[JohnnyB]

China has already introduced it's own digital currency and started paying some government employees with it earlier this year. The ECB has hinted at interest in that future too.

I don't think btc is going to be what works for the nation states or that it's a replacement for the USD, but it doesn't have to be. Being a fungible, divisible, deflationary, liquid asset with supply that's not regulated by a central bank, isn't under ownership or control of a single entity and is easily transported across borders and outside the traditional banking system has value in itself. It's filling a niche in the global financial system. I think that niche is growing, particularly with the growth of emerging market wealth and decreasing confidence in the dollar standard.

Arguments that it doesn't have value because it's not the USD or it's not gold are silly, because it obviously isn't, but it doesn't have to be. There is plenty of space in the world financial markets for differentiation and niche use cases. Niche use cases can still have enormous market caps.

The value probably won't last forever, but nothing does. That doesn't mean it has no value now. That doesn't make owning it or using it now purely speculation either. Companies that were at the top of the Fortune 100 no longer exist and aluminum used to be precious like gold before becoming something we wrap old food with and throw in the trash. They were smart things to own in their time though, as were a million more niche assets that filled demand in their times.