Is it enough for Bitcoin to be a digital work of art, a collectible with scarcity value, or does it need to actively compete as a currency?

At the moment the Bitcoin bulls are unwavering, ‘it’s the hardest money’ and it’s hard to disagree with this notion. Transactions are reasonably quick, they are full settlement too, not just a promise, and the decentralised nature of the network means successful attacks are improbable.

However, for most people payments are already pretty fast and easy and being eroded by inflation is only a problem for wealthy savers (of which there are far fewer) because for most the priorities are securing food, shelter, healthcare, education, security, and in the daily, weekly, monthly quest for these a government enforced tax of say 5% is of little consequence.

Also Bitcoin’s price is hugely volatile, making it hard to use for business purposes.

What to do Bitcoin? Perhaps it is simply the case that early users have to suffer volatility and ridicule and keep building the network of users to a tipping point. Can you envisage paying bills regularly in BTC and not worrying about the price to fiat, whether your merchant will accept or not, and your accountant can cope?

We shall see, in my view the future is far from certain, hence the low price and network value, or alternatively the huge speculative run up which will collapse gradually then suddenly.