In my research, I’ve identified four reasons that people give for why they consider Bitcoin to be a value.
you're not going to be very well received by alot of people here on the forum but you make a very well reasoned intelligent set of points. and i think they are valid. i couldn't have said them better myself.
The first reason is it’s useful as a type of currency. In fact, Bitcoin’s biggest value proposition is that it can be used as an alternative to fiat currency. This supposedly gives users more freedom than they would otherwise have. 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.
that's until the countries start making it a crime to "launder" money and not report what you're doing. if you keep ignoring their rules then, you become a criminal.
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.
Finite would be something that is not sub-dividable. But the thing about bitcoin is, they can keep subdividing it for as long as they want to. If need be they could oneday subdivide it into sub-satoshis. Milli, micro, pico, etc. So it really isn't finite in that sense. You can't really divide the us dollar into something less than a penny. If bitcoin couldn't be divided into anything smaller than a satoshi then it would be "finite".
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.
What type of human labor does bitcoin need ? I'm not aware of any. But it does require electricity but not to produce it but to secure it. Not sure the electricity expense is in line with the market value of it though. I guess that's another story.
The fourth reason is that people believe it’s a value. This can be referred to as the subjective theory of value.
Good one! You've identified all the problems with bitcoin in a nutshell. This 4th reason is maybe the biggest problem bitcoin really has. That's why for example it used to be $60,000+ and now it is only around $20,000. it's not backed up by anything.