Quote from: thebenjamincode on August 06, 2015, 05:51:12 AM

But then now Bitcoin faces daily hacking and theft risks,

Much less so than the Euro or Dollar

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lacks access to a banking system with deposit insurance,

There are several Bitcoin vault & storage services with 100% insurance.

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and it is not used to denominate consumer credit or loan contracts.

True. Well, rarely you see prices denominated natively in Bitcoin, but it's merely incidental.

[q]So I guess Bitcoin appears to behave more like a speculative investment than a currency. Am I right?[/quote]
Currently, yes. Although it's definitely not all investing. People also use Bitcoin a *lot* already as a means of better, faster, cheaper, easier, andmore efficient payments.