Quote from: alani123 on March 23, 2025, 09:33:03 AM

Bitcoin remains hard to use, mining continues to be environmentally damaging to a very large extent while it also becomes more centralized and scalability remains an issue. This price boom changes nothing in terms of fundamentals. Bitcoin's price went up mostly due to external factors but that doesn't solve the issues related to adoption.

Maybe though in the end, adoption doesn't matter? What are your thoughts?

The issue of Bitcoin mining being unfriendly to the environment is highly debatable. It is clear that this concept was promoted by anti-Bitcoin forces to push the government to place restrictions on Bitcoin mining. Accurate statistics have shown that Bitcoin consumes lesser power than what has been popularised.

Quote from: coupable on March 26, 2025, 03:55:13 PM

In my opinion, using Bitcoin solely as an investment product, making it more of a speculative instrument than a store of value, has harmed the concept of Bitcoin as defined by the Satoshi Protocol more than it has helped it spread. With the increasing difficulty of mining, which has become a costly industry, and the rise of alternative currencies, the use of Bitcoin as a payment system has declined, and its use has been limited to a few specific tasks. Without overcoming some obstacles, bitcoin may remain a mere investment asset far from becoming the practical everyday currency that satoshi has initially envisioned.

The majority of Bitcoiners in my surroundings don't discuss Bitcoin as an alternative to fiat. Most of them see it as digital gold that can be held as an asset. Maybe Bitcoin transactions have not been able to compete favourably with financial institutions. People still prefer to use banks because it has become cheap and fast, which was an advantage that was celebrated by Bitcoin. However, those who still care about privacy and freedom prefer Bitcoin as a currency.