> Is the purpose just to become more valuable because of its scarcity with no utility?
Being a reliable store of value is great utility. Nothing else can come close to btc at that.
Is Bitcoin more inherently valuable than garlic coin? If so, why? Just first mover advantage or just because other people think its valuable?
Also how is BTC the most reliable store of value? It’s had multiple crashes and is one of the most volatile instruments.
“In our long-term study of bitcoin, we had compared bitcoin correlations to traditional asset classes and now see another interesting recent trend with its volatility,” according to Gurbacs. “In our current volatility research, we compared the 90 day and year to date volatility—as measured by their daily standard deviation as of November 13, 2020—of bitcoin against the constituents of the S&P 500 Index. We found that bitcoin has exhibited lower volatility than 112 stocks of the S&P 500 in a 90 day period and 145 stocks YTD.”
https://www.etftrends.com/alternatives-channel/bitcoins-vola...
Because of built-in scarcity. No other asset is as provably scarce as btc.
> Also how is BTC the most reliable store of value? It’s had multiple crashes and is one of the most volatile instruments.
Two points here:
- BTC is of course not good for short-term speculation, it's a long-term savings vehicle. Short-term volatility doesn't affect the properties of a long-term store of value.
- There was no period in history of btc where you would buy it and lose $ after 5 years of holding. Most likely, never will be due to my answer to #1 - inherent and ever increasing scarcity.