People are using the bitcoin digital currency more than ever before. That’s good news for this decidedly democratic money system, a system controlled not by big governments and big banks and big credit card companies but by a vast network of computers set up by users around the world. The more people who use bitcoin, the more useful it becomes—the closer we get to a place where we can send money across the Internet as easily as we send texts or emails.
The rub is that relatively few people and businesses are using bitcoin to actually buy and sell stuff—or send money to friends and family or transfer money across international borders or handle any of the other financial tasks that bitcoin promises to streamline in the years to come. Most people are just speculating in bitcoin, buying the digital currency in the hopes that its rather volatile price will go up—and they can turn a profit.
According to Coinbase, the Silicon Valley startup that operates digital bitcoin wallets for over 2.8 million people across the globe, about 20 percent of the transactions on its network involve payments or other tasks where bitcoin is used as a currency. The other 80 percent of those transactions are mere speculation, where bitcoin is traded as a commodity in search of a profit.
source :
http://www.wired.com/2015/11/coinbase-unveils-countrys-first-bitcoin-debit-card/
