is no corruptible entity in control of it, and all transactions are public information.
Such is the DECENTRALIZED way.
Of course it's not all roses- BTC is extremely inefficient from an energy perspective. The amount of waste heat generated but the computers churning, or more properly 'hashing' away
... The amount of electricity required to sustain the system is gross.
While sustainability is debatable, the fact of the matter is it's here, and it's another step on the path. Use it, or don't.
Philosophically, I'm more of a gold and silver guy myself, like actual pieces of the stuff...
Precious metals are somewhat impractical from a commerce perspective though. There is also the question of who do I trust to store it, or is that something I undertake myself?
BTC may solve more problems than it creates. Time will tell...