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I agree that most buyers are investing as a speculation; all investing is speculation. Bitcoin is a new type of asset that has properties never seen before. Tha

I agree that most buyers are investing as a speculation; all investing is speculation. Bitcoin is a new type of asset that has properties never seen before. That is what my point is, that they new properties are being discounted heavily by the author as they try to force it into a traditional asset to make a shaky comparison.

stetrain 6y ago
But are any of those new properties at all related to its value or why it is being traded? At the end of the chain of speculation, eventually oil gets sold to a customer who wants to burn it and real estate gets sold to someone who wants to live there. If they didn't, those markets would collapse (and housing has done just that in the past). I do agree that bitcoin (well, blockchain in general) has useful properties for certain types of transactions or record keeping. But I think the points of the article stand. If a currency isn't useful to buy things, or is subject to wild value swings due to speculation, then it isn't a great currency. If an asset doesn't have any real value to any customers, then it's not a great asset. Bitcoin combines both of those into, a mediocre currency and a speculative asset?