It seems that a lot of folks here got into bitcoin/crypto (at least at first) not for the investment opportunities but for the idea of decentralized money that could change the world.
Absolutely true. In the early years there was no value, and while some people thought it might become very valuable, skepticism was rampant. It was almost similar to DOGE in being viewed as something of an inside joke and trying to force it to have some sort of value (aka the 10K BTC pizzas).
I agree that the cool factor is probably not a strong enough motivator, but that doesn't mean early adoption can't be achieved by superior utility, as opposed to investment potential in the coins themselves.
It would have to be one of two things:
1. Potential of future utility, since the early network would be too small to have actual utility. Who do you transact with, and for what (pizzas? tacos?)? That is ultimately speculative, but perhaps there is a subtle psychological difference I don't dismiss.
2. Actual (present) utility achieved with high adoption, initially, in a small subculture. A historical example here was eBay, which started as a site for trading Beanie Babies and other collectables. Since it was focused, it was possible for a small site to achieve some degree of network effect in that subculture where the buyers and sellers could transact in the same network. Otherwise buyers would avoid for lack of sellers and sellers would avoid for lack of buyers. Obviously, from there the site was able to grow into a larger marketplace incrementally.
Ideas for how to target one or the other or both or something else are certainly welcome.
I like to think of the current state of cryptocurrency as the late 1980s of the internet. It's impossible to know or even guess the future utility or impact something like this will have on the world even 10 years from now. But the current state of bitcoin adoption isn't a developmental issue but a fundamental one in that there's little incentive for non-acarchists/freedom fighters/goldbugs to give a shit.
Regular people already use rewards and points and miles and all kinds of virtual currencies. If we can get coins to as many people as possible and make them easy enough to spend, the utility will take care of itself. But I don't think we do ourselves any favors by creating scarcity with declining block rewards and limited money supplies.
