People use various technologies for various reasons, many having to do with specific characteristics of the technology itself. Accidental reasons do exist, but

People use various technologies for various reasons, many having to do with specific characteristics of the technology itself. Accidental reasons do exist, but the technical deficiencies must be small enough to not overshadow the favorable accidental reasons. In other words, it has to be good enough, given the context, or it won't happen. So I don't think it's fair to dismiss adoption as meaningless. I agree it is difficult to determine how well Bitcoin has "stored value" over the past 8 years. But I don't think speculation should be casually dismissed, as continued speculation rarely happens for many years without reasonable fundamentals supporting the space. Short term bubbles can possibly be more noise/mob-mentality than meaningful signal. However, many bubbles over time, coupled with a strong underlying trend, is definitely a powerful signal that something interesting is happening. Additionally, the volatility is decreasing year over year, which is another point in favor of bitcoin as a value storage mechanism. I think one big problem in discussing bitcoin is people get hung up on different things that are supposedly the "purpose" of bitcoin, and then argue in circles about that. There are definitely some questionable ideologies in the bitcoin space. As no single group is in charge of bitcoin, I'd personally would rather not assume any specific predetermined purpose, and just look at how the system is functioning and what the fundamental characteristics and dynamics seem to be.