I can't believe you guys are still talking about intrinsic value....
Since I have no clue on how to explain intrinsic value. I looked it up lol
Watch the video midway down the page. Very simple now to understand or explain
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/intrinsicvalue.aspThe problem occurred when aztecminer claimed that gold will always have intrinsic value. This problem can't be solved by purely looking at the problem through the specter of the financial definition of intrinsic value, since the basis of the premise is that the value of gold remains regardless of the market. So what do you have left? You can either claim that gold has intrinsic value, as in
value in itself, through the specter of kantian concepts of value, which I doubt anyone is suggesting (come to think of it, not so sure anymore). Or, that gold has intrinsic value,
value in itself, via a positivistic epistemological conception. I guess you could argue for this last one, but positivism is a very unsatisfactory basis for anything.
Edit: I might be reading too much into this.
When you have the concepts well defined, it is straighforward.
Gold has partly intrinsic value, it is directly useful, and "regardless of the market" (your words). The last human on the planet (no market) can use it for something for himself, for benefit or pleasure. Only, of course, if that individual prefers it to something else (subjective).
This is in fact essential to gold bugs. If gold should lose its money value (due to bitcoin may be), it will still be around, have value, traded in the market, dispersed among the people of the earth, due to its intrinsic value. Therefore, in a catastrophic technology event where computers disappear, gold can take on the money function, and in which case it will regain its money value. A plus for gold.
Bitcoin does not have that. If it goes to zero in a catastrophic event (which it can because there is no intrinsic value), there is no special reason that it will regain its value. The world could just as well start a new blockchain.
The intrinsic value of gold is also essential for Mises' regression theorem, which has also been discussed here thoroughly.
Just two examples of how useful the concept is.
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