Do you think bitcoin is worth more than $3000? Even if you agree or disagree, I'll give you some reasons to back up both sides of the story and the way we will do that is to answer a simple question, regardless if you are bearish or bullish bitcoin.

Why is there bearish sentiments within the pro bitcoin community?

Answer 1: Bitcoin has no utility

There are a few places in the world that operate with bitcoin. The retailer who does accept bitcoin as legal tender, has a few choices: accept payment in a bitcoin that fluctuates relative to the dollar, or accept a finite amount of bitcoin for a product. The truth is that the value of bitcoin isn't stable enough to hold day in and day out, therefore market prices would not and cannot be sold in bitcoin. A stable currency must be converted to that coin, therefore the burden of risk for holding a coin with an currently arbitrary value must fall on the buyer. The buyer, or rather the masses, hold the key to bitcoin success.

the burden of risk for holding a coin with an currently arbitrary value must fall on the buyer

The retailer is therefore forced to price things in local fiat currency. The buyer on the other hand has choices, but would have no reason to hold bitcoin unless it's value continuously goes up relative to another currency (the buyer has now become an investor). In order for bitcoin to be adopted by the masses, it would need to be stable enough to hold for a durated amount of time such that the buyer does not witness the rollercoaster of ups and downs as its value fluctuates. This is why bitcoin is not quick to adopt.

Solution?

There would need to be such a large supply of bitcoin such that the speculative investors cannot cause the value of it to move greatly against the USD. That is principally why the value of bitcoin moves so quickly and so readily. Nearly all of the people who hold bitcoin, hold it as a speculative tool. They are quick to buy and quick to sell, thus moving rather large amounts of coins for a ever quickly adjusting price.

Another way of achieving the same thing is let the price of a bitcoin to such a high number that even small denominations of bitcoin would be prohibitively expensive to trade on a large scale. This can be done by allowing smaller micro denominations of bitcoins. But this solution doesn't solve the core issue of mass adoption.

Answer 2: Ease of Access/Lack of Distribution

Entry into bitcoin currently requires someone to go through several steps before they can exchange fiat currency for bitcoin. In fact, for most people it will take several days since you must perform a ACH online check transfer of the funds from your checking/savings to your online wallet. That means that the person who wants to use digital currency, must go through several steps before obtaining the currency to begin with.

"@($*! I just lost some bitcoin cause I typed in the wrong address!"

Solution?

*Let's pretend that you could transfer it rather easily by going to a vending machine, inserting your local cash currency and having it digitally transferred through a banking service instantly, like a vending machine, but it vends to your digital wallet. You now have a debit card that is bitcoin based. *

Answer 3: Competition with Credit Cards

Now, you must compete with credit cards that offer multitude of services such as access to airport lounges, rewards points from 1% to 3%, additional insurance for car rentals, protection from theft and fraud.

"You must make the new currency not equal, but BETTER."

Let's say that a hypothetical bitcoin card offers the same perks as a modern day credit card. How would they pay for it? You and millions of others would need to pay for that service. At the end of the day, you are now paying for a centralized bitcoin bank that will negotiate all these deals, just like credit card, and they will in turn, be paid by your yearly fees for that service. While this is better than fiat currency because it is decentralized and cannot be manipulated by the government, it is not much different than what we have now and the consumer would have no added value in switching to bitcoin. You must make the new currency not equal, but BETTER.

Solution?

The retailer should offer things sold in bitcoin at a reduced rate to push out credit card fees and transfer this savings to the consumer. This will attract users to bitcoin. Good luck convincing a retailer to give up profits though. Perhaps bitcoin could hardfork such that each transaction could someway be used to verify other transactions, or make an offer that you can't refuse!

How this ties into Steemit

Bitcoin requires you to work for cash, and convert the cash to bitcoin. Steemit allows you to work for it. Just sign up and the steem tokens will be given to you if you provide positive contribution to the network. Think about it this way. At one point in time bitcoins were worth less than a penny. Losing 10,000 bitcoin was less than $10. And you shrugged it off as a lost box of pizza. And that was when bitcoin mining was a hobby really. The adoption can occur if people can easily adopted it and Steemit is the EASIEST way to adopt it.

Steemit is ease of access since you just sign up. It has utility, since people create content online already, for free even! And distribution of steem is automatic from steemit.com and between parties, is as simple as sending a venmo. So hopefully this gives you guys a look into the moves that bitcoin needs to make for you to start taking it on as more than just a speculative investment medium. Now to buy some more steem at this price!