Holding Bitcoin isn't owning part of the network. The value of the network is separate.
early adopters are being rewarded for foresight and stomach for risk.
How are they investing in the network? It's a bunch of opportunists hoping for an even more greedy opportunist to buy their coins at a higher price. See NFTs.
I know less about NFTs than I do about cryptos but they do seem even more speculative than crypto, but I am the kind of guy that would be as happy with a copy of a piece of art as I would the original. The argument for NFTs seems to be a claim on an original piece which seems very ephemeral to me. There are better investments for sure but then there doesn't seem a shortage of people with more money than sense
They may be investing in other ways such as hardware to strengthen the network. Maybe some people are just in for a pump and dump.
Sure holding BTC isn't owning part of the network anymore than having a facebook page is the same as owning facebook but people are deriving value from the network all the same. Facebook doesn't appeal to me, I tried it and it was shit but lots of people do derive value added to their lives through using it, similarly BTC isn't for everyone. Not everyone needs crypto but that doesn't mean it doesn't have value.
Absolutely, people "holding" Bitcoin derive value from the network's popularity, but in the same way they will become worthless when the network ends. Since there's nothing scarce about networks (protocol + hardware + people joining it), there's nothing everlasting about Bitcoin. Same for the USD and all other fiat, as every one ends after a few hundred years. Some Bitcoiners try to call it digital gold, but gold's value has lasted through civilization after civilization.
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