So I've been thinking about the use of cryptocurrency in the real world. Because of it's current volatility, nobody seems to be willing to spend any crypto now other than for purposes of ICOs it seems?
Before BTC boomed, we hear the story of the guy spending 10000BTC on 2 pizzas. This was BTC being used in it's intended form.
Currently, BTC is only used as a store of value, which leaves other alts. From what I see in other alts, ethereum is spent on ICOs where the trade is one coin to another type of coin. Other than that, nobody advertises accepting payments in other currencies NOR do people seem to want to spend their cryptocurrencies on anything other than something that yields a profit.
So, the question is really about adoption. How do we expect cryptocurrencies to be adopted as valid payment methods when everyone is really using them as investment stocks? Will we only see proper adoption once the current greed and "quick buck" mentality subsides?
If things continue the way they are, then cryptocurrency will always and forever be destined as store of value assets and not really a currency that can be used in the real world?
There is currently simply not enough merchants accepting bitcoin for people to spend it.
No retail stores accept bitcoins still, for example. So even though you can cash out your bitcoin to fiat first, that's not spending bitcoin directly. That's a problem. But even a bigger issue is the volatility of bitcoin. Bitcoin is so volatile that all merchants are forced to convert BTC to fiat at point of sale, which defies the purpose of bitcoin.
Bitcoin is definitely a long term store of value, but should also be considered to be a currency in its own right. It's not just an asset that holds your value (even though, it does). Once the markets mature, bitcoin prices stabilize somewhat, and more merchants accept BTC, adoption of BTC as not only a store of value but also a currency will come naturally.