[Finnucane]

>Also, what justifies Bitcoin's value at ~17k ?

Rich people in non-democratic countries worried about currency export controls and sanctions. Other methods of parking money externally (real estate, etc.) are subject to restriction and seizure.

[phoe17]

Isn't the high volatility a major drawback to this use-case?

[__sha3d2]

The volatility is supposedly temporary

[throwaway2048]

if you cant move out money at all, you will happily take a rather large haircut to be able to do so.