Bitcoin Speculation vs Currency
The cluster debates whether Bitcoin is primarily a speculative asset held for value appreciation or a practical medium of exchange, with most comments arguing that high fees, volatility, and expected price increases make spending it unwise.
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Right, people predominantly buy bitcoin to speculate on it's future value, not to use as a medium of value exchange.
At this point, the demand for bitcoin is driven primarily by its value; anyone acquiring it with the intent to use it in transactions is being foolish. Almost certainly they would be better off holding the BTC and processing the transaction with another currency.
Bitcoin is almost never used as a currency in the sense that you're describing. It is almost always used as a vehicle for (unregulated) speculation.
What's the point of accumulating Bitcoin if not to spend it?
What useful thing can I do with Bitcoin other than using it as a speculative asset?
Yes, because bitcoin doesn't haven’t any of those things you mentioned, except for people who want more money.
Who even needs a ton of Bitcoin?
Yes it does - Bitcoin is mainly used for speculation. Paying for groceries with Bitcoin is too expensive (transaction fees) and you typically cannot use your Bitcoin savings as a collateral for another investment due to the price volatility.This means that if you want to cash out, you need someone else to invest their "new investor money" in Bitcoin.
In simple terms yes, however the dynamics of the Bitcoin market are a little different at the moment. Many people have paper wealth in Bitcoins that can't be easily converted into another currency. So would be better to just purchase services with Bitcoin rather than converting to and from other currencies.
Bitcoin is used daily for paying real people money across the internet. You are in fact speculating on it's uses.