[pcthrowaway]

What is the strawman here? I've had bitcoin since 2012, and this wasn't as much of a pressing issue back then. Perhaps blindly, I then believed it had the potential to serve as a global, decentralized, stateless currency. I still want those things, but bitcoin transaction fees have gotten too high for it to make sense as a currency for the majority of real-world transactions. There's no solution there. And as a store of value it poses a real threat to the planet. There are better technologies now; the only real advantage bitcoin has , is wider acceptance by people and institutions as a payment mechanism, due to its longer history. But, with the transaction fees being what they are, and the potential for innovation with Ethereum and other more sophisticated cryptocurrencies, that's bound to change over the next few years.

I honestly don't understand how people can continue to defend it. The only explanation I can think of is that the masses who showed up to the party late don't care if it's gotten out of hand and is now in danger of trashing the place or setting the building on fire. They just made the trip out there.