Post
Topic
Board Economics
Re: Semantics of "fiat"
by
amspir
on 09/02/2015, 17:40:45 UTC
I speechless "intrinsic value" means.

See:
The value of any money or commodity is affected by offer/demand. The use of a commodity is just a parameter in offer/demand among many others.
It means that  :
Intrinsic value doesn't make the market value.

I've got no problem with that statement.   That does not mean that bitcoin has an intrinsic value.

The US Government could go down and stay down, and if it does, the value of the US Dollar will go to zero since it has no intrinsic value.
The Internet could go down and stay down, and if it does, the value of bitcoin will go to zero since it has no intrinsic value.
This is the weakness of a fiat currency.  It doesn't mean that a fiat currency has no value, it will have value as money as long as people are willing to trade it for something else of value.

If I physically possess a gold coin, it will still have a non-trivial value even if the government that minted it no longer exists, because there is demand for it beyond its purpose as currency.