Speculation is a distraction from the greater goal. When there are volatile exchange markets, people will always try to take advantage of them to make money.
The fact that people see bitcoin as an investment is really a testament to just how awful fiat money is. Is bitcoin going up, or is fiat going down? It's probably both, but the reason people expect bitcoin to continue going up is precisely because the fiat money is being expanded and their purchasing power is being robbed via the inflation caused by that expansion.
The expectation to continue going up isn't just guesswork or gambling either. If you study the history of money, then you learn that almost any time two monies are competing, the harder money displaces the easy money.
All value is subjective, and always has been. If it the case that historically, people subjectively prefer to save the harder money (Gresham's Law), then what reason do you have to think this time is any different?
> The fact that people see bitcoin as an investment is really a testament to just how awful fiat money is.
I'd interpret that differently. The fact that people see bitcoin as an investment is really a testament to just how awful it is as money and how awful fiat money is as an investment. Basically what I'm saying is that majority of people view crypto as an investment not because fiat money is awful but because in its short lifespan crypto has had crazy returns.
People see bitcoin as an investment because that is what it is to them and they invest in it because they hope they'll become crypto millionaires with a small investment.
> The expectation to continue going up isn't just guesswork or gambling either. If you study the history of money, then you learn that almost any time two monies are competing, the harder money displaces the easy money.
There is something wrong here. Gresham's law is about good and bad money not hard and easy. People prefer to save in good money and use bad money. Meaning that bad money displaces good money not the other way around. This applies when both currencies are considered legal tender. It is the other way round when there is no legal tender. Considering that USD is legal tender and BTC is not there is little point in invoking Gresham's law.
> All value is subjective, and always has been. If it the case that historically, people subjectively prefer to save the harder money (Gresham's Law), then what reason do you have to think this time is any different?
I'd argue, in this instance, that it is not about bad/good money here but about bitcoin being unusable as a currency so it pivoted in to being a "store of value".
People are now only buying it as an investment, investment in what? It inherently doesn't have any value or utility.
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