I wasn't confident enough to declare bitcoin is equivalent to, say, gold. But it sounds like you are, so maybe that is correct - bitcoin is just as bad as gold,

I wasn't confident enough to declare bitcoin is equivalent to, say, gold. But it sounds like you are, so maybe that is correct - bitcoin is just as bad as gold, or conversely, gold is just as bad as bitcoin. We observe that fiat currency has mostly driven out metal currency, and I'm inclined to think that is because it is more efficient in using resources. As you say, currency constantly generates value. It is useful. But -100% of the face value is a large burden to start with. How large, relatively speaking? Well, I don't know exactly what to compare it to, but intuitively the value of currency would be related to interest rates, which have been really low for quite a while in the developed world.