Comment by imtringued
4 years ago
Money doesn't have an intrinsic value. Money is just an accounting system, it is a balance sheet. People used physical gold as tokens or entries in that balance sheet.
Ultimately you are depending on another human who is actually doing work. This is why the credit theory of money is so appealing.
Money has value indirectly because someone obligated himself to give you value equal to the money created. When you add up debts and credits then you end up with nothing because money is just an agreement and not a commodity.
I don't think it is a meaningful distinction. Money itself might not have value, but the miners and nodes are providing value by ensuring the integrity and security of the blockchain.
But more to the point, when I said "intrinsic value" I meant value relative to goods/services. Where as when I used "extrinsic value" I meant relative to other "money" such as fiat. Maybe it was a poor choice of words.