Bitcoin is becoming a joke. It used to be good, but this is what happens in democracies; 51% of the people fuck over the 49%.
Essentially, now that the 'get rich quick' crowd has showed up and ruined it, it will begin to devalue.
Here's why:
A. Exchanges are totally centralized, anyone doing business, either buying/selling bitcoin is under 'heavy' regulations, FINCEN, etc...
B. You are now required to have more ID to buy bitcoin than to open a normal bank account....and want to know the worst part?
C. The community cheers this behavior on. They claim it will lead to 'bitcoins legitimization', thus the get rich quickers think they will become super-billionaries.
Here's why bitcoin will ultimately fail as currency:
#1. Bitcoin is/will become so overregulated that the average user will see absolutely zero real-world use-base for it, especially when it is 10x easier to open a 'normal' bank account rather than deal with absurd practices like poloniex (want photo of you with Id, and blood samples, sperm lol), they want to know where money came from..laundering, terrorism acts, kyc, etc.. Sounds like heavy government involvement to me...The theory of bitcoin going to $500,000 is, as of now, irrelevant. The bitcoin has has zero real-world application that originally gave it appeal. (Anonymity, Decentralization, no governments, privacy, all gone). Now, instead of fight it, the idiot users cheer on government regulation! Government will make them soosoo rich...government helps 'legitimize' bitcoin )(lmao)....They need the government to wipe their asshole too, apparently.
#2. If by magic the price does increase anymore, it will cost more than the price of the small transaction to pay the network fee. Why would anyone want to use this payment method? They won't. Its a waste of money.
#3. Back to Centralization...as I said, 51% of the people fuck over the other 49%, ergo, centralization/democracy. (Likely a few people control most of the coins & hash power anyway, so apparently it was always like this (oligarchy.)
The bitcoin will be eaten from within over the coming months, and we will see a sharp decline in value as the community slings shit like monkeys at each other.
I'm off to find another coin...
About your A point, there are decentralized exchanges you can use them if you do not like to use centralized ones and most of the time you do not need to identify yourself there either, so alternatives are being created in order to decentralize bitcoin in some levels.