Suppose that someone invented a crypto postal service. Or in short a cryptopost. Its purpose is the reliable and decentralized transfer of envelopes and packages. However, there is a catch. The envelopes and packages are empty. They contain nothing. From the outside, the cryptopost would look similar to a traditional post. Because obviously, traditional post transfers envelopes and packages. And that cryptopost transfers them as well. But in reality, it would be the dumbest thing ever invented given that the purpose of a postal service is to transfer letters, documents and products, not empty containers.

The so-called cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, are exactly like our hypothetical cryptopost. From the outside, Bitcoin looks similar to traditional currencies. It is a system that has units transferred between people. If you have a bank account or a banknote, what you have is some name such as USD, EUR, or GBP, and a number that represents units in a banking system. If you have a Bitcoin account you also have a name - BTC and a number that represents units in the Bitcoin system. But the catch is that the units in the Bitcoin system are empty. They are like envelopes and packages in our cryptopost. They are containers that contain nothing.

On the other hand, units in the banking systems are containers that contain something. They contain debt. Namely, these units come into existence when central banks purchase government bonds or when commercial banks issue loans. That means they are the units of debt. So, if you have for example dollars, you own a resource needed by the US government and masses of individuals and companies for paying off debt owed to the US banking system. If your neighbor has a dollar loan with a mortgage on his house, while you have dollars, you own what they necessarily need to get rid of the mortgage. Just like food is what people necessarily needed to get rid of hunger. If you have what satisfies people's needs, then you own a valuable resource.

But if we were now to ask: "Unit of what resource is BTC and what needs does that resource satisfy?" Bitcoin supporters wouldn't be able to name something actual. Instead, they would offer only generic answers: "BTC is a coin, a digital asset, a currency, a store of value, a token, or money." Money, for example, has always been something actual - livestock, tobacco, metal, and, currently, debt. Because to determine value and be able to trade rationally we need to have something. Even casino or gaming tokens are units of something actual - the liability of their issuers to redeem them for a specific amount of money or in-game items. With their value depending on the size of that liability.

However, Bitcoin supporters can never name something actual. When they talk about BTC units they always use generic terms. This is like if a guy would store this in a spreadsheet: 'Bob - 10 ABC', suggesting that Bob owns 10 units of an item called ABC. Then we ask: "What is ABC?" As a response, the guy offers this generic answer: "ABC is a digital asset". We ask again: "What exactly is that digital asset? Explain what Bob actually owns. There are a lot of digital things: songs, pictures, computer programs, movies, documents, etc. Tell us what ABC is so we can determine its value." But the guy continues with the generic talk: "ABC is a precious item, a revolution, a future of the digital world." Such generic answers would nicely demonstrate that Bob owns no digital asset. That the number 10 attributed to his name represents empty numeric units. Units that contain or count nothing.

So what the Bitcoin author did was come up with a number - 21 million. Then he wrote a protocol that assigns units of that number to addresses and stores everything in a spreadsheet called blockchain. But these numeric units are empty. They count nothing. In the case of real money or real tokens, first, there's something actual to which a value can be assigned - gold, debt, liability to redeem, etc. Then, numbers on paper or electronic medium are used to count those items, that is, to express their quantity. However, in the case of Bitcoin, first, there was nothing. Then a guy used his imagination to come up with the above-mentioned number. And units of that number are all that people get by joining the Bitcoin system. There are no coins or tokens to be counted. There is no money or asset to be owned or assigned value to. If you have Bitcoin this is like having Monopoly money or play money for kids - you have numbers but own no resource. With the difference that you have them on the screen instead of on paper.

People currently pay $70K to have "1" or $700K to have "10" on the screen. Also, the Bitcoin system consumes enormous amounts of electricity - 141-160 terawatt-hours annually according to some estimates. Imagine the absurdity of giving up 700 thousand units of a resource that can delete a mortgage or pay off a government bond, only to have something that everyone can get in an instant by pressing two keys on the keyboard. Or the absurdity of spending as much electricity as the entire country of Norway on managing a spreadsheet with data on nothing. That's why Bitcoin is the dumbest thing ever invented.