OF COURSE CRYPTO HAS USE CASES!
Basically, in 2009 it was a reasonable viewpoint that BTC/Crypto would play out and go away. That all changed in 2011 with the arrival of SilkRoad.com.
Re: “No Use Case”
I can’t imagine any credible journalist or anyone else suggesting that crypto has no use cases. These were apparent in its early days when its value suddenly ceased to be insignificant: SilkRoad.com and Zimbabwe. Once people realized this, people who were aware of how large the illegal economy was and that BTC solved its biggest problem, speculation on to top the illegal economy grew.
And, to this day, not much use-case-wise has changed:
1) Speculation/Gambling
2) Safely transacting any criminal activity.
It’s definitely not a currency. The volatility, regardless of somewhat continuous upward valuation, makes that altogether impossible. And it is not an investment, since any investment as volatile would never be called an investment.
For speculation, however, it’s a godsend. “Speculation” is just a form of gambling where the odds are not fixed and the influence of demand plays an actual role. And the use of Volatility Trading strategies has been adapted and can fairly successfully be used, even if the likelihood of a catastrophic Black Swan event is greater than in the conventional markets.
So Crypto has taken up a premier role in serving the two above-named activities.
As for risks and downsides, there are many for the Western Liberal Democracies, WLDs. The dollar reserve world and its infrastructure are the main things at risk. And this is actually celebrated by a huge majority of crypto participants and promoters.
For more information about this facet of crypto, you can read my articles here on Medium.
But, no, Crypto has only two ways of going away: China shuts it down entirely, which it is in a position to do. The Western Liberal Democracies recognize its threat. The former may occur at a time when this would result in politically/economically motivated destabilization. The latter… who knows if the WLDs hang themselves on this or not.
Odds are 50=50 at this point.
