Is BTC worthless?

This is a general question, im just wondering if any of you get the feeling BTC is worthless sometimes.

I'm not saying its worthless, I just feel like the currency is very unstable... even though its not.

 

What a waffling op... Why do you feel the currency is unstable if you think it's not? Why do you feel it's worthless some of the time but not all the time?

To me, this is pretty much "the" question surrounding bitcoin. I think bitcoin is valuable as an idea, but I don't think the currency itself has any intrinsic value apart from being the product of the first good idea of its kind. So you could say the idea's valuable while the currency itself isn't. There was a really neat podcast with a venture capitalist (forget which one, sorry) about why there's such interest in such a speculative commodity, and his response was essentially "we don't really know yet, but we're hoping someone else figures it out big time," which I personally find interesting; essentially the idea is that bitcoin is version 1.0 of something bigger yet uncreated which may shape the future (think facebook). The world would not care if bitcoins became worthless tomorrow, but they might care if some of the larger themes of bitcoins were pressured and there is some value in that.

 

Excellent reply, exactly what I wanted to know.

 

Bitcoin is technically worthless . it is a currency that has turned a commodity that was hoping to be adopted as a medium of trade that has no inherent value. The idea of being objectively worthless as far as a market goes, I would argue the idea has merit but the infrastructure and support isn't there.

 

Fiat currency is worthless just like BTC. Mediums of exchange only have value if people choose to accept that they have value.

 

A market enforces a value, but the thing is that BTC doesn't really represent a true Fiat currency. There is no controlling body or commission and that in and of itself adds an intrinsic value.

 

I do not consider it worthless but rather much something you shouldn't put All of your money on. Its cryptocurrency and you really never know. You shouldn't use it as a bank but rather to trade it in for other goods such as gift cards and games. I know many website that have integrated with the option of buying with bitcoins which is a positve thing since you don't need to release much of your private info (House address, etc) and still buy/sell goods.

 

Just wait until a major company starts taking BTC, its price will go up insane amounts.


When amazon started taking it it was like a 25-50% jump for a while lmao.

 

Cool, glad it helped.

As Nero said, they're not the same. There is nothing supporting bitcoin except the idea behind it.

What incentive does a large company really have for taking bitcoin? It's not like people who use bitcoin don't use normal currencies if they have to. One would imagine that they'd accrue more liability than gain from doing so, though I guess that depends on what they're selling...

 

I was talking in terms of companys like ebay/online stores(walmart) etc.


Virtual stores.

 

This is very true, im hoping eBay does this.

 

I personally put a fair amount into BTC right now. EUro is dropping in value way too fast, think I'm safer with having my bank in btc atm.

 

eBay has owned paypal for a long time but is apparently in the process of spinning it off. There's a 0% chance that they accept bitcoin until that happens; why encourage competition against yourself?

 

Thats scary because I think this is the first time in history the Euro has gone down so much! 1 dollar=1.13 euro

 

They are worth cash. They faith behind coins is pretty impressive. You might not have the sporadic jumps btc had about a year and a half ago but its holding value right now. So I'm in.

 

No, they aren't worthless, just a bit unpredictable. Could be worth a ton or maybe just crash to be worthless. Only time will tell.

 

All currencies can be unstable.

Clearly not worthless if they're worth hundreds of dollars at all times. Just like stocks or normal currencies - they're going to peak and trough. If you're good at predicting this then they're the opposite of worthless.

 

They're fucking worthless unless something big changes: https://www.google.com/finance?q=CURRENCY:BTC

 

1 Bitcoin is equal to almost $300 AUD at the moment, so clearly it was worth something. There are probably only two ways you can regard a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin. The first, is that it is money, a media of exchange. The second is that it is a commodity, that it is not money.

Historically, per the regression theorem, the history of money can always be derived from its use value as a commodity, and in time, as people begin to use it as a media of exchange, an additional value is attached to the commodity, now moneys function as a media of exchange. For example, golds function as jewelery etc, now being used as a media of exchange augmented its value. The same can be said for salt, cigarettes etc.

Most people think Bitcoin defies this rule, as we clearly see it being used as a media of exchange, but don't recognise that it historically had a commodity value outside of its function of money. Thus most people opt to define Bitcoin is a commodity. However, I've seen it satisfactorily argued that Bitcoin, initially was a unique type of payment network, with bitcoins being merely the accounting unit used on the payment network. As people delved into this payment network, testing whether it was safe, secure, etc its value increased slowly, and as a lot of people started using the payment network, they would be using the account units on that network, Bitcoin. Thus Bitcoins value is ultimately derived from the utility of its payment network, and the accounting units have now been used as a media of exchange, augmenting their value.

On to the value of Bitcoin. Whether we define it as money or a commodity is not entirely important. Either way, it is clearly used as a media of exchange, and the value of a media of exchange is derived from the demand for that media, and the supply of that media. Since Bitcoins supply is fixed, its value will only fluctuate in proportion with its demand. It is not inherently worthless, it is, like every other thing in existence, subjectively valuable per the demands of the consumer. So long as people demand it, it will have value, and given the fact that its supply is fixed unlike probably ALL types of money ever (salt, gold, cigarettes, fiat currency are not fixed in quantity), it is likely to gradually increasing in value as people keep increasing the demand.

 

OP

>"I get the feeling bitcoin is worthless...even though it isn't"
>"I feel like its unstable...even though it isn't"

So which is it?