From my observations of Bitcoin as it has evolved:
-Bitcoin REQUIRES electricity
-Bitcoin REQUIRES Internet
-Bitcoin REQUIRES US Dollar (not gold, mind you) to have value IF user wants to buy and sell real stuff
-Bitcoin REQUIRES at least two users
-Blockchain access MUST REMAIN FREE TO ANYONE
Other than that, you can use Bitcoin for anything.
Because in the modern age, everyone is an emperor. So everyone gets to coin their own currency. Now whether or not those custom currencies have any real value, that’s up to serendipity and a lot of other mystical stuff.
Let’s go more into detail:
Bitcoin REQUIRES electricity
This is where the real “work” comes into play. It’s not some Dungeons and Dragons board game session where you’re making shit up on a piece of paper. People are using REAL money to generate REAL electricity to do REAL math. That’s why it can be considered labor. If you didn’t spend that money buying electricity, you’d be spending it on a human laborer. Keep this in mind. This isn’t some hokey bullshit concept.
But that’s not to say you can’t find a thousand people and have them sit down and solve the coining algorithm. That’s absolutely fair game because it’s all math. They would just have to submit their proof on paper to a Bitcoin authority (a network of mathematicians have to confirm it like what blockchain does) who would then have to look it over (can’t imagine how long that takes). LOL, it’s not practical, but it is fair. You have to believe in the math.
Bitcoin REQUIRES Internet
This is a no brainer. You could run the blockchain on a LAN, but what’s the point if you want real monetary value? Nothing wrong with it if you got your own currency for a MMORPG or something with no real value, but you need the REAL Internet if you want REAL value. The more people who use Bitcoin, the more valuable it becomes.
Bitcoin REQUIRES US Dollar power
This is a no-brainer if you want to use Bitcoin for real money economics. The value has to come from somewhere if you want real goods. But that’s not to say you can’t use Bitcoin for no-value goods. Again, the example is if you want to create your own no-real-value currency for your MMORPG, or send Valentine’s Day cards to your whole classroom, or create your own set of trading cards or stickers or icons, or whatever. Use your imagination.
Bitcoin REQUIRES at least two users
No shit. What would be the point of it all if there wasn’t someone else to pass around that data or “value” with?
Blockchain access must remain free to anyone
It is designed to be the ultimate time capsule. Unlike servers or webhosts that go out of business and you end up losing your archives or whatever, now you can know for sure your data is permanent. That’s where the irony of the invention of the Internet never solved. Yeah, there’s cloud hosting, but that just copies the same data over and over and is reliant on the webhost. If you put something on the blockchain, as long as there are nodes on the network, you get free backups for life. Ain’t that a trip? Imagine if archive.org put their shit on the blockchain.