Manuel Polavieja considers that anything that can satisfy the need for exchange is useful. Some users believe that Bitcoin is valuable even though it has no intrinsic value.
For a long time, many people in the ecosystem have been wondering if Bitcoin has intrinsic value. Non-believers often ask themselves that question because they do not find the momentum of the cryptocurrency’s price logical.
Intrinsic value refers to the fundamental, true, inherent, or essential value of an asset, regardless of its market price.
Critics of Bitcoin, such as American economists Paul Krugman and Robert J. Shiller, say that it is nothing but a medium of electronic exchange. They consider that no demand supports the function of the pioneering cryptocurrency to cover other needs, that is, it has no intrinsic value.
However, Spanish thinkers, such as financial analyst Manuel Polavieja, rely on the study by developer Fernando Nieto. They do not recommend applying traditional finance theories to Bitcoin as they demand that the cryptocurrency be valuable to be useful.
“Most economists remain anchored to the Theory of Objective Value and do not accept the Theory of Subjective Value,” according to Polavieja. He comments that the former is a wrong approach as it does not take into account different human needs.
Bitcoin Is Valuable for Its Security and for Being an Anti-Censorship Network
Venezuelan Javier Bastardo speaks of the “intersubjective concept” when referring to the intrinsic value of Bitcoin. He considers valuation to be a subjective phenomenon that allows “certain elements of that world to have meaning or value X or Y.”
José Peña emphasizes that the intrinsic value of a thing is directly related to its usefulness for each person. For example, the skins that define the appearance of video game characters are very valuable to gamers.
Bitcoin Allows Escaping from the Traditional Financial System
According to Chilean Pedro Silva, it is possible to appreciate the intrinsic value of Bitcoin by understanding state monetary policies that victimize individuals. In his opinion, the traditional financial system produces inorganic money without backing, pretending that it builds trust because governments issue it.
The president of the NGO Bitcoin Chile, Miguel Klagges, believes that a true bitcoiner manages to understand the intrinsic value of Bitcoin. If he is unable to do so, no one can consider him an advocate of the pioneering cryptocurrency. He adds that the user who understands the intrinsic value of Bitcoin has understood the fundamentals of the network.
Bitcoin is an Alternative to the Traditional Monetary System
The co-founder and president of the NGO Bitcoin Argentina, Rodolfo Andragnes, states that the intrinsic value of things does not exist. He argues that it may be associated with the benefit that a person gets when something meets his or her needs.
For that reason, he thinks that talking about the intrinsic value of Bitcoin is very subjective since it depends on each user’s perception. He did not speak of intrinsic value as he considers that type of value to be a wrong term. As an example, he said that “not even the sun has an intrinsic value because whoever is inside a cave will not be able to value it.”
Attorney and Professor Daniel Rybnik believes that Bitcoin is increasingly valuable because of its qualities and the benefits that it offers. It does not recognize political boundaries, favors privacy, makes its owner his or her own bank, is scarce, and is more secure than banks.
