Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, not quite correct. Bitcoin isn't figuratively a store of value, it actually is. The amount of bitcoin on DeFi, backing collateral for flash loans and Stablecoin minting is astounding. >When you own a share of Square (or Visa, or PayPal) each time a transaction takes place on their network, a portion of that transaction (revenue minus costs) accrues to the company - and by extension increases the intrinsic value…
> Bitcoin isn't figuratively a store of value, it actually is. It's a speculative, negative-sum MLM token. I suggest reading up on what a store of value is. [1] I'm not saying there aren't ways of monetizing it within the network - which may indeed create value, but intrinsically, it is a negative-sum asset, a mechanism of redistributing real cold hard dollars from new participants to old entrants and miners. It crea…
> A store of value is an asset that maintains its value, rather than depreciating.
Value is just what others are willing to pay for something at a point in time. Literally nothing is guaranteed to maintain it's value, not even US Treasuries. So this is just circular logic saying "things that maintain value are value stores" and "if something that previously maintained it's value no longer does, then it is not a value store".
> Gold and other precious metals are good stores of value because their shelf lives are essentially perpetual.
Gold and other precious metals are terrible stores of value, their dollar values are incredibly volatile, they are incredibly expensive and risky to store and transact with, and contrary to popular belief, they really don't actually have much "intrinsic value". Let alone that "intrinsic value" is a nonsensical concept. "Intrinsic value" is meant to be understood roughly as "useful for some practical purpose", but valuations clearly often have nothing to do with their practical purposes. A stick or a basket can have very significant and diverse intrinsic values too, but that doesn't mean it has value. Likewise, some sticks and baskets might have very high values, despite actually not being very good sticks or baskets! (eg if they're antiques or archeological artifacts or whatever)
> A nation's currency must be a reasonable store of value for its economy to function smoothly.
Most central banks aim for 2% inflation per year, literally guaranteeing any amount to become worthless over time if stored in currency. (vs bonds or some other appreciating asset)
> intrinsically, Bitcoin is a negative-sum asset, a mechanism of redistributing real cold hard dollars from new participants to old entrants and miners.
Just what. Bitcoin is strictly positive sum under any sane definition. Unlike MLMs or pyramid schemes, Bitcoin never alleges to return anything other than Bitcoin.
> It creates nothing
Neither do currencies. They're just currencies. Their purpose is to be means of transacting things that are created, that otherwise wouldn't be created, if there was no means to transact. Bitcoin does that too. But in Bitcoin's case, it actually does create something: it creates the ledger of transactions itself, the wallets, the ability to sign things etc, which currencies don't.
> Systems built on top of it might, exploiting let's say regulatory arbitrage, facilitating crime or gambling, but intrinsically, it creates no value.
Even if you disagree with the valuation of Bitcoin and how inefficient the mining is (and I do), the realized idea of a distributed, tamper-proof ledger is useful, and thus has "intrinsic value" just like toilet paper or gold. (again, intrinsic value is a nonsensical concept, but under that logic, it does)