The crypto market as a single unified scam

A report from last year estimates that 95% of the bitcoin trading volume is fake [1]. There's no real identity behind a wallet so bot networks can easily pump up the volume and price. Another study claims "A single actor likely drove the USD/BTC exchange rate from $150 to $1000 in 2 months." [2]

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/cbovaird/2019/03/22/95-of-repor...

[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03043...

It's all based on contracts and how things are perceived. A layman might value a painting by a master artist as hundred bucks. Yet put on a sale in an art auction it might go for millions.

Is it actually worth millions or is the layman's gut feeling of hundred bucks correct? Well, I guess you have to decide for yourself. Some argue it's not, some that it is. Yet the show goes on and the prices get steeper every year. Then you kind of have to believe that there's some base to it, since that's the reality of what is happening. And you don't have to be a true believer to make money out of it, right?

What would then change our perceptions? Maybe if we found out our precious piece of art was fake, and not originally painted by the master artist. After all these years, thought by everyone to be a masterwork by the man himself, yet when put under microscope and beamed with X-rays proven to be only work of his pupils. Oh, what a tragedy. It was not worth millions after all.

Put this way, I cannot differentiate crypto from regular banking. Only the timeline makes it possible to distinguish Bitcoin, alt-coin and Ethereum. Gold, money and trading fit the same story about equally well.

On the other hand, a shared illusion may well be enough to generate value for the regular players. People see regular gambling as a valid activity too.

Another theory, but this time only uses analogies.

monero is good for blackmarket stuff

or as a new monetary system.