I think some more of an "old school" guys just does not get it fully, yet. I would say stating that bitcoin somehow "failed" would be a huge mistake, to say the least. At the wildest predictions everyone thought it will "reach 10k" by the end of 2017. It went far, far beyond that and stabilised at about 13-14k currently, which is damn impressive if you ask me. Now this is not what I wanted to say by "does not get ir fully", what I meant was that aside the "easy money" crowd, the speculative value, that exists, no doubt, there is another crowd (which I'm part of) that use bitcoin daily for bussiness. I am not going into the details too much, but lets say that btc allowed me to increase the efficiency of my bussiness by five fold, at the very least. And no, I'm not selling drugs on the dark web. Personally I am glad the price stopped rising, because while it was nice to watch the price going up, all that complicated doing bussiness somewhat, due to that high volatility. It's pretty much close to perfect now, as price does not fluctuate too much and if you are dealing in thousands - it's good eough.
One example: I had to transfer a few thousands overseas and person who was a receiver was not using btc, so the only other fast (and it had to be fast) option was western union. Guess what, I had to waste my time to go to the wu office, answer some stupid questions AND pay an unnaceptable transfer fee in addition to the fact that they used not the best exchange course (it was another currency that had to reach the receiver). This is not all: receiver lives in a place where it was holidays during that time and no bank, no WU office worked for three more days (we realized that post factum), here you go "fast" down the shithole... Even if office would've been open, it still takes about FOUR hours for the money to reach a destinaton.
Needless to say I would have been able to make that payment in half an hour (at most) sitting comfortably in front of my pc, not answering any ridiculous questions and generally - not being traced ny any kind of "third party". If that does not create a pure VALUE for bitcoin than I don't know what to say to these people who say it's inherently worthless. You just don't get it. But you will, it's here to stay. It can go down to 2k, I personally don't give a damn, if it allows me to transfer wealth the way it does - it's all I need.
Oh, and regarding "pseudonimity", taxes, etc... It is very, very possible to stay completely anonymous and not taxed, if you know what are you doing. It is very possible to cash out EASILY also. Just my three cents on the topic. Good luck everyone.
