Does Bitcoin eventually go to zero?

Yes, but if the burger costs $4.80 and you give the kid at the counter a five dollar bill plus a nickel, all hell will break loose...

~Bernie Mac

".. oh no I did not buy your pic of Jay Z."

But it's a picture of him with your wife!

But, If you give me a $50, I know it's worth five $10 bills.

If this burger costs $10, I can give the cashier a $10 and tax. The government gets it's cut, and the owner gets the amount requested.

There is no set price/value of a Bitcoin.

“ Not only can actual governments able to raise taxes to support their currency, but have a track record of doing so”

We take it for granted that a government can support their currency, but it’s all just promises and faith.

@ 8-inch.

Sorry to say, in that scenario, oh no I did not buy your pic of Jay Z. Hope you didn't pay too much for that NFT.

Scarcity, at least in bitcoin, is built into the increasing difficulty of maintaining the blockchain. As far as I can tell that's the only argument has that this stuff should actually be worth anything.

Lately with the massive decline in the value of the thing itself, plus increased energy costs, plus the ever incrementally increasing amount of energy per unit, many bitcoin miners are facing the perfect storm. Of course that should limit the supply for those who want it. If the stuff actually served any irreplaceable function, like say copper, oil, housing etc. that would mean something. Tulips however remain just tulips.

Curr,

I list a picture of Jay Z for $10k.

You buy it.

If nobody buys it from you, or think it not worth $5, you're stuck with it.

Even if you copyright the pic, you'll never get your investment back.

When someone tells you something is NOT a pyramid or scam, run!

Not only can actual governments able to raise taxes to support their currency, but have a track record of doing so. And a lot of pressure to keep things in line. Crypto is simply entirely in the wind.
And anybody can start a competing crypto at any time. Scarcity?

And I agree with 8 inch. NFTs had to be invented for the sole purpose of upstaging crypto on the "You've got to be fucking kidding me!" scale.

"Not sure if it’s the “most environmentally obscene concept ever conceived”, but it is pretty terrible."

One study I found shows that Bitcoin mining alone uses roughly as much power as Ireland. I'm not sure what's a worse cost benefit trade off. Open pit mining for gold (a relatively useless metal) maybe? The two stroke motor which burns oil for lubrication would make my all time worst list.

"Is the crypto concept really any different than the US Dollar"

Absolutely yes IMO. Almost any government can issue sovereign debt backed, at least to some extent, by their ability to repay that debt by raising taxes. In the specific case of the US Dollar, it has the benefit of remaining, so far, the worlds only reserve currency. The US, for the time being, also remains the worlds largest ecnomy so there are some goods and services you can buy with it too.

Not sure if it’s the “most environmentally obscene concept ever conceived”, but it is pretty terrible.

Is the crypto concept really any different than the US dollar?

All that matters is full faith and credit.

oops...

NFT.....

NTF's and bitcoins in MY opinion are in the same relm as pyramid schemes.

But, ideas and speculations have value...... just find the buyer(s).

Back in my day, if you couldn't see it or touch, you didn't buy it. These kids nowadays will sell ocean-front property in Montana and Idaho.

I often wonder the same thing and have used the "tulip mania" analogy.

Today I thought of beluga caviar. I don't care for it and regardless of what someone would pay for an ounce of it, I would pay zero for it. However if, in the current market you offered to sell me a million ounces for $1 per ounce, you might get my attention. My hope would be not that I would change my opinion on Beluga caviar, but that I might be able to quickly unload it on some knucklehead who does before I lost money on the deal.

The one, and only in my opinion, compelling argument I have heard for crypto in general, it the notion that it fundammentally has the potential to democratize personal and business financial transactions. To cut out the predator banks and credit card companies, or at least reign them in to where the service they provide is comensurate with its cost. This is both the promise and main political challenge to the creation of national digital currencies I think.

My biggest beef with crypto in its current block chain incarnation is that it is perhaps the single most environmentally obscene concept ever conceived.

I’ve looked at it for years, but I cannot see how it isn’t a tulip mania investment. I understand the blockchain idea, but there are infinite variations on the idea. If it had value, it wouldn’t be as replaceable?