In that case, there is a Fiat Paradox as well.  Back when the Dollar was backed by Gold, you knew there was value behind that bank note.  But now, it is really just a rectangular peice of paper that promises nothing.  And people do sell their houses for it, although in reality it has no real value.

Then I think value is actually subjective.  If all of a sudden nobody thought USD had value, it will not have value any more.  If all of a sudden everyone thought Bitcoin was worthless, it becomes worthless.  We as a society decide what is valuable and what is not, otherwise precious metals would not become worth less during peaceful times and worth more during panic.  Its value changes depending on a number of conditions.

Is 'getting tricked out of real assets' the right way to go?  I would not say so.  Bitcoin CAN be changed, it CAN have infinite supply, it CAN be used in a bad way but it has no central point of failure and any attempt to wrongfully change it by a perpetrator would immediately be declined and reverted by the rest of the users as soon as they notice they have been deceived.  So even if it CAN do all of that, it does not mean it will.

Since Bitcoin still exists successfully even one decade later and nobody has proven it to be a scam and it has been able to provide real utility and value for a ton of users, I do not see any way we can categorize it as a 'scam' unless we want to fantasize about a parallel universe in which Bitcoin was created that way.  I, for one, do not percieve Satoshi Nakamoto as a deity but simply as a genius human or group of humans who were able to invent something never seen before (except failed previous attempts, of course).

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Regards,
PrivacyG