It seems to me that getting rich by investing a little money in the right thing at the right time has its emotional appeal for many. There is a thing I do not understand about cryptocurrencies, though: Why should a private person hold any amount of a cryptocurrency for any other reason than speculation? If people use Bitcoin to pay online, it does not matter if 10$ buys 0.02BTC or 0.002BTC, as price tags show dollar amounts.
Many other commodities have at least some practical value even if their price tanks. But at a low price, a cryptocurrency makes online payment as easy as it would make it at a high price – as long as there exists a small enough currency unit. One thing that would make payment with cryptocurrencies problematic would be short-term price volatiity – but long-term shifts in value do not seem to matter for that purpose.
Does anyone privately hold an amount of cryptocurrency long-term for any other purpose than speculation? If so, what is their movivation?
One main appeal of Bitcoin is that it always works if you have coins on hand at this moment. You can use it for time-sensitive transactions without wasting time to purchase some coins beforehand. Want to send $50 or $50 million to someone or some company in another country? Bitcoin does that in 10-60 minutes (1 to 6 confirmations). No PayPal blocking the transaction. No unexplainably declined CC authorization. No bank account suddenly seized by your totalitarian government. Being able to pay your B2B Chinese supplier for an urgent order on a Friday evening without having to wait for banks to process wires on Monday. The list of scenarios where Bitcoin is useful goes on and on.
Many other commodities have at least some practical value even if their price tanks. But at a low price, a cryptocurrency makes online payment as easy as it would make it at a high price – as long as there exists a small enough currency unit. One thing that would make payment with cryptocurrencies problematic would be short-term price volatiity – but long-term shifts in value do not seem to matter for that purpose.
Does anyone privately hold an amount of cryptocurrency long-term for any other purpose than speculation? If so, what is their movivation?