Well your Mac is worth ‘something’ because of what people are willing to pay for it. It would be worthless to certain people, just as you find bitcoin worthless. What’s the difference?
A bitcoin is an ID number pointing to pretend money. It has zero intrinsic value.
When suddenly it loses its popularity and/or supply of greater fools, it'll fall apart, and I'll have taken some poor sap's actual money, even if it was delayed / distanced / distributed by some thousands of layers.
In the event that the world falls apart, the Mac is at least usable as a weighted object, if all else fails.
Bitcoins become purely thought in such a situation, and even in far less catastrophic ones.
I could say "I don't use Macs because I find I can't be productive with them." That's a subjective statement.
Or I could say "I don't find it entertaining to sit in front of a Mac," or "I don't learn anything when I use a Mac," "I can't create anything valuable using a Mac." None of the properties you listed are intrinsic properties of the Mac, they're all a function of the Mac's utility to certain people in certain situations.
Perhaps I'm Amish. Or perhaps I don't have an internet connection. Or I am old and blind and don't have a friend to teach me to use a screen reader. The Mac would be valueless to me.
So, the Mac's value is derived solely from its utility to a certain group of people. It lets that group of people perform tasks that they couldn't perform (or would perform less efficiently) without it. That's the same way Bitcoin's value is derived.
> pretend money
All money is pretend.
> It has zero intrinsic value.
All money has zero intrinsic value. Extrinsic value is still value.
Money is an agreed upon tool for exchanging items/services of value - but it also a store of value, because it retains at least a semblance of stability. Cryptocurrencies are... well, not currencies, for starters, but they're also simply a proxy for "real" money (ie: fiat).
Where cryptocurrencies entirely fall apart is when the realization hits that they all fall into the greater fool category - once you run out of new marks, the scheme collapses, and all the money - note actual currency - ends up in the hands of a few early adopters and a couple extra lucky folks who timed it right. Negative sum games are not a good thing to prop up.
I also don't believe it's helpful to ponder the value of objects in the context of societal collapse. If that's your definition of intrinsic value, I don't think it's useful or practical.
All money falls into the greater fool category. The difference is that fiat money is not opt-in. It too is held mostly people who adopted earlier than you and lucky folks. Millennials are over 20% more likely to cry when trying to buy a home than the general population.[1]
> Negative sum games are not a good thing to prop up.
Your logic is circular - crypto has no value, therefore it's not useful, therefore it's a negative sum game, therefore it has no value.
You could just as easily say the opposite. People perceive crypto to have value, therefore due to its unique storage/transfer properties it has usefulness or extrinsic value, therefore it provides utility and is positive sum, therefore it has value.
It's all subjective.
[1]: https://zillow.mediaroom.com/2022-06-02-Half-of-Americans-cr...
And no, it's not circular - "negative sum game" is literally baked into the concept of a purely speculative unbacked "asset". More money has to go in than can possibly come out, and there's precisely zilch to show for it.
Any place that accepts crypto is simply immediately selling it for fiat, and making the customer pay more than they otherwise would in fees and headache.
Anyway, it's fun to be obtuse, I know, but you're pushing the limits here.
The dollar is also a negative sum game, a purely speculative unbacked "asset".
More effort has to go into keeping track of it than can possibly come out.
> Any place that accepts crypto is simply immediately selling it for fiat, and making the customer pay more than they otherwise would in fees and headache.
Crypto payment processor fees are usually about 1%, which is less than half of the typical credit card processor fee. As for "headache", you'll have to elaborate on that.
You... Really ought to look up what greater fool theory is. And maybe money, too, while you're at it.
In any case your argument is a bit silly? There is an infamous Italian artist who sold tins of his own shit [1]. Would you like to argue that these tins are worth ‘something’ because I can empty the shit out and reuse the tin? I’ll take the bitcoin thanks.