What you're saying here very well may be true. Behind the scenes maybe things are moving at a pace that I can't see from the internet. From the things I see, that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm surprised by how little development there is online. I know there are big sites now accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment. But, I'm surprised there isn't more online shopping focusing only on Bitcoin customers. A lot of the ones that do, seem like scams.
When I started to get interested in Bitcoin I expected everything to be popping. There would be cottage industries popping up all over to cater to Bitcoin customers. I get the feeling that's really not the case. I could be 100% wrong. I admit that. But, there isn't the free flow of money like there was in the past on the internet. There seems to be something that's holding people back. There doesn't seem to be enough commerce in the world of Bitcoin. There needs to be more buying and selling. You can't just have people investing in the currency and doing nothing with it. If people were spending them, there would be more sites focusing only on Bitcoin customers.
I want people to understand I'm not saying anything bad about Bitcoin. The idea of it is fantastic. Anyone that has ever done business online knows just how valuable something like this has the potential to be. But, it seems quite a ways off from what it could potentially be.
Bitcoin is less than 6 years old and from what I have seen development has been far more rapid than the internet. I don't understand why you assume that the development will be taking place on a forum and not within private start ups or collaboratively through github. You are suggesting there isn't rapid development but I am seeing the exact opposite by following various projects and following all the new startups spring forth which have harvested some of the greatest minds to work on fintech and Bitcoin.
Can you be specific as to what exactly are you comparing bitcoin too as far as development progress? You realize the internet took over 25 years before even starting to go somewhat mainstream, right ?