Can someone explain me in simple terms what gives most cryptocurrencies value, apart from supply and demand?
I understand the value of Bitcoin and other "currency" type cryptocurrencies, since one of the characteristics of money is that it has no other purposes than to be exchanged for goods and services, and for these, as long as there is adoption and people are willing to use them, then they have value, or at least whatever value that people will give them.
But what about coins for platforms, like Ethereum, Cardano, Icon, Neo, etc. As far as I can see, the coins are not meant to be truly used as a currency, and they don't really seem to needed to use the platform and are not backed by anything. They can be used to pay node operators, but is that it?
The fact that they can be used to buy into ICOs that happen on these platforms doesn't seem relevant, since the same problem arise with the value of the coin that the ICO companies create - most of the time, their actual use, apart from being traded to make money, are far from obvious.
I understand somewhat the values of "in ecosystem" currency, like BAT and FUN somewhat, and I could see their use, but I can't figure out in what universe having these currencies fluctuate constantly in price would be a good thing if they were to ever actually be used for their stated purpose.
What I'm trying to say, is that I don't really get what I'm investing in if I buy cryptocurrencies. It's not a share of an actual share of whatever project or company is behind the coin. For example, people buy Ripple, because the company is in talk with banks, but even if banks adopt some of Ripple's technology, why would they ever give a flying fuck about the coins?
There's a disconnect there that I'm having trouble to understand. Can anyone explain to me what is the intrinsic value of cryptocurrencies, or point me to ressources that could help me understand it?
tldr; I'm dumb, why do give money for crypto