There is nothing that has stopped bitcoin from being used as a currency. Certain factors make it difficult for businesses to accept bitcoin as a means of payment but I don't think the fact that it's regarded as an asset is one of them
You’re right there’s none. Bitcoin didn’t change but the way people regard it did. Now everyone wants to hold and I would even bet that
some people don’t know bitcoin as the currency but only as an asset.
I was not opportune or smart enough to be among the early adopters of bitcoin, so I'm going to ask a question to people who were, was there ever a time that people bought bitcoin for the sole purpose of using it just as a currency?
Well, yes! There’s that famous story of bitcoin being used to buy a pizza. bitcoin is and still decentralized so I am sure that many found interest in that and used it in all kinds of things.