Derivatives: a better store of value than BTC

While BTC has become a popular punching bag, it's worth pointing out again: a volatile asset is NOT a good store of value. A good store of value has the value available when you need it. So even if it's a great long term investment, BTC's large day-to-day price fluctuations make it objectively a BAD store of value compared to more stable assets, even ones that are trending down overall.

But with some relatively basic smart contracts, a price oracle, and a liquidity provider, you can use on-chain derivatives to achieve truly practical stability with crypto. To do that, you hedge your crypto (technically a 1x short) against whatever asset you consider stable, making it so that, when the contract closes, the amount of crypto you get back has the same value in terms of your selected asset.

For example, you could hedge $100 worth of coin X against the US Dollar. When the contract closes, regardless of whether the price went up or down in the meantime, you'll get exactly $100 worth of coin X back. Instead of US dollars, you could hedge against the price of gold, silver, the euro, etc.

This is something already being taken advantage of by businesses around the world that wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to save in a relatively stable asset. The flip side of seeking stability via derivatives is speculating with leverage (either short or long), and that is probably the most popular use of decentralized derivative products, but it's important to remember that the financial products crypto has to offer aren't all speculative. Some are very practically the opposite of speculation.