[Mahn]

The most important question, though, is not "why haven't regular consumers realized the benefits of bitcoin yet", but rather, "what are the benefits of bitcoin that will make regular consumers adopt it". And I just never see an obvious answer or argument to that latter question.

[waterlesscloud]

Why do regular consumers need to adopt it for it to be a successful technology?

[sanswork]

Because institutional users are far more likely to want to build on something they can have some control over.

[waterlesscloud]

Institutional users aren't regular consumers, but institutional users are more likely to benefit (in the short term at least) from the programmable money aspects.

[sanswork]

That is my point though. Institutional users may be more likely to benefit from that but they aren't going to want to give up control. So that leaves only regular users as a driving force behind it.

There is a reason IBM, UBS, etc are building blockchain research centres and not just throwing their weight behind bitcoin itself.