OK, I'm going to prepare myself for the influx of hate here but can we please attempt to have a mature discussion about this.
How in the hell can people claim Bitcoin is still in line with Satoshi's original vision?
How can we even call Bitcoin a crypto CURRENCY, it's really not a CURRENCY anymore and I'll explain why.
I sold my Bitcoin off a long while ago, mainly for the reasons I've given above, I didn't believe that Bitcoin was still in line with what Satoshi originally envisioned, I'm also sceptical about it's long term success.
I've just tried to send £1 worth of BTC to my other wallet, the fee was 25p that's literally 25% in fees.
Sure, lower the fee I hear you say but if I do, I'm going to be waiting an extremely long time for confirmations and for my transaction to go through.
I honestly fear that a lot of people are into Bitcoin from the surge of popularity, after hearing you can get rich quick or people who did get rich quick.
For a lot of early investors who invested before Bitcoin took off, back in the days when you could purchase it for less than a cup of coffee, those investors got in because they were passionate about Bitcoin, they believed in the technology and most importantly, they believe in Satoshi's original vision.
What was Satoshi's original vision?
1) A digital, decentralised currency
2) That could be sent anywhere in the world
3) For fractions of a penny / as cheap as possible
4) In a short amount of time
5) Sending microtransactions to developing countries who were run down by poverty was a big selling point at the time
Most of those things no longer ring true, honestly, it's become terribly expensive to use, it can take such a long time to confirm and as such is now a pretty shoddy currency.
It's not doing anything revolutionary and it's not shaking up the system anymore. Let's be honest 90% of people getting in now, aren't here for the tech, aren't here to create a financial revolution, they're here because they've heard Bitcoin is a good investment that can see returns that make any other conventional investment look mediocre.
People who truly think Bitcoin can displace or replace major world currencies and become a day to day globally accepted form of payment are DELUSIONAL in my eyes.
Why are people going to give up their banks and bank cards when they can:
* Tap & Go - Use Contactless - Pay instantly for free without any fees
* There are so many ways to send payment across borders now for free or cheaper than Bitcoin
Like, there is literally nothing that current forms of payments don't do better than Bitcoin, well... actually... decentralisation but that's about it, that alone wont be enough for Bitcoin to win the day.
I still believe in Blockchain and I'm passionate about how Blockchain technology can revolutionise so many different industries, that's why one of my biggest holdings is in ETH.
I also believe that there is room for Crypto to actually replace currency as we know it, there's still a need for instant, feeless, microtransactions that can be sent across the world. I don't look to Bitcoin for doing that though, projects like NANO, in my opinion, are much more in line with what Satoshi's original vision and passion was.
Obviously, my opinion doesn't matter. Bitcoin will continue to rise because of speculation, because investors don't want to miss out on any gains. People often refer to Bitcoin as being like digital 'gold' now and it really is! What does it actually do that is useful, technology wise? What is it doing that is revolutionary?
Bitcoin has the first mover advantage and I'll always be thankful that it sparked off something amazing, it paved the way for so many great projects and inspiring blockchain technologies; but Bitcoin is literally a store of value now, it's become just like gold, people use it to invest and to save but it's not used for day to day transactions and while it can and is used that way, it is incredibly inefficient compared to other competitors now.
Bitcoins price can not rise indefinitely, there is and will be a ceiling to how far the price can go, that may be $100,000 it may be a million or a billion, regardless, there is a ceiling, once that is reached, once people realise they can't 'make' any more money from Bitcoin and that as an investment it's kind of poor compared to other options, what then? There's only one direction I see it going and that's to the floor right back down with an almighty crash.
How does Bitcoin scale at those levels, the scaling issue has caused so many forks with people having difference of opinions, how do we maintain fees so that miners keep mining but users also keep using.
A lot would have to change to make Bitcoin a valid form of a digital payment system again and the community and devs maintaining Bitcoin seem to be wanting to go down the road of making it a store of value as opposed to a form of payment, not was Satoshi originally envisioned and not sustainable in my honest opinion.