Consider the quality of life that would be gained by having the same energy all these "gamer" nerds use, with their consoles and graphics power on these useless. silly games. Or consuming netflix. Or watching movies. Or doing anything that is not directly used on the survival of the human race. This is a pedantic argument.

There's a big difference between entertainment and bitcoins--your false equivalence is wrong.

It is. One is the most important economic innovation of our lifetime.

Think of the quality of life that could be achieved if we take all the money from the drug cartels and use it to feed and shelter the homeless of the world.

It's a nice sentiment about an idealistic world but ultimately meaningless beyond producing feelings of guilt for the target.

If your counterargument needs you to bring up drug cartels (and even there, for better or worse, they have physical products that actually do something for the end user) maybe your argument is not airtight.

> It's a nice sentiment about an idealistic world but ultimately meaningless beyond producing feelings of guilt for the target.

Maybe the target should feel guilty for participating and spreading this scam?

Like, if the Bitcoin fans came out and said "Look, okay, we're basically just riding this super volatile security to take advantage of normies and rubes", that'd be fine. America has a long and storied tradition of honoring conmen.

The smug bullshit though? The idea that because they got lucky with some crackpot stupid 'net token scheme (of which there have been dozens over the years) and thus are clearly so superior to the plebes actually building things and powering the economy they take for granted?

It's a racket. It's always been a racket. Don't try to act like it isn't.