In 2017/2018 with the sharp increase in the price to the ATH of $18 000+, people were saying that Bitcoin can never be a currency with that kind of fluctuation and volatility in the price.
In the 3rd & 4th quater of 2018 up to Jan 2019, we have experienced a correction from that ATH and we are seeing much less volatility in the price.
Would you say that Bitcoin has shed it's speculator skin and emerged as a true currency, after this correction? I think with most of the speculators left the Bitcoin scene in the last year or so and Bitcoin has truly transformed into a community of people who are more interested in the technology and using the technology as a currency.
Let's discuss, because I am very curious in what you opinions are about this.
In my opinion the technology is almost complete, it only needs offline transactions and wallets lightning network support. Most of the work remains in the habits of people, especially those living in countries where their fiat is so convenient they still use it even in physical form.
Its not a problem to those of us whose fiat became garbage overnight and you need a pile of paper that you can't even get in the first place to buy common stuff... Here we are 80%ish cashless, with heavy debit card use. And indeed some elderly can't figure how to use a debit card, they lived in a time where our fiat was even stronger than the USD at times... There is this old saying about going to Miami (FL) just to buy groceries and buy twice as needed... (Its cheap, give me two!). So you can imagine that generation here purchasing things like Cars with a few banknotes (think Saudi Arabia lifestyle), after all this country in the 60ies was the world's first oil exporter...
I felt a bit like that two years ago when i visited a neighbor country, and i saw people paying with cash in a supermarket. It gave me nostalgia of how things used to be 10 or 20 years ago... But on the other hand if feels alien (and scary) to use banknotes and coins, i feel like i need to protect them for emergencies as they became scare here last year, and the banks still force you a small limit (around 40¢ in USD) to withdraw cash per day.
So as far as electronic money, we are almost there. I don't feel weird about those european countries talking about going cashless (even before talking about cryptocurrencies) it might perhaps become normal soon worldwide.
Also i don't think the price of a bitcoin is indicator of maturity, unless you mean it remains stable against a solid asset like gold. The USD is still fairly stable but because its going down (like all fiat), bitcoin should (slowly) always be increasing its price, not unlike gold. But to me this is a perception on the people, it is humanity that needs to mature toward Bitcoin, not the other way around.