Why did they become so valuable? Because people believed in the bigger-fool theory, somebody would be paying even more for the tulip-bulbs you just bought. Or if not more, at least the same price. So you could keep your wealth in a very liquid inflation-protected financial instrument called tulip-bulbs.
Isn't that much what has happened with Bitcoin?
Similarly the value of gold can go up or down much faster or slower than the value of oil for instance.
But with gold or oil there is much more "intrinsic value" than with Bitcoin. It seems to me that Bitcoin has zero intrinsic value. You need a bigger or as big a fool to get your money back. Not saying that Bitcoin might not be a good investment, but currently it is down 31.65% in a month. It is not a good "store for money".
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me :-)
https://www.google.com/search?q=bitcoin+rate&rlz=1C1CHBF_enU...
So you are completely wrong, USD has value because of the US government, not because of the 'greater fool'.
If your meaning instead was that the US dollar is backed by something (e.g. "labor/production"), then I'd argue this is incorrect. In economics, when X is backed by Y, it means that there is a guarantee that X can be converted for some known amount of Y. This is not the case for the US dollar although it's true that in practice, it does behave a lot as if.
The American work ethic has so far backed this up, but yeah there is always a risk that this will not be fulfilled - ex: "The great resignation"
So bitcoin's "promise" is their marketing? "The next internet, currency, etc."? I will be careful with this, since the last 2 crises (dotcom and mortgage securities) were similar empty promises hyped by the rich - i.e. lies.
(emph mine)
Looking what just about any two bit shyster crypto "exchange" invests into marketing belies that statement.
As an example: crypto.com blew 700M $ for the naming rights of the former Staples Center.
That's apart from the cash they blow into Formula 1.
While you are right that Bitcoin doesn't have a formal marketing team the industry as such is blowing billions into marketing.
USD can be used to pay your taxes.
The victims are the last people to put USD into the crypto system, the fraudsters the ones who set it all up and collect the USD.
The deception is that BTC is a currency, or an asset, or a technology, or indeed anything other than a complicated way to pay early entrants with money from later players.
Do you understand tulip bulbs pretty well too?