i know you are thinking you are just buying a "number 1" and watching it. but you are not
you are ignoring its utility..
you are acting as if a bank note is just a serial number which you just watch and see the amount of loaves of bread it can buy deminish each year. where all you want to talk about is the serial number vs bread loaf value.
firstly its utility is not just "number 1"
deflationary
unlike bank notes that can print endlessly meaning inflation allows you to buy less bread per $10 bank note per year/decade. bitcoin supply halves every 4 years meaning less NEW coins every 4 years where that equates to deflation which means people would sell more loaves of bread for less coin as time goes on
remittance
you dont need to go to western union and explain why you are sending $38k to your relative in another country, with bitcoin you just make a transaction without having to explain who you are or the other person or the reason for the transfer.
its a currency without the banks. i can buy pizza, rent, a car, and hundreds of thousands of other things without needing to disclose bank details or reasons for payment.
monitoring
unlike bank accounts(like remittance) that need ID and question purpose of transactions. there is also no flagging of spending over 0.3btc(~$10k). you can send as little or as much as you like. no questions asked
security
unlike bank accounts where banks can seize funds, as long as your the only private key holder of the 'number 1' only you can move it. there is no chargeback scamming. no fractional reserve. no 90day refund policy. . once its moved. its moved, end of.
also unlike art, oil,wheat. where you are stuck with flame risking asset, which if it burns its gone.
all you need to store is the private key for security. you can store your private key in multiple safe places, in multiple forms. where as art is a single instance which doesnt like fire.
supply.
unlike gold that was said to have a 190k tonne cap. and now with asteroid mining in near future that cap has evaporated. bitcoin will only have (actually less than) 21million 'number 1'.
yes its not like commodity. (wheat,oil, gold) where its a raw material used to make other products
yes its not like a stock/share(value of company holding)
its an asset. like collectables, currencies.
yes its not an attractive collectable asset like jewellery or art. but here is the thing, its a asset currency. with better utility than fiat currencies
most of the aesthetic features of collectable assets do not convert the aesthetics feature into the market price.
take gold.
if it cost only $2 to mine gold in a back yard using only a spoon and a coffee filter. the market would speculate only at $2-$5
however because it costs over $900 to mine gold, the market speculates between $900-$2k
yes there are many factors that change the 'demand' decision of valuing it nearer the $900 or nearer the $2k speculative price inside the value window. where some of those decision might be based on desire/aesthetics/etc. but the aesthetics dont affect the $900-$2k window.
you have to understand the underlying value window.
bitcoin sits at around $35k-$85k value window today due to the cheapest mining cost vs the most expensive mining cost today.
iceland/kazahkstan($35k) bermuda/german($85k)
lets say in america
hobby miners mining in residential area's have a mining cost of $51k
industrial asic farm mining has a mining cost of $41k
so right now. the speculative price for americans make it more desirable to buy it for $38k today, rather then slowly accumulate it from mining at more cost($41k-$51k)
china, kazahkstan, iceland prefer to mine... germany, japan, europe, america prefer to buy
most of bitcoins volatile PRICE within the value window. is not based on aesthetics. its based on the acquisition value of whats cheapest way to get bitcoin.
where by the reason people want it vary based on its utility,security, features as a asset currency. and where bitcoin is more deflationary than golds 'asset' class investment market.
inshort. when asteroid miners bring tonnes of gold back in 2040, golds value will DROP. because tonnes of extra gold per year is occurring more then earth mining. (earth mining per year 3tonne ->asteroid mining 100tonne per starship load)
yet bitcoins production would be 32x less than todays rate(6.25 -> 0.1953125 per block)
You're just describing bitcoin. You can describing it from now until eternity, but after I pay $37,000 for it, I am still only able to watch number "1" on the screen. That's all the utility I get for paying such an enormous amount of money. Your descriptions mean nothing to me. They cannot change facts. These descriptions are essentially just psychological rationalizations of those who bought bitcoin blindly, without checking what they are actually buying.
Regarding, a bank note. It's a security by which a banking system has liability to it's holder, just like a stock and a bond certificates are securities by which their issuers have such liability. As such they have nothing to do with bitcoin. No entity has liability to you when you hold bitcoin.