Bitcoin is the gold standard of crypto
When we look at Bitcoin, we see a resource with a limited supply which cannot be obtained by any other means than mining it. Very similar to gold.
In our history gold was first used as a direct means of payment - as ‘currency’. Together with gold there was silver which had similar properties but which was a bit less rare to find.
After some time in which coins were made out of silver and gold there came the time of paper money. Money which was more easy to transfer - just think of how slow BTC can be transferred and how expensive a simple transaction is, paper money was the same for Gold as something like the lightning network is for BTC. A second layer which is backed by the value provided by BTC.
For a very long time money, and namely the dollar was backed by gold - at any point in time all paper money could have been converted back into gold.
This is the point where we are at with Bitcoin at the moment.
Bitcoin is scarce - there is only a limited supply - and there is trust - the market capitalization of BTC is as of this writing $595.85B USD.
Just like gold is a way to stash money in a form thats safe from inflation (since we have not found a way to magically create gold) Bitcoin may become the gold of the future.
If we look at the price of gold since 2000 we can clearly see that when ever people feel like money (which can be printed) may be effected by a strong inflation they buy gold and in turn the price goes up. During long economic highs people tend to liquidate their gold reserves to have fluid cash which can be moved around more easy - just like you might currently sell of your BTC and trade it into a stable coin which you can move around more easily.
Currently people are still clinging to BTC as the gold standard of crypto, since it has a cap of how many BTC can ever be in existence.
Until August 15, 1971 the US was exchanging dollars for gold at a fixed rate. So you did not have to trust in the dollar or the financial system as you could just convert your money into gold.
Since then the whole financial system of the US and the rest of the world is based on the peoples trust in the system and its regulators. The european central bank which regulates the inflation of the euro by giving out or buying back money from the market to keep the value of the euro at a stable level with a predictable inflation in the low percents (currently below 2%).
And the trust has so far not been misplaced. We did not have any strongly noticeable inflation since the introduction of the euro and the same is true for many other countries. But there are also examples to the contrary -Venezuela and Simbabwe just keep printing money instead of regulating the market for stability.
In the crypto space we have BTC which is effectively gold, and we have ETH which is similar to traditional currency it the way that it is not limited in supply, and that the rate of giving out new money can be adjusted by consensus (which makes it different from central banks, but not that much). There is some form of governance over the block chain protocols and they are being constantly improved to keep up with the demands of the market, which is again very similar to how regulatory banks work (if they do their jobs).
What your take on this? I would love to chat with you on twitter @rabbitholediary or in a private conversation at rabbitholediaries@protonmail.com.