Look around, everything is a vehicle for speculation, from houses to baseball cards to oil.
Of any network that exists over the internet, Bitcoin is the least elitist. Participation is permissionless; anyone can spin up a wallet, and it requires no identification. Transactions are borderless, code is open source. No one can prevent you from sending/receiving at a protocol level.
> Bitcoin is totally elitist and mostly a vehicle for speculation.
I agree, but the parent poster does have a point. There are places where the economic situation has deteriorated to the point that using Bitcoin can solve some problems. Some things are worse than Bitcoin, but it's a rare phenomenon.
Of any network that exists over the internet, Bitcoin is the least elitist. Participation is permissionless; anyone can spin up a wallet, and it requires no identification. Transactions are borderless, code is open source. No one can prevent you from sending/receiving at a protocol level.