“ They really aren’t. A currency is only worth anything if normal people are willing to trade them en masse. For the majority/normal people to trade them en Maße there needs to be an universally agreed upon use for them. A use that taxes give, since no matter who you are, you must pay your taxes in the state issued currency.
Crypto and other alt currency tokens are worthless by definition”
https://reddit.com/r/technology/s/TTK0bCHDDN
Don’t necessarily agree with it, but I get why someone would have that take.
This part is completely correct, assuming that that second bit should be read "trade them en masse" and that the German character doesn't change the meaning in a way I don't know. It's pretty much a roundabout description of the purpose of currency—to be a reasonably divisible, reasonably transportable, not easily duplicable token representing value. By having these traits, currency becomes valuable as a bartering tool, because instead of having to have things my neighbor wants to trade for directly, I give him currency, then he swaps that currency for the assets he wants elsewhere.
This part is completely moronic. I also can't pay taxes by handing over my car, my computer, my clothes, my food, or my house, or any number of other assets I have. That doesn't make those things worthless. As long as any crypto token fulfills the aforementioned functions of currency including that it can be traded for a unit I can pay taxes with, it will still be valuable as a bartering tool.