Crypto: Now I Understand

 Over the years since the advent of Bitcoin I have struggled with why it has any value.

In the early years I engaged anybody I encountered who claimed expertise in the arena; that included a memorable discussion I once had in the Seattle airport with my server in one of the restaurants; the results were always the same: after a blizzard of words, and, frequently, side diatribes against the tyranny of the current system, and a deep dive into blockchain technology, I still had no idea why the thing had any value.

From the outset I had no problem understanding blockchain and the fact that, due to the complexity and therefore time intensivity of the blockchain process, it took time to blockchain up each new coin and that that consumption of time made the things relatively scarce (and the rules of Bitcoin said there were only going to be a certain number of them - ever) and that that scarcity made new ones valuable - maybe - if anybody wanted to buy one.

But that has always seemed to me to be a phantom and self-generating loop: they take a lot of time to be made so there aren't many of them and they are valuable because there aren't many of them.

The problem is why would anyone want one in the first place.

That question is kinda like why would anyone want an Amway product?

I'm listening to NPR's On Point and the issue of crypto currency value is central to the discussion.

The best I have been able to get is that crypto has value because of the law of inevitability: it will be valuable because that is inevitable because it is scarce, because it is so difficult to create; so it has to be valuable.

Once the law of inevitability has been accepted there becomes a gold rush and a base value is established.

And then it is inevitable that that base value will continue on its way to the moon.

Because we have a gold rush.

And donnie wants the US Government to buy a hundred billion dollars' worth of Bit coin (I imagine that he has borrowed some money on his Truth Social stock and bought a lot of Bitcoin for his personal account) so hysteria is imminent.

And hysteria is good for driving gold rushes.

I hope something doesn't produce reverse hysteria.

I don't understand the thing (but maybe I do, and that's the hell of it) but it seems to me, if reverse hysteria occurs, and the gold rush goes in reverse and the inevitable cost of those reverses gets paid for by taxpayers, of which I am one, I am going to be pissed.

Another reason for a good old fashioned hog roast.