The real use case is self defense against the arbitrary devaluation of fiat currency. As wildly imperfect as crypto is at that task, it's the best we have in a fungible, digital form. So pessimistic investors flee to it. The worst case for a crypto investor is for the dollar to be restored to a stable store of value. To outcompete crypto, just whip inflation.
How well do investors understand the underlying network of computers required to maintain the public ledger and the trust and integrity of the digital currency, though?
Until nation-states fund and invest in the infrastructure, finding your confidence in cryptocurrency with little to no regulation is a massive risk.
> Until nation-states fund and invest in the infrastructure, finding your confidence in cryptocurrency with little to no regulation is a massive risk.
There are many arguments against bitcoin, but I have a hard time investing in this one.
A lot of the people investing in bitcoin are doing so specifically to hedge against nation-states. It is decentralized FOSS based on sound mathematics. If this was really a concern, wouldn't people be skeptical of TLS to access your bank? One of the most popular TLS algorithms was written largely by DJB (not a nation-state).
How likely do you think governments/central banks would keep away from inflating the currency they have complete control over, when its normally in their best interest to print currency?
That is not the definition of fungible. You can put a mark on a USD$100 bill and trace it, but it still has the same value as any other USD$100 bill, or 5 20$ bills, etc.
Then why does Coinbase lock accounts of people to transfer to darknet markets or such?
If you had the choice of receiving BTC from a brand new minted batch, or from a darknet market, which would you prefer? If you have a preference, then they do not have the same value.
I would value BTC from a darknet market less because of risks associated with spending it.
I would value freshly-minted BTC because it doesn't have any question about its providence.
