[spiralx]

Cryptocurrencies are best described as being like penny stocks - they don't represent any underlying value or investment, meaning that prices are low and large gains can be realised through a small change in price - making them vulnerable to people manipulating investors as part of a pump and dump scheme.

From the Willy bot through to the latest ICO craze, the whole cryptocurrency scene is riddled with people engaging in pumping prices - which means that any reverses in price hit sentiment hard and cause price shocks, something I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of over the next year or so...

[horsecaptin]

"they don't represent any underlying value or investment" - You should try sending money to a friend or relative in a foreign country. You'll love the cost of what should be nothing more than a basic electronic transaction.

[celticninja]

People who say there is no use case for bitcoin or they have no value tend to be in places where there is a somewhat reliable banking system and they do not use that banking system to transfer money internationally, because even a good banking system has a very high charge for international transfers, and as this is usually a flat fee it makes it very expensive for small transfers. However I have seen some places that charge a flat fee plus a %age of the total, which means large transfers are also relatively expensive.

[gwbas1c]

Bitcoin is volatile and transactions are slow. This means it's not really fungible for general purpose money.

You bring up a good niche that it can fill, though.

[averagewall]

I wouldn't call the whole of China a niche. International transfers from there aren't expensive but they're mostly impossible by official means. Banks don't allow citizens to send money overseas except for a few specific and verified reasons, which importantly don't include gifts to family members or buying things (eg real estate).

[runeks]

> Bitcoin is volatile and transactions are slow.

The Bitcoin blockchain is slow (as all blockchain are, relatively speaking) but most Bitcoin transactions happen off-chain, for example at the many Bitcoin exchanges, where bitcoins are transferred between customers at thousands of transactions per second using a central clearer (the exchange). By depositing bitcoins at an exchange, you exchange it for that exchange’s Bitcoin credit, which has no limit on transaction speed, and when you want out you redeem your credit into a Bitcoin transaction.

This page shows the USD price of the credit instruments of the various Bitcoin exchanges: https://bitcoincharts.com/markets/currency/USD.html — e.g. a Bitcoin on Bitstamp currently costs 2439.84 USD, whereas the price of GDAX (Coinbase) Bitcoin credit is currently a bit more expensive at 2456.44 USD.