Not the author but I think in general the ethos and technical design of Bitcoin is doomed to end up attracting scammers (bad exchanges, tether-like debacles, et

Not the author but I think in general the ethos and technical design of Bitcoin is doomed to end up attracting scammers (bad exchanges, tether-like debacles, etc) no matter what. You just cannot have anonymous, irreversible value flowing in large amounts anywhere near humans. Bitcoin has exactly one real use - transferring money without pesky government oversight, effectively money laundering, which it doesn't even do that well. Everything else is either speculating on the value going up (it's not actually a Ponzi scheme as such but it could be called I-can't-belive-it's-not-a-Ponzi due to the way the exchanges pump the price) or some kind of idiotic banking-the-unbanked scheme that is doomed to failure. The price remains high due to Tether and the abundance of real money flowing around at the moment. But as soon as that money dries up Bitcoin will be the first investment class to be wiped out. Bitcoin will always be worth something - in 50 years there will still be some oddballs running nodes in their garden sheds. But the investors and scammers will have moved on to something else.