bitcoin is both.
it is designed to be a currency and eventually it will be used as a currency but since it is being adopted and the price keeps on rising with big percentage gains guaranteed it will also be treated as a speculative asset. interesting thing is that whenever the price is rising people tend to use it as a currency more too. it probably has something to do with not wanting to sell but at the same time wanting to enjoy the gains.

transaction fees will surely play an important role in all this but they are very low at 1 satoshi/byte most of the times. also imagine if you had bought bitcoin at $30k when the recent discount was given, do you care if you pay $5 fee when the price of bitcoin reaches $300k in a couple of months? the 10x purchase power increase makes it so that nobody would care.

this year alone will change a lot of things. the ATH will also play a very important role in it. imagine how all the FUD about bitcoin is going to look like soon when 1 bitcoin is worth half a million dollar and rising. the FOMO alone from people realizing how much they have missed out is going to be crazy and when they find out all those telling them the FUD have already bought a ton of bitcoin is going to be even crazier.

we never stopped being bullish in my opinion because the drop we had a couple of months ago was not a big deal and the drop brought the price down quickly and then stopped going any lower than $30k which was a clear sign of market still being bullish because it was the accumulation phase of the upcoming huge rise.

i think bitcoin is too volatile and too risky for these companies to invest in and store. this is why so many of them go through payment processors such as bitpay to avoid owning any bitcoin for any amount of time since they receive the fiat through the processors conversion methods.

i can see it now there will soon be a lot of topics complaining about how they have missed the chance to buy bitcoin out of ignorance when price is $100k+. it is the story of every bull run. we see big rises and everyone starts regretting not buying then there is a small correction and they still don't buy until price goes back up again so that they can regret some more!

nobody can dictate what bitcoin is least of which someone like Elon Musk who is well known for his FUD about bitcoin and his altcoin pumpings. most people will see bitcoin the way they want, a lot of them start with it as an investment and then slowly shift to liking it as a currency. these transitions will create volatility that is unavoidable.

you jump to conclusions very fast.
it was an orchestrated FUD to start the negative news right as price hits $40k. it wasn't some random coincidence, they are desperately trying to keep the price from going up but the momentum is still strong so all they could do was to postpone the rise and we are headed for $40k again.

that was a very strange expectation though because bitcoin has been in $30k range for 3 months already and to expect 2 more months of the same thing doesn't make any sense to me. 5 months of no move?!!

in any case the momentum so far has been excellent and if it is sustained over the following 24 hours and we break $40k this momentum will only grow.

the biggest problem Amazon (and any shop) faces is the question of customers. meaning if their customers are going to pay with bitcoin or not because just having the payment option is not enough, people have to use it and if they don't it would be like a wasted resource and it just adds extra costs which is not favorable specially for smaller shops.

otherwise the rest including integrating bitcoin, regulations, ... are all going to be easy.

that is the problem with selling in the dip after the dumping and panic is all over and done. it is practically guaranteed to lose money if you sell.

i don't like it either and i barely use the term but now that the big rise came at the same time as the short squeeze the term "dildo" seemed appropriate for all those butts that hurt today because they shorted bitcoin and lost money.

technically we have been in a bull market ever since price went above $4000 in April 2019 and despite what so many FUD wanted you to believe we never entered a bear market they just wanted you to sell your bitcoins so that they could buy more cheap coins before the price goes to $50k again.

it is starting with the first green dildo appearing today surprising many users and showed a small sign of FOMOs starting again as price suddenly jumped up to reach 39k in less than an hour.

this could be the beginning of seeing more green dildos indicating lots more FOMO to come.

but the daily trading volume has been very low lately even during the big dump that happened a couple of days ago. in my experience this suggests that those with large amounts of bitcoin and even those with smaller amounts and even the weak hands are no longer falling for the panic sell encouragement and are not selling anymore. the reason for the drop was market manipulation which couldn't even last for more than a day.

it has been a month of market manipulation and like any other manipulation at some point they will run out of money to burn so the market starts becoming normal again which is when price keeps going up. it has nothing to do with someone who is now being ignored by majority of the bitcoin community as a troll.

this is not the first time price tests $35k after it tested $30k and bounced back up. interesting enough each time it does someone makes the same claim as OP!

you are trying too hard in my opinion. central banks and their digital centralized currencies will never do anything to help bitcoin. in fact it may even be the exact opposite meaning banks may start putting restrictions when people want to dump their bank money to get bitcoin.

i just want to point out that just because someone has some fancy degrees and is a public figure it doesn't mean their opinion is worth wasting any time on.
in case of Taleb, his whole paper looks like something someone without any education would write.

smart contracts in the sense that you may think (like the etherum) will never be added to bitcoin but bitcoin has always had "smart contracts" from day one but only so much so that a currency needs.
taproot will add more capabilities.

you can read the topic here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5140134.0
or bips 341 342 and 343

no, bitcoin will never become like any vaporware.

your question contradicts your post. you already say that bitcoin is the most decentralized cryptocurrency then at the same time ask if it will become one!!!
the fact is that bitcoin is the only decentralized cryptocurrency. others are either centralized or aren't currencies.

that is intentional for most of them. for example stablecoins like Tether are completley centralized because that is their design the central authority has to issue the coins and they want to control the circulating supply. or shitcoins like XRP or ETH are centralized because they want to fully control what happens to their chain.

why not focus on the reality and what is happening now and in the future instead of theorycrafting about something that can not happen (time travel)?
for example i would like to ask what mistakes did you guys made yesterday and are still making today that in a year from now you would be looking back at today and regret it?

this is nothing new. in fact what you are complaining about is not limited to bitcoin. there are lots of assets that have markets filled with "idiots" who are dumping their money in something they don't even understand and expect profit.

for example last year we had a stock market bubble during which a lot of these idiots jumped into the market, some even sold their house to buy stocks thinking they were going to become rich. obviously the bubble popped and they went bankrupt, some even had heart attacks!

bitcoin is still the only decentralized currency and the fact that YOU think of it as a get rich quick doesn't make any difference