Bitcoin: Useful or Useless?
Everything's got a moral if only you can find it.
The Duchess
Recently I saw an interesting article where the opponents used the adjectives "useful" and "useless" in relation to Bitcoin. The actual idea of that article is not important for now, I only mean that it was those two adjectives that drove the brakeless train of my thought to a particular direction, namely -- whether BTC (and other cryptocurrencies, for that matter) is actually "useless".
First, I would note that we shouldn't use these words on their own. I mean, "useful/useless" actually implies "useful/useless for something". Clearly, a spade is quite useful for gardening but rather useless for playing the piano. Actually, that something part is the most interesting part of the question.
Second, I would note that we shouldn't mix "usefulness" assessments with moral assessments. A machine-gun is a very useful tool for mass killing and a nuke bomb is even more useful -- even if we can't praise this kind of "usefulness". Moral assessments of usefulness are indeed possible, but they shouldn't lead to a fallacy of "it's nasty -- ergo, it's useless".
So, is crypto actually useless?
At this point I might say that crypto is pretty much useless. Not only it failed to solve any real-life problem, it hasn't even solved those far-fetching problems it was created to solve. It's indeed possible to use crypto for "crypto loans" or "value transfers" like it's technically possible to play the piano with a spade. This may look like a controversial statement at least, but let's look at the world beyond Cointelegraph, Leofinance, Publish0x, etc. For the moment I will not go deeper into it.
However, above I used the word "might" for a reason because I think I know something the crypto is extremely useful for. Actually, some time ago I made a post on that. Those who saw that post might notice that I defined Bitcoin as a pure speculative vehicle. The same is true for the whole crypto, for that matter.
"Something" that the crypto is "useful for" is speculation. And I don't mean some ordinary "speculation", I mean "the speculation system which was never seen in history before". Crypto created a global highly accessible unrestricted Speculative Universe, a self-organized, "distributed", worldwide Ponzi, covered with economic wording, driven by the hope of making big money -- readily and nearly unrestrictedly available for every little shrimp with an internet connection! Yes, in some sense, it's a "parallel financial system" of the world -- and cryptocurrencies (all of them) are its main part. So, who says crypto is "useless" then?!
Many crypto-enthusiasts may be upset with my mentioning Ponzi. But again, I'm not talking morals here, I mean Ponzi in a technical sense only. Besides, being a Ponzi doesn't mean it will dump today. Actually, a Ponzi can run a very long time, as long as its money inflow outweighs its money outflow. Besides, in the case of crypto even a huge dump is hardly the end. The Crypto Speculative Universe is so unique and profitable thing, that it would be a total waste to throw it away just because of a shitty dump!
Yup, it will dump sooner or later, many will get rekt, some will make good fortunes -- and so what? It's just a part of the game. Sooner or later the "investors" short memory will be reset, a new generation of suckers will be born, and Merry will go round again. As of today, I don't see anything that can replace the Speculative Crypto Universe in terms of profitability, availability, "entertainability", etc, etc, if it disappears.
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