Wow @denmarkguy. I have to say this is one of the more thoughtful posts I have yet to encounter here so far. I will undoubtedly join in @timcliff's initiative to carry on meaningful #discussion.
Some thoughts on your article:
Personally, I think that the last SOCIAL barrier to widespread acceptance of Bitcoin (+crypto market) is exactly what you touch on here: where can the user spend it?
With the proliferation of credit/debit cards linked to private crypto wallets coming to market within the near future (TenX just unveiled a new card today), I see this barrier being broken down and money flooding into the space.
Right now, it seems many new entrants to the space are still wrapping their head around the conceptual thinking of crypto and blockchain, working to understand the theory, the tech, and the mechanics. Of course, this coincides with people coming in and speculating, because they are still considered less experienced and less wise (if you will).
YET, once these people come to grasp the full potential here, and they then have the ability to simply spend their crypto at any location that accepts Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, etc. (with the rollout of crypto backed credit/debit cards) then this space will really heat up.
Keep up the great content, I will be following along moving forward!
Thanks @maven360,m appreciate the kind words and the support.
I try to look at cryptos in much the same way as the early Internet. For quite a few years, going online was a "speciality" gig for a small percentage of nerds and developer types. "It'll never catch on with the mainstream" was still a pretty common thing, even after 6-8 years. When I got my first online account and email, there were less than a half million users... and most of my friends thought it was slightly "creepy" that I was on the Internet.
We now know that the Internet was a total game changer in the communications field.
Multicurrency debit cards will definitely help the industry establish itself as having authentic currencies. I'm Danish by birth, and I can use my debit card on a Danish bank, in Danish currency, to buy groceries here in the USA, if I wanted to. It's seamless. And when we consider foreign currencies, there's also the precedent for "currency fluctuations" (in value) which is also a concern to some people.
It seems to me that the "investment end" of cryptos is dominated by neophytes and adventure seekers... which adds to the volatility. These are not exactly people who used to trade IBM and Boeing on the NYSE. As the industry matures a bit, I also think some of the wild fluctuations will become smaller... which will help the greater public feel less like it's a huge risk to hold and use cryptos.