any price increase would just be as a result of speculative demand and that is a game of hot potato!
I think, if we're honest with ourselves, all value is subjective and can only be determined in the moment of exchange. Whether it's fiat, BTC, sea shells or tally sticks, we determine value through our daily interactions and decisions of where to put our trust. Many coins have gone up in value without much ecosystem but a lot of great marketing. It's possible they will come crashing back down again or that value increases the network effect and incentive to build the things envisioned to support the value in the first place. I guess I'm arguing that there's a lot more psychology in place here than most give credit to. It's not just build it and they will come. Sometimes it's convince them this is a place you want to be, and enough people will come and start building it.
My company owns and needs 100's of ip addresses and they aren't really shareable in the sense that at least one is required for a unique web property. It would also be double spending if you typed in a www address and more than one person claimed ownership of the IP DNS pointed to. Subnet mask and private LAN IPs via NAT are similar to bitcoin side chains, but the main IPs are still needed for domains. The point being, scarcity alone does not determine value.
I mostly agree with you. We even seem to say the same thing in different words.
Me:
You:
I would say scarcity plus utility results in value.
Even perception of value is utility as is the case with gold and silver whose non-perceptive utility does not justify their value.
I know of shared web hosting plans with one main IP that can support multiple domains, some even claim to support an unlimited number of domains.
IPs are used in different ways: some uses require dedicated IPs while some do not. As such comparing IPs and Satoshis is not possible because Satoshis are never shared while IPs are shared for some of its uses. When usage requiring dedicated IPs increases, the price of IPs will increase to reflect the increased scarcity as fewer IPs will be available for sharing.
That's a bit of a jump for me as I think it changes the definition of utility, but I see what you mean.
And yes, our needs require individual IPs, but you're right, it's not an apples to apples comparison.