What do you mean 2015 hasn't been a pleasant year for Bitcoin??
You should have noticed that in the early 2015 the price has been dropping to a bottom of rock of $170 ~ (btc-e) this is an unpleasant things for
BTC especially it is happening when there is a
BTC conference ongoing the same year . Most people are judging about wether
BTC is dead or not based on the price of it, so with the declining of the price we could say that this is indeed a miserable year for
BTC to start with.
However on the other hand, it seems like the price has been steady for few months ( if you left out the previous rally to ~$260 ) which means this is a good sign that we might be ending this year with a good thing . Steady price is always better if you are talking about mass adoption as most people tend to stay away from volatille stuff
It's been an awesome year so far, Bitcoin is being noticed by bigger companies
BTC has always been noticed by alot of companies. It doesnt matter if companies are noticing
BTC because what matter the most will be when will they be accepting
BTC as their payment method. The same thing with individual, alot of people have actually heard and notice it but people tend not to use or left it out as FIAT is still more convenience for them to use
and is mentioned more often in the news
It is mentioned more often in a negative news. Cant blame the media anyway as they are just doing their job. Basically it is because people loves to hear more about drug transaction with
BTC rather than proposal about the 20mb fork .