If no one wanted it it would've been down 99%. People were saying the same thing you're saying when bitcoin was 1000$

People can want something without wanting it as "currency". GP is indeed correct that nobody wants a currency whose value fluctuates by 50% over a few days; what the people who want bitcoin want is a high-risk speculative investment that has so far dodged the gatekeeping and restrictions that the developed world tends to place on other high-risk speculative investments.

As the famous quote says, markets can remain irrational a lot longer than you and I can remain solvent.

And there isn’t an upper limit to who can buy into bad ideas or how badly they can go wrong.

https://youtu.be/lMUtU0tOmNE

Microsoft has declined 20% since the new year. Should we abandon that company entirely as well?

Or what about the VTI (total u.s. stock market index) which has also declined 15%?

The truth is crypto currencies such as BTC and ETH are maturing with institutional investment. Their value relative to USD tends to correlate more with the markets and especially tech now.

> Microsoft has declined 20% since the new year. Should we abandon that company entirely as well?

No one is claiming that MSFT stock should be used as a currency for transactions. If the US dollar lost 20% of its spending power in a few months, many people would be baying for blood. It's bad enough when gas prices rise 20% in a short time.

Well, inflation is reporting in at 7-9% across the country and getting worse. So that is exactly what is happening and is kind of why the market is in decline right now (and all the things that come with it)...

As I understand, the market is in decline because "The Fed" is trying to tamp down inflation by increasing the price of borrowing money. The fact that this kind of market correction is deemed an acceptable byproduct of countering inflation tells you how seriously the "fiat" economic system treats loss of purchasing power.

AFAIK, Bitcoin does not have a mechanism for doing something like this to stabilize the currency.

Yeah, that kind of glosses over all of the action taking over the past 2 years which heavily contributed to the current situation. But even if we ignore that they have a problem on their hands - the two main goals of the fed are currently at fundamental odds with each other. They have been injecting money to achieve maximum employment which is at fundamental odds with price stability. If they raise rates to stabilize prices (which they are definitely doing, potentially more than anticipated), that is going to affect employment. So it's going to be a tough balancing act. There is also no guarantee that raising rates will have the effect they desire. It could stagnate the entire economy.

There is a ton of uncertainty and that is really what is driving the craziness in the markets. Over 97% of my portfolio is in fiat and trust me this makes me very uneasy.

The fact that Bitcoin does not have levers is the appeal to a lot of people.

> Microsoft has declined 20% since the new year.

>> No one wants "currency" that ...

Who uses Microsoft stock as currency?

You might draw comparisons to the stock market. The Dow Jones lost 90% of its value in the Great Depression, but we didn't do away with the stock market altogether. We fixed the structural problems because there is clear utility to the trading of corporate securities.

Currencies that lose 90% of their purchasing power tend to get replaced. Equities/securities? Not so much. I think the point is that Bitcoin is either a terrible currency, or not a currency at all but an equity.

Do they? I more often see a mere slashing of a few zeroes and maybe a slightly different name, but with the old one being convertible and keeping the same monetary policy.