It requires energy / work to produce bitcoin or gold, and there's limited amount in total. Fiat currencies are created by a press of a button, and there's no limit.
There's as many crypto coins as you want: eth, btc, etc.
The use of "energy" to make something has nothign to do with its value, right?
We can use many kWhs of power to boil a grape, but so what?
Value is in supply and demand. There is no demand for bitcoin as a coin; no one uses it. If anyone ever actually tried, the whole system would collapse.
There's just one Bitcoin-network, and 21 million bitcoins. All other cryptocoins are fake, because they are replicas of the original invention. Bitcoin can't be copied, because a copy is by definition a violation of absolute scarcity, which Bitcoin invented. There are thousands of copies, which try to convince otherwise, but they'll lose their value over time.
The energy requirement and limited supply means that no one can counterfeit the money, i.e. create it without cost. Production cost should be close to the current price of the coin. This ensures that the distribution of new coins is fair, and that savers are protected from endless money supply inflation.
Primary use and demand for money is for savings, which gives money its value. Medium of exchange is secondary.[0] Also, many people use bitcoin as a currency too, with Lightning Network.[1]
There's just one of every zero-value coin out there.
BTC is, like those, going to zero. Crypto is pseudo-economics just as vitmain supplements is pseudo-science.
Almost no one uses bitcoin for anything, it has no economic backing. It's value is pure fiat, pure speculation.
The number of actual economic transactions conducted in BTC, i'd say, would place the coin at <100USD. Ie., I'd guess the actual BTC economy is 21m*100USD = 2.1bn at most largely due to the black market.
Contrast that with the USD economy which is, what, 100trn worth of transactions?
I suspect the black market will keep BTC alone in the 100-1000 USD range. Everything else is going to zero.
The value of money isnt speculation, its value is given by the economic transactions in which its conducted. With a gov. collecting taxes in a currency, it has a massive guarenteed value as a gov then requires massive amounts of economic activity to use its currency. The USD, in addition, is the currency of oil trades and the reserve currency of the world.
THAT is why it has its value. The number of actual economic transactions in BTC is trivial. No taxes are collected in BTC.
So where's its value from? It's just ponzi value, a pyramid scheme.. its a made-up paper value that a few early stakes can realise gains on, when the whole thing collapses 95% of people will lose.
