Cryptocurrencies: Are they worthless?

Ok, so I'm going off script here again. I promise I'll get to my side hustle series very soon though. In the meantime, I wanted to share a debate I had with someone on facebook about cryptos. His comments are in italics and mine are in bold since I can't figure out how to do colors on steemit. Feel free to add your input in the comments.

He didn't answer any of my questions in my long ass post, but I did want to protect his identity, so I've labeled him the "Random Jabroni" (obviously)

Random Jabroni: Crypto currencies are a passing fad. They are too volatile to ever replace live currencies.

Me: No disrespect, but you are wrong about it being a passing fad. The only people who say that are people who know very little or nothing about why the tech is important. Ellen Degeneres thinks it’s worthless, but Bill Gates thinks it’s awesome. Who are you going to trust? I’d love to hear your reasons for why it’s a fad. I’ve yet to come across someone who is against cryptos but also had more knowledge about it than I do.

Random Jabroni: Nathan Hart no disrespect taken, but I couldn’t give two shits which celebrities think it’s a good investment, if we base your investment decisions on celebrity opinions we’ll all be poor! Lol,
Warren Buffett, who is probably the greatest investor in our time even warns against buying into a product that doesn’t exist. I have done a lot of research on crypto currencies, and I’ll stick to my guns, it’s a passing fad. There’s a big difference between investing and speculating. Investing in a tangible object such as real estate will yield a return, and in several instances a repeatable income flow. Crypto currencies do not physically exist, you are buying a non-animate object that has no intrinsic value. People will not trust that, therefore you are speculating on a return with a market that will always be volatile. It’s like playing the lottery, some will get rich, most will lose money. It is nothing more than a fad that is not sustainable. It’s the get rich quick scheme of this generation and unfortunately a lot of people will get taken. If you want to invest, save your money, wait until the next recession, 2nd half of 2019 is what most investors are saying and buy a rental property, flip a house, buy some land outside of a large city. Population continues to grow and God only made so much land...supply and demand.

Me: This is going to be long. You’ve been warned.

I don’t base my decisions on celebrities, but my point is that Bill Gates and other tech geniuses believe in the tech while uninformed talk show hosts pretend they know what they’re talking about. Valid point that Warren Buffett is obviously no idiot. He made a fortune by being exceptional at spotting value companies. He is not a computer science wizard by any means. Just because he is a great investor does not mean he is an expert in every field. I mean after all, he whiffed on the big dot com companies.

Since you had some great points, I wanted to provide some of my own.

What makes stock shares valuable? They aren’t tangible physical objects, and they’re worth nothing if you can’t find someone to buy it from you.

Do you know why blockchain tech is important? Do you know what they mean by “banking the unbanked”?

Some countries (Argentina) are moving their money into BTC to hide from their own currencies hyperinflation. Do you not think that a global currency would be more resistant to this type of inflation?

Some cryptos use proof of stake which offers a sort of dividend for helping to secure the network. I won’t try to explain the technical details, but does this not fulfill your yielding a return requirement mentioned above?

Lastly for now, your money in your bank account “doesn’t exist” either. It’s a number in a centralized database. When you get paid, your company subtracts a number from their number in their bank, and puts that number into your bank. You can’t see electricity either, but it is there, just like crypto and your bank money.

I agree with you that the recession is coming and that it’ll likely be a result of the crypto market cap skyrocketing into the multi trillion dollar range (currently at 500 billion), and then crashing down similar to what happened with the dot com bubble. This will flush out the shit coins and begin the transition into the new blockchain age.

Random Jabroni: Nathan Hart I love your passion, but I think we will have to agree to disagree. Countries such as Argentina and Venezuela that try and manipulate their currency will continue to suffer and further devalue their own dollar. Hyperinflation will continue to happen in their real day to day lives. I hope you make a fortune in this endeavor, and you don't become another statistic. As for me, I will take the safer route and continue to bank money through real estate and other forms of physical assets that yield residual returns. Hopefully in the end, we'll all be happy with our investments and speculations.

Me: Well said. I can’t argue that real estate is a great investment