Its value is derived by the belief that one can use it to trade…. Just like a fiat currency.
You have too many convos going at the same time, but the "it" we were discussing was the Bitcoin mining network hashrate, which is a part of the audit process of the Bitcoin blockchain by ensuring that all mempool transactions to be included in the block contain valid bitcoin utxo's i.e. no "fake" bitcoins or double-spend
[Mr. D. Kruger has entered the chat]
Look, I hate to be insulting but how is it that someone with your intelligence level capable of performing complex mathematical options modeling stuff (I cannot) and able to break down corporate financial statements (I cannot) and have access to crypto industry insiders and yet you fail to grasp how Bitcoin's value is derived?
Bitcoin's value is greater than the sum of all its parts = fraud-free, 24/7 operations, never goes down Bitcoin monetary network (payment systems on MoE transactions, value transfer without intermediaries across borders) that has settled over $8 T last year + bitcoin the scarce digital asset secured by the most powerful computing network that ever existed and still increasing in power + the network of all the global users/companies willing to trade their hard earned savings for it
You don't have to take my word for it. Every single minute, the value of bitcoin is agreed upon in many many places all around the world, perhaps right now as I type this, a vendor in a Turkish market place has exchanged some local delicacies for some satoshis, or maybe someone in Lugano successfully paid for a haircut with satoshis, or maybe a person in small island called Boracay paid for his hotel stay with some satoshis
bitcoin is a scarce commodity digital asset that like any commodity, gold, silver, copper, are traded in global market places, and subject to supply and demand dynamics, for example in Nigeria and other places, the price of bitcoin is much higher equivalent in US $