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Comment by grapeskin | Hacker News Reader

A car has real value because you can scrap it and sell individual components or the metal itself. Even if asphalt roads all get destroyed tomorrow and driving becomes impossible, there’s intrinsic value in the materials.

What happens if there’s a targeted attack against Bitcoin and the network goes down or gets compromised? The only answers I’ve ever heard are “that’s very unlikely to happen”, which is not an answer. Bitcoin proponents then jump to “well, the same can happen with cash!” Which is true. But that’s why having a million in cash isn’t a good idea. Hyperinflation is unlikely, but it does happen. Crypto is the risks of cash amplified, but without the ability to walk to a store or hand a stack to your neighbor in times of need.

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> What happens if there’s a targeted attack against Bitcoin and the network goes down or gets compromised?

What happens if we suddenly discovered massive deposits of gold under some seabed, and like shale oil boom, suddenly there is a glut of gold thus killing its price? There is not much inherent value to gold, and industrial usage definitely doesn't justify the current valuation.

Do you think gold prices are in a bubble as well because no one has answered this question satisfactorily before? If you think this is a far fetched scenario, same thing has happened to various other "stores of value" over our collective history - massive stone disks, sea shells, aluminum, ..

Gold’s price relative to other commodities will drop, but it’ll still be useful. It might even end up maintaining value since demand could rise in electronic components.

As another example, water literally falls from the sky but people still pay 2 dollars for a bottle of it.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin can’t be used for anything. It’s sole purpose is putting money in and cashing it back out for money.

You could also say stocks are worthless. That wouldn’t be wrong. You just have to hope that company doesn’t go bankrupt overnight.

> What happens if there’s a targeted attack against Bitcoin and the network goes down or gets compromised? The only answers I’ve ever heard are “that’s very unlikely to happen”, which is not an answer.

Serting aside the value of bitcoin in particular for the moment, that is a totally reasonable response in my reading. It deconstructs the question instead of answering it (which of course implicitly gives an answer...), but that's totally valid. If it is indeed extremely unlikely to happen, then you shouldn't worry about it.

Then the counter is whether or not they're right in that assessment- plus all the other risks and drawbacks of bitcoin as you brought up already.

Your analogy with the car don’t make sense to me because it doesn’t seem like an apt comparison. I could ask you what you’d do if your car were obliterated by a tsunami or an explosive. There would be no intrinsic value to redeem in that case. Same if the bitcoin network goes down or is compromised.

Nothing has any value if it’s completely destroyed and whisked away 3000 miles and to the bottom of the ocean.

But you can insure a car and get paid in dollars and provided with a rental car until you purchase a new car if such a disaster does happen. Nobody is paying out insurance claims in bitcoins or for bitcoins—why that is is a total mystery. Truly bizarre that insurance companies steer so far away from crypto.

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