Robert Metcalfe

The man is one of the brilliant minds of our times. Without going into phenomenal details of his scintillating career, know that is regarded as the founder or co-founder of Ethernet and he came up with a theory relating to the value of a network which was later named by others as Metcalfe’s law.

source
He originally came up with this idea to sell more computer devices to potential buyers.

Metcalfe’s law

Simply stated the law states that The value of a network may grow proportional to the square of number of its connected users. There are other ways to express it which all carry the same meaning.
Later the law was contested and called dangerous. Despite arguments, variations and counter laws, Metcalfe’s original law is well regarded and Robert Metcalfe analyzes and defends is profoundly in the source listed below.

Metcalfe’s Law and Bitcoin

I saw a rather disturbing video on YouTube where someone was trying to pump up Bitcoin using Metcalfe’s Law. Honestly I don’t think Bitcoin needs pumpers or misdirection. In itself it a social revolution in trust and fundamental peer to peer economy along with blockchain and these 2 things will stand or fall on their own merit. From my perspective they should stand tall.
VALUE as regarded in this Law should be considered carefully when applied to Bitcoin. I would have not made this statement if Wall Street was not involved. Trading Bitcoin on an exchange is vastly different than giving wall street the ability to short it. That introduces a different level of ability to perhaps exert some institutional control over it. If I were to write a paper on how to bring in centralized control over a decentralized system, my answer would be to hand it over to the bankers as the first step.
The value of the Bitcoin system is now also of value to those who may profit from a lower price vs those who may seek to profit from a lower price. You may say that Facebook is traded on wall street and yet Metcalfe’s law applies to its value. There are tremendous differences. There is nothing else on the markets that was meant to be anonymous, decentralized and away from the current monetary system. If you still are not convinced then tell me what is the P/E ratio of Bitcoin? Similar issues arise if you say that currencies are traded on FOREX, so why not BITCOIN? Well then you and I see the fundamentals of Bitcoin and blockchain technology differently.
When Metcalfe put forth the idea, he was not talking about decentralized platforms that no single entity owns. It was meant for what truly existed then. If you go through the source video, you will see that he re-affirms his Law by stats from Facebook. I cannot for a moment fathom comparing Bitcoin to Facebook.
I am afraid the the value mentioned in Metcalfe’s law will become applicable to exchanges when they have their IPOs or to ETFs etc but not to Bitcoin directly.

My final point

I write this only to let people know what Metcalfe’s Law really meant and hope they spot the misguidance. The phenomenon of cryptos is here to stay and it did not get here because of Metcalfe’s Law. It got here because it introduces a new level of trust, anonymity and freedom that is basic to human nature. The growth of Bitcoin is growth of humanity.

SOURCE

In this YouTube video you will hear directly from Metcalfe.