Yes, crypto can be a hide-able store of value, and ease and speed money transfers, especially internationally. But these values were mostly there right from the start, and don’t much explain or justify the vast subsequent activities in this area. Yes, crypto also uniquely satisfies a deep widespread desire to speculate and gamble, desires widely thwarted by regulations supported by common beliefs that mere gambling is socially harmful. But the big value, I think, comes from what crypto speculation winners then do with their lives.

Crypto folks tell a distinctive type of story about the world, who they are, and how people like them get rich via crypto in a world like that. In such stories, the world is ignorant and broken, and could be much better, while these people have unique penetrating insights which let them see past the lies and conformity to bravely and in teams fight to create and pursue long-shot bets toward new kinds of tech and systems that could make for a much better world. And when people like that get rich, then in order to continue to support this sort of story, they tend to initiate, fund, and participate in long-shot bet projects to make new better tech and systems.

In addition, crypto rich tend to get rich at much younger ages than do other kinds of rich, as speculation under high crypto asset volatility creates wealth inequality much faster. So crypto folks get rich when they are still young and energetic, not set in their ways, with plenty of time to try to prove that all of their other contrarian beliefs are also based on deep insights that could plausibly enable big revolutionary changes to the world. They weren’t just lucky, you see, and they will soon prove that to you.