While we cannot fully ascertain formulaically what the value of an indivdual unit in a blockchain should be (bitcoin or otherwise); after all, this is an exercise in which the market as a whole attempts to discover through the mechanism of price, there can be established a lower bound of how much it would take to produce a bitcoin. [On a paper by Adam Hayes, CFA](http://www.economicpolicyresearch.org/econ/2015/NSSR_WP_052015.pdf), he suggests that the cost of the inputs (electricity costs, etc.) to make a bitcoin can be established as a lower bound price floor; a minimum cost if you will, to generate a bitcoin. Similar derivations can be done other mining-based blockchains, but this still does not cover the utility for any of these coins (i.e. how much in terms of dollars is the usefulness of one bitcoin). Your article is an interesting way to value such usefulness, but note that the trades in the economy you specified do not fully happen in bitcoin [as other creative means of exchange have been devised](http://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1/).