The strange (and somewhat irritating) thing is, these young tech people are running around looking for the "killer app" that will somehow make a new cryptocurrency fly with the masses overnight.
Does Gold need a 'killer app' to serve as a store of value and usage as money? Does Silver need a killer app? No, they really don't. All they need is people's faith/belief in the PM's built-in attributes that make them a good form of money.
Does Gold need a 'killer app' to serve as a store of value and usage as money? Does Silver need a killer app? No, they really don't. All they need is people's faith/belief in the PM's built-in attributes that make them a good form of money.
It's because like I said before, gold and silver both have a functional Schelling point while cryptocurrency has a REVERSE Schelling point. Money is a zero sum game so if someone else has more of it, you're basically their slave. If some guy (Elwar) has hoarded all the bitcoins, what incentive is there for you to honor his super mario tokens and let him buy all the goods on the planet and years of your labor, making you his indentured servant? Hint: There is none.
For better or worse, metals facilitate this relationship of power where he who has the gold makes the rules, because a regular human can't just invent a new noble metal (gold and silver) themselves. It takes two neutron stars colliding to make them. This is why there is a functional Schelling point in metals as money, because they require the literal power of gawd to create. On the other hand, just about anyone can create their own cryptocurrency now, so the second some guy hoards more than you or transaction fees get too high, you're extremely incentivized to make a new one until the entire cryptocurrency market eventually dies from dilution (even if it was actually decentralized but it's not) and everyone goes back to gold and silver again.