That's mostly true for privately held gold, too. Gold has some utility, and it's possible some privately held gold eventually makes its way into industrial processes or jewelry, but mostly it's just exchanged between individuals who agree the market price (defined by fiat) is the fair price and exchange the item and fiat. That's a side of crypto I haven't been able to process. It seems the only thing that matters is its value in fiat. Is that a bad thing? I don't think it is. If the dollar were to be weaker compared to the euro, it has little effect on the bitcoin value as it's priced in all currencies (or at least all major currencies). To me, that's the utility of crypto (which Swype wanted to make froyo). It's a currency that's balanced with all currencies. But how does one value such a thing? Gold can be valued by the cost of mining it. There doesn't seem to be a similar function with crypto.Current utility of cryptocurrency is a tricky one and if you judge bitcoin by what you can do with it, it's nonsense.
I think if that were the case the Chinese wouldn't be so big into it. Realistically speaking, crypto is a numbered Swiss bank account whose interest rates are radically unpredictable. I don't think this is an answer. I think this demonstrates that we don't know enough to begin to ask the question.It seems the only thing that matters is its value in fiat.
Presume the sole purpose of Bitcoin is to transact off the record. It is solely a marker for black market transactions. If 10% of all black market transactions were to transact in BTC, and all 21 million BTC were used to do that transacting, then 1 BTC has a nominal value of $28,000. If 100% of all black market transactions, 1 BTC has a nominal value of $285,000. At a circulating supply of 17 million BTC, worth $15,000 each, bitcoin only has the capacity to cover 2% of the black market.