Which is exactly what i'm saying for BTC.  The value in BTC is the work input: the electricity.  That is the only fundamental value for BTC, atm, because nobody is using BTC for actual goods or services.  When people do, then we can assess some value.  But right now, the price is completely speculation/expectation driven.

I don't want this to degenerate into an argument of semantics.  We can all agree that the value of a currency is what you will trade it for, and over a wide enough population, that value becomes more accurate.  It is also possible for the few to drive up prices unrealistically via speculation by ignoring fundamentals.  Look at the housing bust, the dotcom bust, ANY bust.

I'm trying to get at the underlying fundamentals of BTC, which nobody seems to want to approach b/c they feel it's an attack on BTC, which it is not, I think we can all benefit from fundamentals.

It's a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn't equal value – hiring 1,000 men to shovel a big hole in the ground may be costly, but not valuable. Also, even though scarcity is a critical requirement for a useful currency, it alone doesn't make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn't mean they have any exchange value.