We are always told that Bitcoin is a store of value, just like its real and physical gold counterpart. But the question is: Is that enough for Bitcoin to continue in rising in terms of value and popularity?
In my opinion, it's not enough. It can rise a lot more in terms of value, but not in a sustainable way.
Without any connection to the real economy, as a pure "speculative" asset, there is no way to tell the "fair" value of Bitcoin. The problem is that while Bitcoin's price may be currently rising, people are buying it
because it's rising, and NOT because it could be stable at this price.
That is a big difference. For example, we could now go magically sideways for some months. It would look even good, it would demostrate Bitcoin's stability to the world. However, that wasn't what most buyers expected. Many would sell, because they have no way to tell what it's "worth".
The solution would be - more use as a currency. If merchants are accepting BTC, they are "backing" the value, even if they later change their BTC into fiat. A solution to the scalability problem is the key to make that possible. Apart from the much-hyped LN, I would intensify investigation in alternative scaling technologies - pegged sidechains/drivechains, extension blocks, and mini-blockchains (e.g. like in Cryptonite).
