I think that Vitalik may have a point. Bitcoin companies grew beyond bitcoin, bitcoin companies/startups thought that bitcoin would soon replace credit cards as payment methods, and decided to build bitcoin companies. But bitcoin didn't grew as much as they thought it would.
Irrational expectations grew out of the $1000-bubble. Those investing above $500 are certainly in a state of depression and now question Bitcoin as a whole. Bitcoin is growing constantly, but it's not growing parabolic. If you ask me, the current depression is healthy to clean up the market for the next bubble...
Vitalik of course has his own agenda with ethereum, which competes with Bitcoin. So I would take his comments with a grain of salt. Although I think he is an intelligent engineer, I doubt that his project will have general success, because it lacks current demand and all investment gravitates towards the strongest coin. Bitcoin will implement ethereum features - if needed - at a later point as part of a sidechain...
ya.ya.yo!
Vitalik certainly has his own agenda with ethereum but I still believe that he has a point.
There are certainly some disappointments. The whole Bitpay business model of signing up merchants as a payment processor has been a bit of a dud for example.
Saying it hasn't grown is a bit crazy/FUD/agenda, in any way other than the price though. In terms of support from companies building on it, there has been tremendous growth, and the comment earlier in this thread about people using it for international transfers and payments is spot on. Bitcoin did not turn into the next Visa or Paypal overnight as some hoped, but it is finding its own path, and the growth is there.
Companies like bitpay, VC's and other startups overestimated the growth of bitcoin. I think that Bitpay is just ahead of bitcoin, and that is why it struggles.
I disagree about Bitpay specifically, but that's why they make chocolate and vanilla. Although I suppose you might reasonably say they are
far ahead of Bitcoin, which is more or less the same thing I said. But I expect them to either do a hard pivot away from being a merchant payment processor or fail. Some of the other startups may have also overestimated growth in the shadow of the previous pump, but many are not as far off the mark as Bitpay's core business.
Anyway, I agree Vitalik's statements were either FUD/agenda (which I suspect anyway -- see my previous post) or quoted out of context. Either way they are misleading and largely incorrect.
