I will say what I don't like first. I don't like the hype that it's going to equalize wealth in the world because I know that will never happen.
I don't like political motivations for it.
I don't like the fees to fund an account with fiat and withdraw.
And I don't like that it's not as safe/secure from hacking as it could be, and you can wake up one morning and your life savings is gone.
1. Never say never. History is full of the short sighted and those without vision who were convinced something couldn't possibly happen due to some rule of authority, and yet, empires have collapsed, markets have emerged, religion is being dismantled and discarded, space travel - not just "to the moon" but right now, right this minute, commercial fun trips to space courtesy of Virgin Galactic, 3D printing becoming a thing, 3D printed body parts, cloning, virtual reality...or...evolution of medicine from "demon based" bs...happens every day.
2. There are a number of motivations for it. You're free to choose your own.
3. Circle appears to be positioning itself to pioneer the totally free option solving that very issue. If they are as successful as many expect, others will copy the model and you'll have plenty of options to avoid any fees at all.
4. Bitcoin returns the power and the responsibility to the user to handle security. Nobody owes you a security blanket or a pacifier. It's up to you and only you to learn and control your security yourself.
Bitcoin is for grown ups...the era of coddling fearful children is coming to an end.
When it comes down to it, you are dreaming if you think digital currency is going to replace banks anytime soon. Banks have been around for centuries securing money and they do it well. And I think no one in this forum can argue that they would feel safer storing dollars in a bank than bitcoins in awallet. That's the biggest weak point for digital currency. Overcome the risk factor, and I think you will have no more resistance from critics.
It's probably not going to happen in the next 3-5 years but what IS going to happen is mainstream adoption in the next 2 years...and once it's become as ubiquitous as the internet then yes, it absolutely will be used as the personal reserves across the planet. That is the exquisite moment that is missed in the paradigm who feels at the mercy of some government agency. Once mass adoption happens, people have a choice and any government wanting to bow up will only shorten its life expectancy as people vote with THEIR OWN money and use bitcoin more than the other...which would then begin to lose its value.
Banks have been around but banks became criminal operations the second the gold standard was nixed.
What you miss here is that there are no physical items being stored in digital banks. It's no more and no less than numbers in a public ledger. Like Jeremy A explained, you exchange fiat currency for slots in that ledger worth a certain value - hence the "coin" - and zip the transaction from point A to point B like email. The end recipient can exchange the obtained units back their own currency (or not). Nothing is being held in a digital bank. The whole foundation of bitcoin is the blockchain which is wide open.
These bank like services are just bridges from your brick and mortar bank to exchange fiat for bitcoin (slots on the blockchain)...but your bank operates pretty much the same way. You don't actually have physical dollars in your account like you would in a piggy bank. Your bank uses a digital ledger and moves debits and credits around exactly the same with one exception: you don't get to see it ever, and when you're not using your cash, they are.
It's up to you to move your money out of the exchange (which just trades fiat for bitcoin (slots on the blockchain) which are secured by the private keys, which you should move to a wallet of some sort and apply your own security protocols.
That's the scariest part but it's the part that needs to happen because it empowers people, it slaps them in the head and forces them to learn how to take back personal responsibility for their wealth, and once they figure out the wallet obstacle, they are empowered and they are on the way to remembering (or learning at all) what actual freedom feels like.
And when enough people have done that, no bank, government or military in the world is going to stop it because all of those things are made up of individual people who get paid in the same devalued, debt based currency that forces them to bust their ass for less to feed their own masters and eventually they'll opt out of that when they see the big sinking ship they're on is a death trap.
