The Purpose(s) of Bitcoin.

Many people perceive the purpose of Bitcoin in different ways, for different reasons. I have my own thoughts on what the ultimate purpose of cryptocurrencies will be, but there are many differing opinions and use cases. With no widely accepted use case available yet, everybody has their own reason to buy into Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. For some, the reason is the belief that the "blockchain technology" powering Bitcoin will flourish someday. For others, the reason is that the Bitcoin that they would buy now will become usable at some point in time in everyday use transactionally. And for yet another group (perhaps most), the reason is speculative investment as a digital replacement for gold or other stores of value. At the core of Bitcoin is the aspect of censorship resistance and decentralization, another ideology held by many early adopters and innovators in the space. I happen to agree with many of the use cases to some degree, but think the ultimate use case that separates it from other forms of money is it's censorship resistance, and the ability to take centralized entities out of the monetary system.

One issue I often have with the media claiming blockchain is the real takeaway from Bitcoin that has a future, is that they are not explaining that blockchain cannot exist on it's own without Bitcoin. Without a store of value, there would be no incentive to mine and therefore secure the blockchain. Bitcoin is that incentive, and without it there would be no way to ensure secure pier to pier transactions across a decentralized network can occur, we are basically back to our existing bank structures.
With such varying expectations of Bitcoin’s future, it’s hard to have a consensus on what Bitcoin’s purpose actually is, and by therefore also, its value. Over time, the hype and use case speculation will die down, and the true value of the technology will remain. This has all played out before in the early days of the internet when nobody really knew how it would be used, and it's potential was not realized immediately. It's going to be an interesting year, I'm excited to see what the future holds for this technology.