I still only hold a small amount in BTC exchange traded funds. The problem with ETFs is you can't really self-custody. However, I have been getting a shitload of interest payments from IBKR loaning them out. That said, Ethereum is where the majority of my bet is. This is what helps me sleep at night when the US banking system faces yet another possible domino-collapse. I'm getting too old for this and seen it replay out far too many times. Yes, I was just a weeeee little boy during the savings and loan crisis. No millenial even knows what those were anymore... they don't exist anymore after that shit-show. Watched it again in 2008-2009.... and now watching it yet again now. The same patterns, and the same people always in denial when it begins. Some things just never change. And yet, we keep increasing the moral hazard each time. This is going to end very very very badly. As it always does.
If you consider the most powerful computer network on this planet working around the clock to ensure the integrity and security of BTC transactions to be "nothing", then sure, it's backed by "nothing".
you are so self centered that you don’t find ANY value for anybody around the world in a network that can’t be hacked, has 100% uptime, never closes, 100% permissionless where you can money value for basically free? good luck
What I am saying is that I don't see what the underlying is that gives it any store of value. Fine. So there is an infrastructure in place to transfer BTC and other cryptos. But that does not necessarily confer value to the crypto itself, only in the ability to move it. It's like saying a specific currency has a certain value simply because there are...banks to facilitate storage, transfer, and so on.
FF is wrong here, there is value in BTC, we just disagree on its price. I say that value is about three fiddy. And I would say the value comes from its ability to transfer money, and not from the robustness of its system. But seriously, the LTC network is much better, with much less downtime, yet its value is not even close to BTC's. Not to mention the biggest weakness in crypto is the enduser. It doesn't matter how robust and secure your network is if your password is "admin" or you lost it years ago. Or you trust your crypto with an unreliable 3rd party. The true value of any crypto is: 1. Impossible to calculate. 2. Irrelevant.
You just described the Bitcoin monetary network but dismissed its value. Bitcoin digital asset is ownership of that monetary network, like a shareholder The Bitcoin monetary network settled $8 Trillion of value last year alone with no banksters or government involved The Bitcoin monetary network is worth more than all the banks in the world, JP Morgan, Citigroup, et al, all the Swiss banks, all the German banks, all the Hong Kong banks, combine them all You just described Bitcoin a decentralized money that has the security of 300 million trillion hashes per second of computing power and cannot be confiscated (i.e. civil forfeiture) and cannot be censored Imagine being one of the companies with millions, or even 10's of millions or even hundreds of millions of $ in SVB or SBNY or SI or any US regional bank on Saturday 3/11? The Lebanese citizens do not have to imagine, nor the people in Turkey, nor in Argentina, nor in Sri Lanka, and so on and so on, they lived through utter destruction of their savings Bitcoin's value is greater than the sum of all its parts = fraud-free, 24/7 operations, never goes down Bitcoin monetary network (payment systems on MoE transactions, value transfer without intermediaries across borders) that has settled over $8 T last year + bitcoin the scarce digital asset secured by the most powerful computing network that ever existed and still increasing in power + the network of all the global users/companies willing to trade their hard earned savings for it
So how are you a shareholder in a medium of exchange? How would that concept transfer to currency, which you want BTC to replace? You're all over the board here. But how does that alone create value to the thing itself? Near as I can figure, you're conflating an infrastructure for exchange with the value of the thing being exchanged. And so how does that profit you as a "shareholder?" Because some whales bumped up the price? Wait. So is BTC the bank or the thing stored in the bank?