Things like stocks and land are valuable because they do economic work. Land yields minerals, or hosts useful homes, shops, factories etc that provide services

Things like stocks and land are valuable because they do economic work. Land yields minerals, or hosts useful homes, shops, factories etc that provide services people need. Companies also provide needed goods and services. They are productive. They don’t just store value, they generate it. Their value is based on their ability to do economic work. This is why investment in companies is a good thing, it capitalises them so that they can expand, hire more workers, provide more and better products. Bitcoin is like gold. It does have a few economically useful functions, but it’s main actual use is purely as a store of value. It’s price is driven by speculation. That's a pure value store. Money in an economy is like oil in an engine, it reduces economic friction. It’s a substitute for barter. In principle it represents the value of economic work to produce goods or provide services. When I save money in a month I might spend it years later, but the thing I buy might have been manufactured before I was even born, or I might put a down payment on something yet to be made. It doesn’t matter, what matters is the value it has to me at that time. Being able to delay purchases until the time when you know what you need is an incredibly valuable benefit that eliminates huge amounts of waste.