At what point does Bitcoin become a necessity rather than an alternative?

[Patikno]

Hello everyone,

I've been spending time looking into the original whitepaper and the early threads on this forum. A lot of the early discussions focus on Bitcoin as a hedge against currency devaluation and systemic banking issues.
With inflation hitting local currencies hard globally, it feels like the theoretical use cases from 2009 are becoming daily realities for a lot of people.
For those who have been here through multiple cycles: Do you think we are past the point of Bitcoin being a "speculative alternative," or is it still mostly viewed that way by the general public? I'd love to hear some perspectives on how the actual daily utility has shifted (or not) over the last decade.

I believe Bitcoin will become a necessity, when fiat currencies are no longer trusted by everyone, and people might choose Bitcoin as their primary currency. Well, I don't know if that will happen, but I am sure it could happen. Furthermore, I sometimes wonder if Bitcoin could become a primary need for transactions, and if a country made it its primary currency (without any other currencies), then, I think it would be beneficial for that country.

Even, I think a country who makes Bitcoin its primary currency would serve as an example for other countries, especially if Bitcoin has provided many benefits, that have been felt directly by the people in the country as we already know (profitability, speed, and ease of use). Cmiiw.

[Ndabagi01]

For those who have been here through multiple cycles: Do you think we are past the point of Bitcoin being a "speculative alternative," or is it still mostly viewed that way by the general public? I'd love to hear some perspectives on how the actual daily utility has shifted (or not) over the last decade.

From 2009 till now, we have noticed an overall change in the activities of the Bitcoin market and how it operates, it is clear that it is actually going to the direction it was first invented for. Bitcoin is still a second choice to many people but that doesn’t deny the fact that it has changed the narrative of many and are now seeing it as an alternative to the fiat currency. Bitcoin has progressed from what it use to be, and with how far it has come, it is going to be another success for this technology.

[marrcelo]

Most of the world population doesn't use Bitcoin because they don't know it, this shows the growth potential that Bitcoin can reach. Yes, most people that know Bitcoin see it as an asset of speculation wanting to profit with the price movements. And don't see the importance of Bitcoin for protection from the inflation of the government's bad administration that devalues their currencies, hurting the purchase power and devalues the salary, increasing poverty. And the insurance against a possible authoritarian government in the future being able to confiscate your money from the banks. Or control and see what you buy with the CBDC, that's when they gonna value privacy and Bitcoin's self custody.

[ZAINmalik75]

Hello everyone,

I've been spending time looking into the original whitepaper and the early threads on this forum. A lot of the early discussions focus on Bitcoin as a hedge against currency devaluation and systemic banking issues.
With inflation hitting local currencies hard globally, it feels like the theoretical use cases from 2009 are becoming daily realities for a lot of people.
For those who have been here through multiple cycles: Do you think we are past the point of Bitcoin being a "speculative alternative," or is it still mostly viewed that way by the general public? I'd love to hear some perspectives on how the actual daily utility has shifted (or not) over the last decade.

I think the price or value of Bitcoin is proof that Bitcoin is mainly viewed as a speculative asset and used as an investment asset by the masses rather than an alternative payment system for fiat even though it was created for that purpose. Satoshi didn't create Bitcoin so that it can become a lucrative investment asset in the future which people will buy and hold so that they can make profits on their holdings as the price grows because they know it will since the supply is limited and demand will keep increasing, but it has become what it wasn't created for originally.

Bitcoin was created to be a decentralized peer-to-peer payment method to remove intermediaries when making transactions, and it can still be used the same way if more people start using non-custodial wallets instead of using centralized exchanges where they can send and receive funds off-chain using the systems provided by the exchanges such as Binance, and people prefer those because they don't charge them anything and on-chain transactions require fees.

[Akbarkoe]

Still in the same corridor to this day, although today it becomes a political tool for some politicians to achieve their goals, as if open and will be a better future with bitcoin, but after being elected they are silent and not very vocal about it.
Bitcoin remains an investment choice rather than a transaction because the value it carries is very large so most people bitcoin to be stored like an investment asset.