We tend to think of words like value, cost, price, worth, and even utility as synonyms. In economics, a lot more is at play.

Production of a good or service has input costs: labor, raw materials, logistics, energy, production facilities, and so on are necessarily consumed in the process. Part of design engineering for goods and borader business spanning includes minimizing these costs.

The prices for these inputs vary based on supply and demand in addition to speculation on future supply and demand, which tends toward an equilibrium if speculators accurately predict future changes. This is imperfect, but it is a real service despite the claims they are just parasitic middlemen.

In addition, governmental price controls, inflation of the money supply, the Cantillon effect,regulatory burdens, tax law, etc. add to the prices at every stage of production, leading to distortion and chaos.

Value (or worth) however, remains a subjective individual opinion. It's quite outdated now, but my old example was a Justin Bieber CD. Studio recording time is a cost. Manufacturing, storing, and distributing CDs is a cost. The price on those CDs in a record store is an offer to exchange a CD for money, hopefully enough to recoup production costs and then some while covering the expenses of the retailer and distributor along the way. I could not care less, and prefer my $15 for other uses. A fan sees the new CD as a bargain at twice the price. This is where individual valuation applies.

It seems like there should be a difference between entertainment like that, and necessities like food and shelter, but the same principles apply. The same incentives and obstacles for production apply to necessities and frivolous goods. If prices are rising, but no one is stepping into the market to meet that demand and bring back a trend toward equilibrium, there is another hidden factor erecting obstacles.

Lastly, we have the case of stocks, NFTs, crypto in general, and other roller-coaster markets where the concrete utility is much more abstract. Speculation and hype, and also doom-and-gloom, massively warp the value people place in these. For example, NFTs always struck me as a solution looking for a problem. It would be a great way to eliminate both the Ticketmaster monopoly and counterfeit tickets, for example, but it makes no sense to me to put it on a .jpeg and treat it like fine art.

HIVE has tremendous utility, but little market share and few people who realize it's potential compared to corporate juggernauts in the internet space. I should expand on this already-lengthy comment and turn it into a post anyway. The prices are in the doldrums, but I still see real value here.