Don't panic, page-130

Is it scarce?
Bitcoin is, yes. 21M maximum coins, approx 17M in circulation and an estimate of ~20% permanently lost due to lost/destroyed private keys.

Is cryptocurrency scarce?
No. You are correct in your assessment that there is a lot of them in existence and it is well known that due to lack of regulation of any kind that there have been scam ICO's where devs run off with hundreds of thousands if not millions.

This is no different to people who get suckered in to dog mining stocks (a couple of oil juniors come to mind) where they invest in hopes of growth of the business but really, it's the managing director that gets $400k a year for almost nothing. The only difference is that there are financial regulations in place so that these people need to meet some bare minimum requirement to exist.

Having said that, just like every market, there are microcappers with a future. In Crypto you're seeing lots of hype for big name coins based on marketing and twitter personalities, followed by crashes. Its hard not to see a new coin being pumped then dumped into oblivion, however this is not the entire market.

There are two coins that come to mind as examples;
$PTOY - Patientory. A medical blockchain related research company that is trying to make a breakthrough the already heavily solidified sector, still early stages of development but they have an interesting roadmap, and for <$40M they're an interesting project
.
$AGRS (AGORAS )- Developing the blockchain to completely chance the way software development is done via self decidable logic. This aims to remove the vast majority of bugs through a continuously learning blockchain of software developer information. An extremely complex application of the blockchain in a way that no other coin is doing. No other coin is even in the same ballpark as this technology.

So I think it's important to understand what Bitcoin is. Then to understand what the blockchain is.
Without a shred of doubt, the blockchain is the technology that is revolutionary. Bitcoin is just the first cryptocurrency to be developed so it has very high 'brand' recognition and institutional support. It also acts as a gateway to just about every other cryptocurrency in the market, in that you need bitcoin to buy the alternative coins for the most part.

As to the purpose of Bitcoin? People see it as a store of value, it is very clear that it is no longer usable as a currency. This is why Bitcoin Cash was a hardfork, it has significantly lower transaction fees and has a much quicker transaction time. There is unfortunately just a LOT of politics behind the people involved (Roger Verr for e.g. is a complete and total tool of a human being).

Bitcoin is likened to gold for the same scarcity + utility aspect. Keep in mind gold used to be a currency too, now it's not. It's a store of value. People ask how holding bitcoin has any value... How does holding gold in a vault have any value? Because of the scarcity + utility aspect.

As for the blockchain which crypto's use.. It's comparable to the internet. Nobody in 1990's knew that the internet would become what it is today, only a couple of decades later. The blockchain is a public digital ledger, or a public database in a way. It's foundation relies on trust, which is the key component of its existence.
Now what can the blockchain become in 10-20 years time? Well I point to the previously mentioned $AGRS coin. It's a completely brand new way of using the blockchain technology that no other coin is doing., and upon successful implementation will have the potential to change the way software is developed.

If you have kids/grand-kids or any young relatives., then I'm sure you'll be familiar with Pokemon cards, and how the 'rare' ones can be incredibly expensive. Yet we sit here and go "well.. how can one playing card be worth $20/$50/$100?" when it's just a piece of cardboard that costs 1-2c to make. Not everything we place value on can be compared to holding stocks in commodities or shares, where you can quantify the value based on a companies performance or the supply/demand of a commodity.

Bitcoin is a gatway to alternative coins, so there will remain high demand for the coin to gain entry to the 1,300+ other cryptos.
I only have a foundation base of economics to explain bitcoins current price.


Rarity is a huge factor for Bitcoin, along with the fact that's it's now a household 'brand' of crypto.
Think of gold. If we remove scarcity as a factor, what is gold actually good for?
Conducting electricity? Well no, Silver is significantly better as a conductor of electricity than gold.
It alloys well? So does a handful of other metals.
Chemically? It is uninteresting as it barely reacts to anything
It has the highest corrosion resistance? Okay great - How is that useful sitting in a vault and gaining value?

I think scarcity + utility (and +adoption/popularity) is 99% the answer to Bitcoin's value.