>>9508100>then i think about bitcoin/ethereum being mined, but from what? and what what are the mined byproducts being used for? If you mine for gold or coal, they can be used for something at the factory, but what is ethereum used for and why do we "buy" it if it's all in a computer?The principle of crypto is that something like gold has value due to the work it takes to extract it from the ground and how rare it is. Crypto simulates that by presenting a math problem that gets increasingly difficult to solve- your PC "mines" the coin by calculating the math problem, and expends energy and effort doing so.
The idea was to create an artificial resource like Gold. People trade the value of a bitcoin like stocks in order to gamble on the value of them going up later. It's just a big shell game where new adopters increase the value of the holdings of people who already have bitcoins, because the more people who buy into it the more the price goes up.
It has no use except this. It's just a way of speculating on nothing.
