>The subjective theory of value is an economic theory which advances the idea that the value of a good is not determined by any inherent property, nor by the amount of labor necessary to produce it, but instead is determined by the importance an acting individual places on a good for the achievement of his desired ends.
In other words, the title you bought to the Golden Gate Bridge is worth whatever you can con some other like-minded fool into paying you for it.
The obvious problem here being that worth and value is based on foolishness more so than reality. Which may be fine --- until reality intrudes --- which it always does --- eventually.
There are some BTC maximalists who demand that the energy consumption of BTC and the sunk costs give it value. This is the input cost theory of value which is distinctly different. Similar to the labor theory of value.
I'm sure the title to a the Golden Gate Bridge is at least worth the paper it is printed on. Perhaps if there is significant novelty value, someone may buy it for those benefits alone. It is impossible to say how individuals would value it, but again false and fraudulent claims are a distinct and separate matter. Attempting to conflate the issue is somewhat dishonest in itself.
Kinda like the claim that electrons are money as long as some other fools accept it? No "conflation" required.
If they buy the title to the Golden Gate Bridge from you and then try to cash in and suddenly realize they have been had....well it's only fair game if they come looking for you with the intention of making themselves whole (and then some)
Or if they are civilized they'd go to the police and they'd be the ones coming for you.
As you see the subjective theory of value can be extended to everything and anything. It doesn't stop working once the transaction is settled. Per the subjective theory of value the transaction can always be reversed: judicially, politically or violently.
That's the reason why scammers who are smart try to put as much geographical and jurisdictional distance between themselves and those who were scammed
In short: "Stonk_price_bruh!"
Elvis-mania, Bealte-mania, Backstreet boys-mania...they all end at some point.
Positive strong emotions are strong but they burn fast, or can even turn into negative strong emotions.
Unlike Elvis nobody became hysterical or collapsed to the ground when they saw a young Warren Buffett, people to this day think he's old, boring, doesn't get it.
Then they look at the scoreboard. 40 years in the Forbes 400, and not only that, in the top 5.
Let's see where Satoshi, Buterin , Brian Armstrong, Binance guy are in 40 years.
The one who is best positioned financially to be still there is Elon but he's inherently unstable mentally.
Individuals who wish to transact in cryptocurrency or any other asset you do not value are not involved in a scam, simply because you do not value that asset. They have their own ends which we may not appreciate.
The only difference is that with bubbles everybody buys into the delusion, whereas with scams at least those at the top are sane enough not to believe their own hype.
> Individuals who wish to transact in cryptocurrency
Excepts nobody transacts, everybody trades for capital appreciation purposes