Ransomware is to bitcoin as the Internal Revenue Service is to the dollar. Think of the ransomware that encodes your hard drive and demands payment in bitcoin as the crypto version of a tax demand and IRS enforcement wrapped up together. Like taxes, the forced use of bitcoin by victims of ransomware creates a need for at least some bitcoin. This argument runs that like gold, bitcoin has value because others think it has value. It isn’t obviously the case that enough people think bitcoin is a store of value, though some—“HODLers," in it for the long run—clearly do.

Source: Mint July 04, 2021 13:30 UTC