Forgive my ignorance please i am just now really starting to research crypto (heads up this usually means a crash is right around the corner). As of right now it just isn't really useful outside of being a fancy pants way to store value. Obviously Crypto has been an excellent investment over the past decade, im not about to argue that...but it isn't really viable as an everyday bartering/purchasing currency. Volatility Is another well known issue here...feel free to discuss this as well. Is it expected to be able to make faster transactions in the near future with BTC? Do you see other/newer coins as adopting this role while BTC remains as an older style of wealth security...like a digital gold bar of sorts?
That's basically what has happened, other projects are much faster, have higher transaction capacity, and charge a fraction of the fee in comparison. BTC was basically blockchain proof of concept and carries legacy value from sunk energy cost, scarcity, and quite a bit of cultism/nostalgia.
For someone who sells on the internet, VISA's transaction speed is not that fast. Sure it is confirmed, but there is a risk of chargebacks for 90 days, so you don't actually get the cash for weeks. Paypal holds for 21 days.
The transaction speed and BTC volatility make it a risk for any company offering BTC at POS. An order of mag greater risk than normal FX.
It doesn't matter if it takes 2 years to complete a transaction. It's a store of value, it will never be a real life currency that people are going to use to buy things with, and everyone already knows this. Visa and mastercard can process 1700 transactions a second. Bitcoin can only process 4.6, which is without a doubt, horrible. That's why some alt coins have better potential for real world use than Bitcoin
It’s a clearing and settlement layer. It is a base by which to compare, contrast, trade with or contrarian against other cryptos and stablecoins. The narrative that it has shortcomings as a currency is a red herring. It can be used for that but not defined nor boxed in by it.
It does not meet the definition as store of value in any way. Storing something means to preserve value and safekeeping it. With BTC you are at risk of losing your password, getting hacked, getting fleezed by gone-Rogue exchanges and only the rtx 3090 currently fluctuates more per day than bitcoin. Nothing about BTC is a store of value. BTC is an investment vehicle, an alternative asset class so to speak but certainly not a store of value