I think bitcoin was meant for everyday use, but honestly I have not read Bitcoin whitepaper. Once it reaches some stability I think it will be a suitable way to store wealth. I would feel a bit disappointed if Bitcoin was intended to make people rich (as the people waiting for its price to reach thousands want), what would be the difference with altcoins, then?
satoshi's vision was a way to send value to others without a bank. whether its hourly or yearly..
the problem is that as bitcoin gets more popular. the less capacity there is for people to send value as and when they like, for instance if you want to buy a coffee in the morning and a beer in the evening (2 transactions) will only allow 288,000 people to use it just 2 times a day
(4000tx per block x 144blocks a day=576000transactions = 288,000 people doing 2 tx a day)Eventually the network will be bottle necked because of the limit of block sizes. But that would only happen if Bitcoin is used more frequently and become a more recognized currency. Currently it is recognized by some governments that have banned it, but other governments are on the sidelines for now with it.
There also is the large debate on block sizes and changing the limits, this may heat up over time as well.
But, based on the bitcoin wiki numbers found here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/ScalabilityThere are a total of 86,400 seconds in a day. The Bitcoin network could handle 7 transactions per second.
So with 86,400 * 7 = 604,800 transactions can be handled.
But there can be larger and smaller inputs to the network.
A smaller transaction for example, consuming 128 bytes:
https://blockchain.info/tx/830a313d7a17b428c44461e07967bf906b585266c4892417accf718c0d9c3018The largest block size transaction ever consuming 999,657 bytes:
https://blockchain.info/tx/bb41a757f405890fb0f5856228e23b715702d714d59bf2b1feb70d8b2b4e3e08But in my opinion, Bitcoin is used as both. It has value as a technology and people invest into that, while also being used as a currency which people use as well.