Now you'll find that the essence of currency is still consensus, and its value is given by consensus as well. The collective consensus will gradually render Bitcoin a world currency. No one can resist this trend but adapt to it.
Very interesting and thought provoking.
I actually completely agree - no single currency has "intrinsic value" in that nature has deemed it money, but rather the value is derived from adopters who deem it to be valuable. This is true of fiat, bitcoin, gold, you name it.
But what separates bitcoin/gold from fiat is that people's beliefs are justified, as there is no centralised entity that is overseeable the supply of the currency. So that is another dimension to the question.
Yes, the value of everything comes from its adopters, from the recognition of users. If no one recognizes this thing, it will have no value. This is what I call collective consensus conferring value. This law applies to everything in our daily lives. In history, the reason why we used gold, silver, etc. as currency was also because everyone collectively recognized its currency attributes. Why is Bitcoin valuable now? It is also because more and more people have truly recognized it and endowed it with value with collective consensus.