Quote from: reasonspace on Today at 02:21:39 AM

“Is Bitcoin a real value?” That is, is it something that helps sustain human life and is to be pursued for that reason?

Neither gold nor diamonds, for example, help sustain human life but they, for some reason, have maintained their value for thousands of years.

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For example, if someone in China wants to trade their yuans for dollars without having to deal with governmental control over the banking infrastructure, they can trade yuans for Bitcoins and then trade those Bitcoins for dollars.

Are you talking about P2P trades between independent individuals? Because otherwise using different fiat on/off-ramps still requires interaction with the banking infrastructure controlled by governments. Bitcoin allows users to make exchanges trustlessly without asking permission or involvement of intermediaries. You can do the same with cash but only locally, whereas with bitcoin it is possible to conduct international trades.

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The second reason is that it’s finite. This means users should be protected from a third-party (i.e., the government) creating an unlimited number of additional Bitcoins, thus, diluting its value.

Its finite supply is protected by a decentralized distributed consensus and this is what really matters here.

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The third reason is that it costs energy in the form of human labor and electricity to produce. This can be referred to as the labor theory of value.

Bitcoin doesn't have value because it is mined, bitcoin is mined only because it has value.

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The fourth reason is that people believe it’s a value. This can be referred to as the subjective theory of value.

People expect they will be able to exchange bitcoin for goods in the future because money itself is only useful when exchanged for something else.

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The fourth condition means it must already be considered a value before it can be used as a currency. If there isn’t independent support for its having value, the claim that Bitcoin has value is circular. See below:
1. Bitcoin is a value because it can be used as a currency.
2. Bitcoin can be used as a currency because it is a [long-term stored] value.

Today, bitcoin is mostly seen as a store of value or nascent store of value that gradually accrues its value. When it is established as a store of value and its price stabilizes, it will be seen as a medium of exchange and unit of account.

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Second, the fact that Bitcoin is finite doesn’t by itself make it a value. Scarcity does not determine whether something is a value or not. Scarcity only determines the price of something that is already determined to be a value because of another reason. For example, certain forms of toxic waste may be scarce but that doesn’t mean the waste is a value.

Never before have we seen an asset that is both digital and scarce. The very fact that bitcoin is essentially a discovery of digital scarcity makes it more valuable than other digital assets.

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Third, the labor theory of value is wrong. That is, the fact that something costs energy (human or machine) to produce doesn’t make it a value. Digging a hole and refilling it again consumes energy but doesn’t create anything of value.

I agree that the labor theory is fallacious and misleading. But again, "Bitcoin doesn't have value because it is mined, bitcoin is mined only because it has value."

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Fourth, the subjective theory of value is wrong. People can be defrauded. Theranos is a recent example of this. People can also be mistaken about value. The housing crash or the numerous failed investments in start-ups are clear examples of this. When people are defrauded or are mistaken, this means their belief in something being a value is wrong. Just because a lot of people believe that something is a value doesn’t make it so.

Quote from: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/subjective-theory-of-value.asp

What Is the Subjective Theory of Value?

The subjective theory of value maintains that the value of an object is not fixed by the amount of resources and the hours of labor that went into creating it but is variable according to its context and the perspective of its users.

You contradict yourself. If the labor theory is wrong, then the only explanation of the nature of value is that it is purely subjective.

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For something to be a value, the reason(s) must be real. Let’s use the US dollar as an example of something that has a real value. The US is a society where producers specialize and trade their products with one another to get what they need to survive. The US government requires traders to give them US dollars whenever a trade occurs (i.e., taxes). This requirement is forced at the point of a gun. The US dollar is, at its core, a type of ticket that you must give to the government to allow you to live. That makes the US dollar valuable to your life.

While it’s true that the US government can dilute the purchasing power of the US dollar, that doesn’t mean that it has no real value right now. A potential is not the same thing as an actual. As of now, the US government still exists, the massive capital infrastructure under its jurisdiction still exists, and its ability to tax trades between organizations or people who use this capital infrastructure is still strong. This is the basis for the US dollar’s real value.

Bitcoin has no such basis or any other basis. Without a valid basis to justify why Bitcoin has real value, the proper default position to take is to assume that Bitcoin has no real value.

TL;DR Bitcoin is based on proof of work, whereas the dollar is based on proof of war.