"Value is not intrinsic, it is not in things. It is within us; it is the way in which man reacts to the conditions of his environment. Neither is value in words and doctrines, it is reflected in human conduct. It is not what a man or groups of men say about value that counts, but how they act." - Ludwig von Mises
All value is imputed from the subjective valuations of consumers on the market. The term "intrinsic value" can only serve to confuse every conversation about monetary theory.
What is the intrinsic value of an apple? To a starving man, he is willing to give his life savings for it.
I agree with von Mises. People have intrinsic value, not things, and people assign value to things.
When (some) people say Bitcoin has no intrinsic value though, I think what they mean is they can't apply discounted cash flow analysis on it. Which is true. But those are people whose minds are still limited to fiat-denominated thinking.
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Maybe, but sometimes it has nothing to do with discounted cash flows, the same people will often turn around and say that gold does have intrinsic value. Whereas gold has no cash flow either.
It's just lazy thinking.
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101 sats \ 2 replies \ @u 24 Aug 2022
u has intrinsic value tho
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u as in u or you as in I?
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u know deep inside
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Things can have an intrinsic value ">0 but no specific number". If it provides value. E.g. an apple has that, an iphone as well (look up: Maslow's hierarchy/pyramids of needs)
A money never has an intrinsic value except as a tool for fungible denominating. Talking about a specific value of a money is always nonsense since it always relies on peoples behaviour and the mirror image of available goods and services. That's why this discussion is utter nonsense to talk about it at all.
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fungible denominations of MASS, like gold, silver, salt...have values other than as fungible denominators.
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