It's value is on supply/demand. There's value in it's properties so it'll be unlikely to hit 0. Bitcoin hard limit 21M. Monero has a trailing inflation it's fixed and known. Other coins have different limits and are mostly junk not worth looking at. It is possible to change the programmed limits, but extremely unlikely as everyone has to agree, and there are some stubborn old timers out there. Works on public key private key encryption. PGP has been around for a long time. Works kind of like that. You get a seed to start off. From there the wallet determines a private key, and from that a public key. You store the seed offline as a backup (if it's not secure as a gift to a nignog or jew). You can give out your public key, all anyone can do is send coin. And if it's a public ledger, check your balance. But it's not tied to your name, unless you make it public too. After each transaction a new key should be made. It's either automatic or push one button. With kyc exchanges they can track public ledger transactions, and decide if your coins were involved with someone with a low social credit score. The peer to peer markets where people have their own coins, people dont check. Government has bought out some BTC devs. They have not bought XMR devs, may have planted some, but that's carefully watched for. When crypto is outlawed the outlaws will have crypto.