(3) Bitcoin's only intrinsic value is its utility as a method of payment. Its value as an investment depends entirely on that utility.
No, this is not true. A significant portion of bitcoin value comes from its utility as a storage of value: an asset that is scarce, non-confiscatable, exceptionally carriable (cf. gold), pseudonymous, uncorrelated to any traditional asset, and more.
(The last one is in fact a defect.)
Yes they do.
No they don't.
Not this BS again.
1oz gold is 1oz gold is 1oz gold. Its value is not pegged to anything.
Also read "Rai stones" on wikipedia
For alt-coins, bitcoin is better than alt-coins because of its novelty. You may have 1000 bitcoin clones, but Bitcoin is always the FIRST successful cryptocurrency.
Sigh. JUST LOOK AT THE CHARTS.
The "power of the network" is important for a cryptocoin's utility as a currency. IF BITCOIN IS NOT GOING TO BE USED AS A CURRENCY its network is as good as dogecoin's, or as the UN Agency for Plutonian Development. if the market price of an item is not derived from some utilitarian demand, and there is no agent that strives to keep it stable, it can drop drastically and unpredictably, even without any external cause.
Gold is a good example of that (Its price already dropped 30% from its all-time high last year, and nothing says that it could not drop another 50%), as is bitcoin (50%) and Rai stones (how much would you invest in one?).
It does not matter that the item is scarce etc. You cannot compute the value of gold five years from now, not even by an order of magnitude, from the amount that exists and its other properties. An item whose future value is unpredictable is a lousy store of value.
Gold can go up or down in value (as expressed in the inverse goods prices in gold)
Bitcoin can go up and down in value (as expressed in the inverse goods prices in bitcoin)
National fiat money can go down in value (as expressed in the inverse goods prices in that fiat money). They can not go up. I am sure someone will try again in the heat of a crisis, but the pain inflicted on businesses will stop them and reengage in inflation. Nobody cares about the savers and the pensioners.
USD is the same as a national currency, except that in usd there can be a longer period of deflation due to its international usage. Eventually, usd will also go down in value.
There is no stable form of money, and there can not ever be. Only a degree of stability can be obtained.