What I don't understand is where the value in BARR is supposed to come from.
Over $30,000 has been put into BARR.
That money was earned by people who produce goods and services at their jobs; other people who value those goods and services pay them with money they earned themselves.
Then they took those 30,000 valuable dollars and bought bitcoins, which they believed to have an equal or greater value than the $30,000.
Then they took the $30,000 worth of valuable bitcoins and bought altcoins, which at the time they believed or hoped would have value equal or greater than the bitcoins.
Then they took the $30,000 worth of valuable altcoins and used them to generate new BARR. They destroyed the altcoins because they believed BARR was more valuable.
Now they can sell their BARR for NXT, and they can sell that NXT for Bitcoin, and they can sell that Bitcoin for dollars, and they can use dollars to pay for goods and services.
People need food, clothing, and shelter, and they also want to acquire other things that they don't already own. Other people will give them the things they want in exchange for money, and so money is as valuable to people as the food and shelter that keeps them from being homeless and starving.
Why would anyone invest in BARR?
Why "would" they? The proper question is why
have they already invested $30,000. That money is a reason itself for other investors.
They invest because they believe it has current or future value greater than or equal to the current value of what they invest, and because they believe in the goals of the project and want to contribute to its ongoing success.
Does this coin do more than burn shitcoins?
BARR is only issued to redeem the destruction of currency with real value, never for worthless altcoins. Everyone who burned their coins could have easily sold those coins for Bitcoin instead, which is why their choice of BARR over Bitcoin represents a real transfer of value.
And yes, BARR does more than burn valuable altcoins. It does all the same things that other altcoins do, including instant secure international transfer of value.
But BARR also does some things that no other coins can do. For example, Bitcoin releases new coins into circulation every 10 minutes. Some altcoins release new coins every 60 seconds. That means that new money has to come in constantly, or else the price will keep dropping towards 0. They're creating new money where no money existed before, so they have to attract new dollars from outside the crypto markets every 60 seconds just to keep their price from going down. As you know, almost none of them can do that. But BARR is different -
BARR only adds new coins into circulation after an equal value of coins has been subtracted from another coin. That means no new money has to come from outside the crypto markets to support its value - BARR is the only cryptocurrency that isn't creating money where no money existed before.Edit: And why buy all the shitcoins for burning instead of letting them die without help? Where is the profit in that?
Some altcoins will die without our help. Of course, the people holding those coins will lose all their money.
Some of the coins we have burned will be delisted from all exchanges. If we hadn't burned them, the most active holders of those coins would have 30,000 reasons to get listed on other exchanges and keep them alive. Now they can let those coins die without dragging it out and tying up more capital within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
If you want to burn your altcoins without exchanging them for anything else, you are free to do so. But since you have never done that, I'm sure you understand why nobody else is going to do it either.