Historically, the main use-case for "crypto" has been speculation (and capitalizing on this speculation), which is not necessarily in the "scam" category I'd argue. There's overlap, sure, but straight up rugpulls, running away with everyone's money, or not having any tokens in the first place (Worldcoin) is categorically different imho.
There's also (still!) a lot of misunderstanding of the "bananas on the blockchain" kind, which isn't necessarily scam-motivated, it just doesn't work and a lot of people that try to do it don't understand the fundamentals as to why it can never work. [0]
In regards to R&D: why does your R&D project need its own token, i.e. why do you need to re-create money from scratch to do interesting cryptography? (Spoiler alert: you don't.) The beautiful thing about bitcoin is that it monetized naturally [1], and you can use sats for your R&D (like Liquid does, for example).
In regards to Stablecoins: stablecoins are part of the "bananas on the blockchain" problem, and "stable"coin is also a misnomer. Stablecoins shouldn't be called stablecoins, but fiat-coins (which is a shorthand for purchasing-power-go-down-coins). Many "crypto" people don't know or don't care, because they operate on time-horizons of weeks, not decades.
Most non-speculative value outside of Bitcoin derives from regulatory arbitrage, as you correctly identified. What sets Bitcoin apart is that, additionally, Bitcoin derives its value from its credible monetary policy, which is credible because of its censorship-resistant properties (making a big leap here, but it's still true). It's the strongest and most credible, and thus it has the best chance of survival. It is the rediscovery of money [2] and the discovery of natural money in the digital realm (or, more precisely: the electronic realm, as it is "electronic peer-to-peer cash"—which is what makes it physical). There is no need to discover it again. Ergo, there is no second best.
TL;DR: I like your classification, but I'd add "speculation" as the 4th and main use-case.
[0] https://dergigi.com/threads/memes-vs-the-world
[1] https://21-ways.com/6/
[2] https://dergigi.com/2022/12/02/bitcoin-is-the-rediscovery-of-money/
derGigi ⚡🧡
npub1de…9xzpc
2023-12-07 21:45:40
in reply to nevent1q…qpdr
Author Public Key
npub1dergggklka99wwrs92yz8wdjs952h2ux2ha2ed598ngwu9w7a6fsh9xzpcPublished at
2023-12-07 21:45:40Event JSON
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"content": "Historically, the main use-case for \"crypto\" has been speculation (and capitalizing on this speculation), which is not necessarily in the \"scam\" category I'd argue. There's overlap, sure, but straight up rugpulls, running away with everyone's money, or not having any tokens in the first place (Worldcoin) is categorically different imho.\n\nThere's also (still!) a lot of misunderstanding of the \"bananas on the blockchain\" kind, which isn't necessarily scam-motivated, it just doesn't work and a lot of people that try to do it don't understand the fundamentals as to why it can never work. [0]\n\nIn regards to R\u0026D: why does your R\u0026D project need its own token, i.e. why do you need to re-create money from scratch to do interesting cryptography? (Spoiler alert: you don't.) The beautiful thing about bitcoin is that it monetized naturally [1], and you can use sats for your R\u0026D (like Liquid does, for example).\n\nIn regards to Stablecoins: stablecoins are part of the \"bananas on the blockchain\" problem, and \"stable\"coin is also a misnomer. Stablecoins shouldn't be called stablecoins, but fiat-coins (which is a shorthand for purchasing-power-go-down-coins). Many \"crypto\" people don't know or don't care, because they operate on time-horizons of weeks, not decades.\n\nMost non-speculative value outside of Bitcoin derives from regulatory arbitrage, as you correctly identified. What sets Bitcoin apart is that, additionally, Bitcoin derives its value from its credible monetary policy, which is credible because of its censorship-resistant properties (making a big leap here, but it's still true). It's the strongest and most credible, and thus it has the best chance of survival. It is the rediscovery of money [2] and the discovery of natural money in the digital realm (or, more precisely: the electronic realm, as it is \"electronic peer-to-peer cash\"—which is what makes it physical). There is no need to discover it again. Ergo, there is no second best.\n\nTL;DR: I like your classification, but I'd add \"speculation\" as the 4th and main use-case.\n\n[0] https://dergigi.com/threads/memes-vs-the-world\n[1] https://21-ways.com/6/\n[2] https://dergigi.com/2022/12/02/bitcoin-is-the-rediscovery-of-money/",
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