The problem is, the utility has not grown by anything like enough, whereas the speculative side has exploded. And the more Bitcoin is used as speculative instru

The problem is, the utility has not grown by anything like enough, whereas the speculative side has exploded. And the more Bitcoin is used as speculative instrument, the worse it becomes as an actual currency or a long-term store of value. As a regular consumer, you need to know that the money in your wallet one day is going to be worth roughly the same the next. Likewise, you need to know the gold you're buying to put in your vault isn't being sold at a price 1000x its long-term worth. Yes, in the short term, it's nice if you have some Bitcoins and they keep increasing in value, but does anybody really think the current surges are anything other than a bubble? If you accept that, then you have to accept that there will eventually be a correction. In which case, accepting Bitcoin in lieu of traditional currencies is like a a cafe letting customer pay for goods using a collateralised debt obligation or some other risky security. If Bitcoin is going to make it as a digital currency, or even just as the "digital gold" that some of its adherents now seem to settling for, then it needs to get past this bubble phase. And the quicker the better, because the harder the correction, the more wary people are going to be of going anywhere near it afterwards, and the more likely that governments are to introduce hefty regulation to avoid a second bubble.