I agree that bitcoin is not very attractive for day to day micro transactions due to the fee. I don’t think anyone is buying ANY crypto currency for the purpose of making micro payments, because the reality is that it’s quite hard to spend it. Even when you do find a retailer who takes crypto, the probability is that it will be bitcoin.
Whatever the original dream that Satoshi may have have had for bitcoin to be a new daily transaction currency, things have moved on.
People don’t say “Which crypto shall I buy so I can buy my daily coffee?”. People are asking different questions like: “What digital asset shall I buy for my long term savings?”, or “Which is the safest crypto?”, or “Does bitcoin have a catalyst to make the price rise?”
The last question has many more answers than any other crypto.
Yeah, interesting point. I keep thinking back to what Ned said during the fireside chat as well in terms of needing to make the currency completely ubiquitous and stable before you can actively pursue using it as digital cash and working towards merchant adoption.
I also wonder, though, how much merchant adoption is hindered by the fees themselves. There was some momentum early on (I got involved early 2013) to sign up merchants and get them using it. Now that momentum has to start from scratch with other projects.