While I’m certainly no fan of the environmental impact Bitcoin had in its last bull run, I like Lyn Alden’s point that having access to a stable banking system and a currency that isn’t subject to massive devaluation at the whims of your government is a luxury that many of us enjoy, but that many in the rest of the world do not. Many are stuck saving in currencies that could have their values wrecked at almost any time, in bank accounts that could realistically be frozen or drained by their governments unilaterally with little recourse, especially if they’re a suspected dissident. Obviously, BTC’s value is far from stable, but its future value is at least not certain to be much lower, and it gives people an escape hatch from almost certain financial repression, basically being forced by their government to fall back the financial ladder that they’ve been working for a large portion of their lives to climb up.