what does this average person can do with Bitcoin besides holding it and hope price increases? What can he buy that he cannot but with fiat? Exactly, nothing.
This is like saying using credit cards is not going to happen because you can buy everything with cash already. I see Bitcoin much like credit card, but much better, especially in fully globalized world in the future
Cryptocurrency is the fastest way to send or receive money internationally. In fact, in most cases it is faster than doing a transaction at any financial institution like a bank, credit union, etc ..., heck it is faster than sending a check, paying a bill online, direct deposit, ach transactions, and many other transactions.
If i had the absolute opportunity to do all of my spending via CC I would, no need for interest, fiance charges, fees, hold time, float time, charge backs, disputes, and a whole host of other time wasting and money burning activities.
I know I have too much in CC as it stands right now, because I feel a real need to place my CC holdings in a physical bank -- ain't that ironic.
The averageguy doesn't barely do worldwide transactions, we are talking daily life here.
For a person to use Bitcoin instead of CC, he has to buy the Bitcoin first, then hope it doesn't go down by the time you are about to buy. Just imagine you go out with X Bitcoin, then by the time you arrive at the shop, Bitcoin had one of these random 20% dips, and you can't buy what you intended to buy. It's a joke. With CC's you have the stable price of fiat, you know Y is going to equal Y by the time you arrive at the shop.
Admit it, as of right now Bitcoin isn't of much usage unless you:
1) Are holding it as a means of wealth storage
2) You want to do a worldwide transaction
3) You want to buy something fishy without getting caugh
That's all.
1) my reference to CC meant cryptocurrency not credit card, credit cards are not currency.
2) cryptocurrency is not for the "average guy", crypto is pointed to educated people, with some form of societal edge. They not only have the money to by a computer, but the time and resources to consider things such as cryptocurrency. Mining, coding, trading all well above the 'average guy' mentality.
3) as for: "Bitcoin had one of these random 20% dips" the bitcoin is still a bitcoin, as you know by looking at various markets the price of that btc varies from person to person and market to market. Just because the general market is willing to sell you their btc for $400 does not require me to sell it for $400. So no, btc your btc didn't drop 20% it was your faith in the currency that dropped the 20% if and only if you sell it at that new rate. Notwithstanding, just like it could go down it also could have gone up.
4) fiat is also sold on exchanges, the likely reason you are not investing in the trading side of fiat is probably the same reason why you use fiat so much because -- it doesn't fluctuate that often, it's stable. You make no profit when there is no volatility, no gamble, no risk.
5) if you don't have a reason to be in btc you should exit the market because the overall trend is down, so holding won't help you, and using for shopping won't help you. BTC is a trader's game, all of the other benefits are part of that game.