Now a Bitcoin is nothing as well but without force.
If a merchant asks you: Why should I accept bitcoin? You: I dont know its worth nothing but maybe some other guy will accept nothing for something.
If a merchant asks me: Why should I accept your dollars? Me: Because if you dont government will lock you up.
See the difference.
You don't need force to agree something is worth something, otherwise what is the value of gold? Exactly as you say - it has value because it's pretty to look at, not because someone is forcing you to USE it. And we use fiat because we trust our government will ensure it stays a medium we can exchange for essentials to survive, not so much because we're FORCED to.
Read before you write! I am talking about dollars which are nothing and how they become something (by government force). Now gold is something because it looks pretty. Why is bitcoin something?
You are correct: I dont need force to agree that something is worth something. But I do need to be forced by government to agree to nothing (dollar) is worth something (goods). Get it? How is the bitcoin community going to convince me that nothing (bitcoin) is worth something??
Ah, I think I understand your point of view now. You're absolutely right, Bitcoin has zero value because on its own it isn't useful. But then if you value things only on their use, how 'useful' is gold to you when you can only survive on it if someone else gives it value? What if you had a bunch of gold and everyone decided they didn't think it was valuable? A farmer will not trade his crops with your gold and you would starve.
Bitcoin doesn't have value because it exists, it has value because it's useful. If you review the merchants accepting Bitcoin you will see how useful it is, thus why it has value.
Ok now we are getting somewhere. Golds value is that it is pretty. Now sometimes pretty is not priced highly in the market (if everyone is starving). That is a different issue. Its like this with every luxury good. Might there be extreme scenarios when even the farmer is starving and does not want to trade food for gold/silver. Yes. But its unlikely.
Now Bitcoin is worth nothing. Why would anybody ever accept nothing for something?
This is why Bitcoin cant work.