What is Bitcoin and what is it's value under a Marxist economic lens? I've been trying to read capital recently and I've had a few questions I've been trying to work out. So, as capital states, each object has a use value, exchange value and value. Bitcoin clearly has a high exchange value where it can be traded for traditional commodities created with labor (drugs) and have stable, knowable values and can be traditionally analyzed. However, Bitcoin's exchange value regularly exceeds it's value abd both exceed it's use value. Bitcoin is a commodity and in buying it you are buying the labor of the engineers, technicians, project managers and other workers who made the computer hardware the miner uses as well as similar people who created the power consumed. In this lens the miner would be petit bourgeoisie and stealing the surplus labor of the aforementioned groups. However, it's exchange value is incredibly unstable and it's use value is (presumably) low. My main questions are:

  1. Am I right in considering Bitcoin a commodity
  2. Does Bitcoin have use value and how would it be calculated
  3. What is the value of Bitcoin
  4. What's the Marxist explanation of bubbles
  5. Am I right in labeling miners as bourgeoisie

Thanks for the help, this book is confusing and I prefer theory in a Twitter sippy cup for baby leftists and not the barrel of vodka that is Capital

  • gay_king_prince_charles [she/her, he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    People do use it as a means to buy drugs (more often to buy better crypto to buy drugs (and get scammed while trying to buy drugs)) though, even though they are a minority. Does the ratio of legitimate (illegal) users to illegitimate (legal) uses change the use value?

    • RyanGosling [none/use name]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Illegitimate doesn’t always mean illegal. The majority of bitcoin and crypto literally are not being used outside of being sent back and forth between wallets and brokerages because someone thinks they can swindle another buyer/seller. As OP says, it is primarily an asset.

      If 50% of users bought groceries with dogecoin and 50% of users bought cocaine with bitcoin, I think most people would say there’s some form of Marxian defined value here. But that’s not the case.