Insightful analysis REH and a few weeks ago I would have agreed 100%. I do like the way you quantify the value of crypto taking cues from the stock market. I think as time goes on with this new technology and new means of investing we will see more and more things "borrowed" from the world of stock trading, such as indexes like the Dow Jones or S&P 500, or the development of a crypto equivalent of the mutual fund.

I also like how you've tagged the value of a stock to the ability of the stockholder to influence the company. But here's the thing: the vast majority of stockholders have no interest in doing that. Maybe 1/100th of 1%. The other 99.99% of investors are just that - INVESTORS. And they look at other things, not just price/earnings ratio. Those companies who report P/E ratios in the top 20% don't just TANK in comparison to the ones in the lower 20%, but rather just don't do as well, by comparison.

So with cryptocurrency, as long as there are millions of people like me looking for a place to grow money and willing to keep the money in as long as it takes to be positive, that will overshadow any considerations of utility. In the long run, one would hope that the coins with the most utility will do the best in comparison to the ones that , but to say the ones with less utility, or the ones like Stellar that have current values far beyond what's needed to actually use the token, are going to crash or have their bubble burst, ignores the mass psychology of cryptocurrency investing, that is, why people are getting into this game.

It's a brilliant idea, but I don't know that a Price/Actual Use ratio will ever be used as a metric, but if it is, it will be decades down the road and be one of a hundred metrics used to predict future performance, and will only be meaningful if enough others, particularly the respected pundits, use that metric. It may not make sense today to have billions invested in something that only needs millions to function, but really the value of any of this is the value we give it, as a mass of people looking to do something with our money. It doesn't make sense for a public company to be worth 5 times in stocks what it would be worth as a private company based on its merits alone, but that's the nature of the beast when we allow investors in the room.