I want to speak to the crowd that believes bitcoin is going to zero. \\
Though I don't see any inherent investment value in bitcoin (portfolio preference), I think there's a greater chance it moves to $1MM than to zero.
Here's why:
Bitcoin does have several use-cases. Although many of them aren't unifying and the broad takeover has been speculative, this doesn't mean the coin has zero inherent value.
At a minimum, bitcoin is being used for cross-boarder currency exchange. We saw what happened in South Korea as a premier exchange platform accidentally gifted users Bitcoin to users that later sold it for their national currency. On a USD basis, Bitcoin sunk to $55,000, which quickly gapped back up due to arbitrage opportunity. It was clearly cost effective to swap into South Korean Won, purchase bitcoin, then sell for USD.
for large purchases, bitcoin is still being used to escape intermediary based fees. In 2018, It was favorable for me to use bitcoin to purchase Silver (350 Oz) as opposed to debit card or ACH. I could purchase much closer to spot price and not have to increase my cost basis. For the silver vendor itself, bitcoin was preferable because of how ACH batches transactions before settling. That time lag leads to short term financing needs. Bitcoin settles a thousand times faster. Debit cards also require network and interchange fees up to 3%. Neither of us like that.
So currency arbitrage, cross-boarder exchange and large investment purchases. Those are just a few areas where there's real utility. The list can certainly lengthen from there.
All this ties back into the fact that the system operates on a protocol that needs miners, miners need payment and the payment has value reinforced by the original entry point in the loop: someone wants to clearly exchange bitcoin in fulfillment to a variety of uses.
This is why Bitcoin will simply never be zero, despite speculators. The next *real* development is in private investments and rules that automate how contractual payouts are made. I don't want to get into layer-2 protocols and all that jazz, but the point to drive home is that bitcoin is the anchor and must be exchanged at some level to secure these events and provide a receipt. So, here, bitcoin is the literal fuel in the engine that performs these executions.