What value does bitcoin add to the world? I don't understand the value of bitcoin mining other than to produce value for its owners.  What product is produced for the world?  Mining for coal produces coal to be used for energy production.  Mining for precious minerals provides metals for use in products all humanity can use.  What product does bitcoin mining produce?  I originally thought these computations the bitcoin miners were doing were solving some intractable math problem needed for some scientific usage, but as best as I can tell the math is for no other purpose than to generate value for the owner.
If you see bitcoin as a currency, mining is issuing new bitcoins. It is analogous to a central bank issuing (or printing) new currency. 


  What product is produced for the world? Mining for coal produces coal to be used for energy production. Mining for precious minerals provides metals for use in products all humanity can use.


You could ask the same question to the central bank example. If The Fed issues $ 1 trillion what product is it producing for the world? The difference with bitcoin is that there is no central authority that chooses when to issue new currency but an algorithm and the issued currency instead of going to the banks in a form of loan, are given to the user who mines the next block.