bluesteel44

Free option? Vanity? You get to know the books, the team, etc. And if before you ("VC") haven't been figured out the startup gets traction, you can find money to get in (maybe).

No blockchain involved, you can check the website of the exchange.

Bitmex.com has a market determined borrow rate, in times of market rallies it gets as high as +1% per day and can be as low as -1% when panic hits. They relay it without any markup, so there's only the bitmex credit risk left.

Banks can position themselves to benefit from a depreciation of any given currency, miners are tied to the success of the one they've chosen.

Eh, it's like saying bitcoin has no value because electronic payment systems exist. And while I understand some would indeed argue that's​ the case, to me _trustless_ prediction markets have great value, enabling eg autonomous AI enterprises, self settling smart contracts linked to the "off chain" world.

Probably less, see http://blog.zorinaq.com/bitcoin-electricity-consumption/#eco...

Miner is an ideal consumer of the electricity, doesn't have peak hours, can put equipment near the hydro power plant, so it is very likely a lot of this energy has been just wasted before c. 2013-2014.

You should dollarize your time. Maybe you're severely undervaluing it? Randy Pausch has a great argument why you should (in his time management talk).

What has been the most useful application of ETH for you?

It is much easier and cheaper to set up a centralised fast settlement solution, so called RTGSS. Singapore had one for years, EMU getting one this autumn AFAIK.