Since the dawn of civilization, everything humans have traded in markets has had one thing in common: it does something outside of market exchange. This is not only how markets work; it is the very reason they exist. After all, how could something be presented to the public if it does nothing? Therefore, there must always be a non-market function.

Grains feed. Livestock nourish. Textiles clothe the body. Land provides space for shelter, farming, and construction. Oil fuels. Steel forms buildings and machines. Stocks generate cash flow and offer liquidation value if a company shuts down. Software connects, automates, and solves tasks, helping users work faster. Art pleases the senses. Memorabilia evokes nostalgia.

Even money, whether past or present, has a function beyond serving as a means of exchange. Gold forms religious artifacts, ornaments, jewelry, decorations, dental restorations, electronic components, spacecraft coatings, and more. Dollars, because they are issued as debt owed to the U.S. banking system, leave the market daily to reduce and eventually eliminate that debt.

Then came Bitcoin. Presented to the public under the generic label of "money," such classification raises a question: Why use such a broad and nonspecific term? The answer is simple: because Bitcoin does nothing. It has no actual function to present, and using a generic term was the only way to introduce it. Bitcoin is the first trade-only phenomenon: once it enters the market, it never leaves it to do something. Whoever buys it has only one option: to sell it to another buyer. That buyer, in turn, must do the same. Bitcoin holders are trapped in a cycle of market transactions, unable to do anything with it except pass it along.

Although Bitcoin has been advertised as money and later as an asset or a commodity, it is none of these, as all such items have a function beyond mere transactions.

The continuous cycle of Bitcoin transactions has created the largest bubble ever, with people currently paying $84,000 for a single Bitcoin. They then believe this represents Bitcoin's worth. But that belief is false. This is not value. That figure reflects only the amount someone was willing to pay; it is the record of the last trade. In short, it is a price. Markets create prices, not value. Value is function beyond market transactions; it is what something actually does. And in this regard, Bitcoin does nothing. It is the first item ever to have a price but no function.

In essence, Bitcoin embodies the greater fool theory in its purest form. It works only as long as there is another buyer willing to play along. Even items involved in speculative bubbles, such as tulips or Beanie Babies, still have some function outside of buying and selling (flowers could be grown and enjoyed, toys could be played with).

Unlike these items, or assets in general, whose inflated prices may temporarily detach from their actual function but eventually realign with it, Bitcoin's price has nothing to return to. And when buyers run out, all that remains is the realization: something with only a price, no matter how high, was never truly worth anything at all.

Bitcoin is not a fantasy. It is a log and a set of protocols that connect computers to store that log.

What is a fantasy is the belief that you are transferring a valuable and scarce asset when you update that log via wallet apps. Assets are what have value and scarcity. If there is no asset involved, there is nothing to be valuable or scarce.

That which you people call "Bitcoin scarcity" is nothing but a simple mathematical function that sets the maximum sum of numbers associated with digital addresses to 21 million.

Bitcoin is not a fantasy. It's a log and a set of protocols that connect computers to store that log. What is a fantasy is the belief that you are transferring a valuable, magical asset when you update that log with wallet apps.

There's a difference between a transaction record and an activity log. In the first you have an asset that is being transferred between people and you write down quantities of that asset. In the second you just write down events that occur. In crypto, these events are changing numbers with wallet applications.

You repeat the same nonsense I already addressed.

Value


Hate

I have a simple advice: read the the opening post again and try to actually address the argument presented in it. You're literally ignoring everything that is said and just make statements opposite to the conclusions of the argument. A law, for instance, is just a declaration made by the politicians. That declaration cannot change the fact that within cryptocurrency systems there are no resources that can provide benefit to cryptocurrency owners. If the politicians declared cryptocurrencies an asset that just means they are stupid. But I know that we live in times where people worship the authorities and think that everything declared by them is automatically a fact. So, you are free to believe what the authorities tell you, but that's not an argument.

It's the other way around. People are hypnotized with all the lies and misinformation about crypto that
are constantly spread through meanstream media and social networks. As well as with big payments into the pyramid schemes. What I am doing here is the awakening - I am trying to get people out of hypnosis.

Do you have anything about the topic at hand?

In traditional banking systems you are using bank apps to change the ownership of an asset, with numbers representing its quantity. In the cryptocurrency systems you're updating logs of pyramid-style schemes by changing numbers. There's no asset involved. Thinking that an activity log of a pyramid scheme is an alternative to an asset is craziness of a high order.

Sure, everybody knows that coins are tangible discs. And that you can move them around. That's exactly why I am saying that you live in the fantasy world. You are using apps to change numbers associated with digital addresses, but claim that you move around something. That's denial of reality, escaping into fantasy, living in a dream world. I simply cannot get it what's wrong with you crypto people.

Yes sure. Crypto has a record that you own the ability to change numbers associated with digital addresses. While a person to whom you transferred an asset (the car) has a resource that can provide them benefit, such as moving people and goods from one place to another.

There are various pyramid schemes. But what they all have in common is that you give an asset to someone without they giving you any asset in return. And then you wait for other people to join that scheme and give you some asset otherwise you cannot get an asset back. An asset is of course a resource for which you can benefit. You crypto holders own no such a resource. All you own is the ability to update that decentralized log. When you give a car or a hundred thousand dollars, that's giving an asset and getting no asset in return. What you get in return is the ability cause the change on numbers (like +2/-2) via updating that log with your wallet apps.

So it's a modern day pyramid scheme.

My only motivation is truth. People spread lies by portraying this whole crypto thing as some revolutionary asset, new form of money, valuable investing, etc. But it's all just a giant pyramid scheme that is being tracked by updating a log with numerical entries. So, as long people will spread lies I will continue to post the truth. Either through analogies or by literally describing what is going on, like in this topic.

No they don't qualify. Name one popular coin where holders can get anything from the system that issues that coin, except the ability to update the log.

You people live in such a fantasy world this is hilarious. There are no coins. Nothing is transferred. Only log exists that is updated via "wallet"  apps which manifests as a change of numbers associated with digital addresses. That's reality. Everything else is the product of imagination.

Value of every company comes from equity and businesses activity. Equity can be liquidated. Business activity produces profit.

Visa an PayPay balances are assets because they represent fiat money. Log updates that you Bitcoin holders make represent nothing. So your comparation failed.

What is crazy here is how many nonsensical excuses are you crypto people capable to come up with just not to admit what you see with your own eyes.

You go round in circles. There are no monetary transactions. Transactions are done with assets. In crypto, a log is updated - which manifests in changes of numbers associated with addresses. It is mind blowing how you crypto people talk about some magical asset but you see with your own eyes that it doesn't exist.

When you "buy" Bitcoin, what you have actually bought is the ability to update the log. There are no assets involved here. And it is assets that have value or possess features like scarcity, utility, and transferability.

Further, an "asset" is defined as a resource that provides benefit. There’s nothing flawed about this definition.

When one person sends Bitcoin to another, they are merely transferring the ability to change the numbers associated with digital addresses—nothing more. There are no assets involved here. No transactions with an asset are actually taking place; only the log is being updated.

Finally, cryptocurrency systems are not pyramid schemes. They are decentralized logs that track the operations of pyramid schemes. A pyramid scheme occurs when you give an asset to someone without receiving another asset in return. You then hope that, in the future, someone else will join so you can get some asset back.

P.S. Your accusation of me spreading dangerous lies was pretty hilarious given that you're the one who does that.

It seems you have problems understanding what value is. Value is that benefit described in the OP. In other words, it is the expected benefit that a resource can provide in the future to owners. In stocks that resource is capital and profits of a company. So if stocks have a positive equity and produce profits they are valuable. We can argue how big that value is but that doesn't change the fact of its existence.

With cryptocurrencies however, no resource exists that can provide benefit to cryptocurrency owners. So there's no value that you can talk about. Only a log exists that crypo owners can update via wallet applications. And that log can be downloaded for free by anyone.