[taysic]

I think its a much better store of value (because of the lack of influence from banks) than a medium of exchange. It's very slow, has high fees (currently) and to buy the vast majority of goods you will eventually need to change it back into your own country's currency which will require your bank anyway. Unless I'm missing something...

"This medium of exchange aspect is very important because it makes banks no longer special since its possible in time to make payments without a banking system."

Most people don't want to have the whole of their wealth reliant on a hash they could lose though. They want to be able to talk to "customer service" if they need to.