@big e.... You mentioned BitCoin a little way back. There is a book that you may find interesting: The chapter on cryptos has not been written yet. But they put me in mind of the Stone Money of Yap. Money is normally items of low to maoderate value, and high velocity. The stone money of Yap had zero velocity, but everyone owned a virtual slice of it, and each virtual slice had whatever velocity was required by its possessor. But like currency, no one ever owned it. While Cryptos rely on Blockchain technology to keep them secure, the Stone Money of Yap relied on gravity. Many were over ten feet in diameter, and were firmly embedded in the ground. Therefore the chances of theft, (unobserved) were, zero to minus infinity. They were still in use right up to the 60s.
To me, BitCoin is neither fish nor fowl. It is too volatile to be a store of wealth, like collectibles, but too slow to be currency. Other cryptos have solved the velocity problem.
Any currency or collectible including Cryptos can easily become worth nothing. (valueless) Example:The people of the Waghi and Jimi valleys in PNG made beautiful stone axes. These were traded for Kina Shells. (the normal currency - precolonial) After the first Patrol into the Highlands in 1933, that trade died off almost overnight. The waitman introduced steel axes. Thereby killing a currency, which had, had value for thousands of years. I do love they who say that, that could not happen with any Crypto. Hmmm! "Tell me more."
