If so - What incentive is there for someone new to cryptocurrencies to get into something like BTC? Mining is pretty much hopeless unless you are willing to spend tons on highly specialized mining rigs. Given the volatility in BTC value, investing USD to buy BTC is a financially dumb and risky move and pretty much amounts to gambling. So why/how should Joe Schmo get into BTC at this stage and how is it going to be in his interest to do so? From the outside looking in, it looks like all the early adopters want Joe Schmo and all his buddies to adopt BTC and invest money into it, so they can cash out and make their money.
Buying BTC is financially dumb? Amounts to gambling? ..what do you call investment in any capacity? You're judging Bitcoin by the individuals involved rather than the coin itself. Of course, the people buying into BTC are mostly speculative and driven by greed - the dream to get rich with little to no effort. So this causes you to call BTC a pyramid scheme?
Instead of looking at who is holding the coin, we should look at what Bitcoin, or more importantly, cryptocurrencies offer;
-Anyone can send money to anyone else, anywhere with no limitations, with no middle-men for little to no fee.
-Less risk for merchants having to deal with fraudulent charge-backs, & no payment processor fees to the merchant
-Protects against identity theft as it doesn't expose any of the customers' sensitive information the way credit cards do
-The ability of a globally accepted currency to reach places in which other payment systems are not established -or are corrupted
-Liberating from corrupt centralized agencies
-Entirely market driven; the value is set upon pure market conditions only
-It's secure (as secure as the initiative a person puts into securing their assets -requires responsibility) and it's transparent
-Naturally deflationary -encourages responsible spending, instead of gluttonous consumption
..and these are only from a strictly financial standpoint. They are capable of much more than merely a system of payment.
Pyramid Scheme? I'm sorry, but you don't understand what this is all about then. It may not be Bitcoin, it might be something else entirely -but cryptocurrencies will do to financial mediums of exchange what the Internet did to information gathering and sharing.
