So far miners have spent $15B+ on ASICs, Bs on development costs, $1B/year electricity cost all for the chance to be awarded some of this “thing.” The fact that they think this “thing” has value has set its value at $52k … without 99% of the world participating. The miners (with their investments) and the other voluntary participants in the network are what sets the value of bitcoin and protects it from attacks.

Also, bitcoin mining is impossible to stop: China, the most successful authoritarian government tried to ban bitcoin mining in 2021 and they’re still the 2nd biggest country by hashrate in the world.