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> a real market value hasn't been established yet. The one possible true market value, micro transactions, seems to have been overcome by simple small step tech

> a real market value hasn't been established yet. The one possible true market value, micro transactions, seems to have been overcome by simple small step technological evolution. A real market value, in the sense that "something is worth what someone will pay for it", has been established. There's just a lot of people scratching their heads about it. What's the real market value of diamonds? Or gold? In the apocalypse, you can't do anything with either, but I think you'd have a hard time making the case that there's no "true market value" to these goods, even if you find their utility dubious.

erikb 9y ago
Yes, diamonds are such a pyramid that is kept alive by pure market controlling efforts like monopoly and advertisment, just like crypto coins. Gold however has some market value by being impossible to artificially create, by being limited, by being hard to come by and by being hard to transport, all combined in one item. Yes, you concluded correctly that I see a strong relationship between market value and utility. I'm not sure if market value is the correct word for it, though. English is not my native tongue. There are two values a product has. One is trade value, the other is what you call utility. I believe the trade value of crypto coins exceeds their utility a lot. And I believe they have nearly no utility at all, because otherwise it would have shown by now what the utility is. I also believe it's totally possible that trade value can be kept high without utility for a long time, thus "people are willing to pay a big price for it for a few years" is not a proof of utility to me.