Quote from: BlackHatCoiner on Today at 12:13:11 PM

It remains inaccessible in terms of monetary policy, though, and I think that's the game changer. The fact that everyone can view the ledger was a feature from the very first day. Privacy techniques were developed later on.

If you want an investment instrument that is not effected by monetary policy, there are literally millions of such investments. Gold, stocks, commodities, land, betting, and hundreds of other categories. Basically any investment instrument that is not the particular currency that is effected by monetary policy is a hedge against that monetary policy. In other words, the only investment that is exposed to monetary policy is cash. Everything is a different instrument that may have some relation to said policy (or no relation at all), but is not itself an investment in that currency.

From the standpoint of investment, "US Dollars" is just another horse to bet on, as are Euros, Pesos, gold, land, soybean futures, Bitcoin, Legiteum, or whatever.

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Satoshi created a peer-to-peer electronic cash system for those in need, and it remains with these characteristics. The fact that a few people (or the majority, if you wish) see it as an investment instrument doesn't change the fact that it is censorship-resistant, borderless cash.

I'll take "censorship-resistant" to be a synonym for what I wrote Bitcoin was designed to do: thwart government oversight into transactions. That is, and remains, blockchain's only appropriate application.

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Therefore, the Coca Cola and Viagra analogies are flawed, because the concept of Bitcoin hasn't changed since it was set in stone. Only the interpretation of its intrinsic value might have changed (i.e., better store of value than cash), which if you read more about it, you will notice it was part of the concept as well: [...]

The formula for Coca Cola and Viagra hadn't changed either, it's just that mainstream users used them for something other than what they were invented for. Bitcoin is still the same system it's always been, but people mostly use it for something the inventors didn't anticipate. (And for the thing they actually did anticipate, people had to build upon their invention to fully accomplish what they wanted to do e.g. Monera et. al.).

And Satoshi was talking about a numerically delineated value transfer system that scaled to the levels necessary for him and his friends who had the very specific need of being government-resistant, not as a mainstream means of transacting, which I am sure Satoshi would concede is impossible using the blockchain architecture.

So in summary, today Bitcoin is not used for what it was intended by almost any of its users. The reasons for this are twofold:

1. Technical: Bitcoin has been "figured out" by authorities making it unsafe to use for those wishing to evade a government, so it is not, specifically, the right choice for that purpose (although the blockchain, generally, can still support that and does in the form of other products e.g. Monera).

2. Popularity: 99% of the additional users beyond the ones from the original times use the product for something different, e.g. speculation.

Given our advancement in science, we understand today that Coca Cola doesn't help with a cold, and Viagra doesn't lower your blood pressure--or maybe they do a little bit, but not as well as new products made for this purpose. But both are wildly popular for other reasons. Bitcoin is in the exact same situation.