And what might the obvious ones be?
Why would ycombinator backed REQ try to replace Paypal with crypto technology if there wasn't fundamental value in the tech?
They don't just invest in anyone, they do due diligence, why would they conclude this is even a viable risk taking opportunity if it was easy to see there is no utility in the technology?
Difficult to steal or confiscate.
Confidence of transaction completion in a low trust environment.
I'm sure there are more but those are three off the top of my head.