Bitcoin's intrinsic value

06/12/20 • 32 min

Our published podcast knowledge sessions usually refrain from discussing valuations. We sometimes hold such discussions internally, but they are typically not of interest after a few weeks and, as such, don't lend themselves to the format of an educational podcast. This discussion is an exception. The topic is the 'intrinsic' value of bitcoin. Despite existing definitions of 'intrinsic' in economics and philosophy, this value appears to be surprisingly ill-defined and prone to individual interpretation when it comes to bitcoin. The question comes up frequently, especially in discussions with a wider audience, and often with the goal of confirming out that bitcoin presumably has no such value. In this session, Crypto Fund's COO, Bernadette Leuzinger, moderates a lively discussion with several members of the Crypto Finance team, exploring the common ground for bitcoin, while looking at a few alternative examples of intrinsic value.

Previous Episode

Patoshi

Two events in the last two weeks caused interest in early blocks of the bitcoin blockchain. First, an old block was moved, block number 3654 that was mined in the second month of bitcoin's existence. The second event was the signing of a message from 145 early blocks, just a week later. Both events gave rise to the question of whether those blocks belong to Satoshi. If any message is signed or any coins are moved from an address belonging to Satoshi, it would signal that potentially 1.1 million BTC could be on the move that were previously widely regarded as permanently 'frozen', among other implications of course. After the first of these two events, we discussed the field of blockchain archaeology that you hear in this knowledge session. Old node software and mining practices had quirks that compromised the miners' privacy and now, in hindsight, allow us interesting insights into those early days. The most prominent example is the "Patoshi Pattern", which allowed the quick answer that neither of the two events were likely to be related to Satoshi. This session included showing a chart from https://satoshiblocks.info. We believe that the recording is useful even without this chart, but a quick glance over there does not hurt.

Next Episode

Fee manipulation

The million dollar fees recently paid on Ethereum, independent of the actual reason or outcome of that particular story, serve as a good reason to review and discuss what types of problems can arise if fees are not taken into consideration when setting up security. Heists and blackmail are just the beginning of the potential risks. Crypto Finance's Head of Research, Dr. Lewin Boehnke, discusses the foundational problems and implications, giving basic best practices for the handling and defining fees for various lock-up arrangements.