Everything else is just a me-too derivative that can add nothing except the possibility of central control (like the "digital dollar").
The ability to instantly transmit the hardest asset known to man (harder than gold, in the sense of inflation resistance) does have utility, regardless of what critics say.
It has downsides too: the ability to be lost or stolen if custody is sloppy, energy use, and many others. But the balance between its utility and its limitations is something that enough holders recognize that it maintains a value above $26k for now.
The US debt recently increased by the entire market cap of bitcoin ($275 billion [1]) in a single day.
That doesn't guarantee anything, but in the old days when the global reserve currency started to become frankly inflationary, there was no easy recourse - you could only jump to the next best national fiat (which could have the same problems or worse), or gold (with all of its limitations). Now, due to bitcoin, an alternative exists.
People on HN are smarter than me, and they all seem to hate bitcoin with passion, but I haven't yet understood why. I think it might be harder to recognize its value when it's part of your implicit cultural background: the dollar is money. We lack the perspective of our great grandparents, who lived through the great depression, and understand that the dollar has no intrinsic value, either. Once that epiphany is reached by the masses, the appreciation in bitcoin value could come quickly.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fw...