First let me say that I didnt read all of the post, but that I agree with arepo, in fact I have really enjoyed most of his post. The problem that he is talking about relates first and foremost to price stability. I can tell from the responses that I did read that we don't have a lot of retail business owners commenting here. This price spike has pushed me right out of the market and has friends saying that they won't use it. I have a couple friends that were looking at buying and have said no way. "I feel like I am missing out on making a lot of money, but I just cant take that kind of risk" I would not even consider taking BTC as payment for my goods at this time. I simply can not take payments in a currency that is so volatile. This is the heart of the matter. If people are holding coins off the market it pushes up price and distorts the signals.  The only way for BTC to work is if it is used as money not a commodity. I find no reason what so ever to compare the two. BTC is 1's and 0's in the cloud with no intrinsic value what so ever.