I've been thinking about why people use Bitcoin a bit lately and its long-term potential. It used to be touted as an alternative to fiat currency, and in fact, the future of currency. Now it seems that people are talking about Bitcoin more as a store of value - a place to keep your money safe that is not a bank or an institution. I know a lot of us invest in Bitcoin more for the perceived increase in value; basically, a lot of us want to get rich.
Here's my question: Would you still continue to move your fiat currency to Bitcoin if it topped out at around USD$5000 and you KNEW it would not go higher, but you also KNEW it would not dip in value? Maybe we could assume it would rise with inflation. If this were the case would you be more or less likely to move your money to Bitcoin?
I think if that ever happened and if the problems with fees and transaction speeds were completely solved, then we would see a mass increase in the use of bitcoin. When you use something as a store of value, it's hard to use it as a currency as well. If you want to store something for profit, you don't want to spend it. If bitcoin was completely stable at $5000 you would probably start using it as currency, because now you would know that if you bought something with it today, you wouldn't regret it tomorrow, because the price had increased a lot.
Also if you take a look to fiat, inflation has been rising a lot in most countries, and governments debt is getting downgraded. So even if you didn't use bitcoin to buy stuff, if you knew it was stable at $5000, it would still be good to swap fiat for BTC, because your money would be safe from the effects of politics, and wars etc. That's why gold is so good for investors, so it would be the same for bitcoin. At least for me.