Speculators are the distraction. Bitcoin was supposed to be a petty-cash system for the Internet. That's happening.
The price of Bitcoin has leveled out, and the difficulty is now leveling out. Merchant adoption is up. Bitcoin is getting used for its intended purpose. It's starting to behave like a useful tool rather than a get-rich-quick scheme.
statements like this point to a fundamental misunderstanding of Bitcoin. it will never become "petty-cash" for the internet without the market cap increasing by several order of magnitudes.
merchant adoption is up, by proxy. merchants are still only really accepting fiat into their books, only a few hold bitcoins.
speculators are actually responsible for most of Bitcoin's adoption
Bitcoin's Speculation Stages and "Adoption by Proxy" Stages were both necessary phases of development for Bitcoin. And both will decrease as adoption and market cap increase. Think about it, what reason will there be for merchant's to swap for fiat if their vendors offer discounts to sell them their products and services for bitcoin too (since they, also, will save at least 2% on transaction fees)
. Then all of a sudden, these merchants are getting even more savings that they can pass on to the customer in even better deals, helping them gain an even greater share of their market.
If adoption continues to increase, then this is inevitable. In like manner, what need will there be for speculators to support the market cap of Bitcoin....when its market cap has already bit a chunk out of global transactions... since everybody wants to join the party and get all the benefits too? There will indeed be less of a need for speculation. Much less. Indeed.
Indeed
