Warren Buffet was once again criticizing Bitcoin. If it's going to zero, why do legacy financiers so enjoy speaking ill of Bitcoin?
A couple of things were mentioned today. First, the age old "it has no value" argument. Secondly, it's just gambling.
Is logic optional when you're a billionaire?
Let's take argument two first, because it's the easiest to point out the logical flaw here. If Bitcoin is gambling, then it has a use case: bitcoin is the token to enable the act of gambling. It's used to gamble. The statement about it being used to gamble negates the first statement that there's no use case. That's simple enough.
Let's take the first argument on it's own, the notion that Bitcoin has no use case, and let's turn the argument back on author. Let's compare it to Buffet's own business of trading stocks.
"Do stocks have a use case, Mr. Buffet?", I'd ask.
I think he would answer something like, "Yes, stocks have a use case. When you buy a stock, you are a part owner of a corporation. You can participate in corporate decision making, benefit from profits via dividends, and perhaps profit from an increase in stock value. That's the use cases of a stock."
"Fair enough, Mr. Buffet. I agree." Let's consider Bitcoin (big "B" meaning the blockchain). More precisely, let's consider satoshis as shares of ownership in bitcoin (small "b" meaning the total of the cryptocurrency). Each satoshi is one share of the total of bitcoin. Just as a single stock share is a single share of ownership of the entire corporation, one satoshi is a single share of ownership of Bitcoin. Like stocks, share-of-ownership, then, is a Bitcoin use case. There is no voting in Bitcoin (there is with Ethereum and Hive, by the way), and there are no dividends. However, one absolutely could perhaps profit from an increase in Bitcoin value. Just like with stocks. So, although more narrowly, a use case of Bitcoin is exactly the same as a use case of stocks.
It's immaterial that Buffet might not like the use case of Bitcoin. Or, it doesn't matter that he even might disagree that speculation actually is a use case. Someone thinking the world is flat has no effect on the fact that it's round.
I would argue there are other Bitcoin use cases. Namely, it is a place to store value, like gold. And, like gold, it can be used as a hedge against inflation. It can be used as a means of exchange as Satoshi first envisioned it. It hasn't matured to that point on a day-to-day basis yet, but it's certainly possible. That's a use case and there are likely others.
Reference: CoinTelegraph article at https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-is-a-gambling-token-and-it-doesn-t-have-any-intrinsic-value-warren-buffett
