It's an important point that everyone tends to forget because it's something that works so well:
Bitcoin is still effectively in beta.
People spend so long fixating on the price swings that they totally forget about how much stuff is still on the to-do list. A 0.x version generally denotes software that isn't deemed a full release candidate yet and the latest Bitcoin Core is 0.16.2 so clearly still beta software. Lightning is also very much in early beta. There's so much more to come. People need to be patient.
Bitcoin is still effectively in beta.
People spend so long fixating on the price swings that they totally forget about how much stuff is still on the to-do list. A 0.x version generally denotes software that isn't deemed a full release candidate yet and the latest Bitcoin Core is 0.16.2 so clearly still beta software. Lightning is also very much in early beta. There's so much more to come. People need to be patient.
to be fair bitcoin core is not bitcoin, it is one of the implementations of bitcoin protocol and it happens to be the reference implementation and also still be in beta after 9 years
True enough, I was just too lazy to look up the latest version numbers for other clients and Core just happens to be at the top-left of the page.
Armoury is 0.96.0, so based on their version number, they might still see it as beta software
Electrum, conversely, is up to 3.2.3, so based on that, they probably view it as more of a full release
It will definitely vary from one group of devs to another. They'll naturally all have different ideas about how "complete" their implementation is.
but I don't think we can also consider bitcoin itself as a protocol as being in beta. bitcoin is young but is a solid protocol that has been thoroughly tested and battle hardened.
It's certainly an arguable point. Most of the current end-users probably see it as, effectively, a finished product, but many devs might still see these as early days because they've still got loads more ideas they want to explore and, perhaps one day, implement. However, while it might be easy for current, moderately tech-savvy, users to take for granted, Bitcoin still isn't quite user-friendly enough for the average person to deal with yet. There are certainly custodian services that simplify things, but that's not what I think of as "proper" usage. Because of that, I personally still tend to lean more towards it being in beta.
Many countries does not acknowledge Bitcoin as a currency, so I am curious. The problem with Bitcoin investors these days are the fact that everyone is expecting a repeat performance of 2017 and now that it is not performing in the same way, people tend to trash it with pessimism. 
