let a bank manage and insure their wallet than manage it themselves. Too stressful otherwise. This just goes to show where the hype and misunderstanding around

let a bank manage and insure their wallet than manage it themselves. Too stressful otherwise. This just goes to show where the hype and misunderstanding around this has led. It is not too far off to say bitcoin's only reason for being, is to "hold them yourself," i.e. conduct all your financial dealings with zero third parties. A bank holding your bitcoins is just nonsensical if you understand the relative merits of each system. The merits of the banking system are a centralized efficiency in conducting "transactions at a distance," and economies of scale in preventing fraud, theft, and other losses, Trying to inject bitcoin into the banking system is like trying to re-insert a vestigial organ into a species long after the organ has been pruned from the evolutionary tree. Nobody seems to have much interest in bitcoin's purported raison d'etre, but are more interested in a perceived potential for appreciation. That much of past appreciation has been shown to be the result of various systemic manipulations, rather than genuine organic demand, seems not to register with most people, or is unknown. That perceived potential for appreciation would seem to eventually rest on people having an interest in using bitcoin for the uses around which it was designed. Should that day come, a shift from the game of "musical chairs-hot potato-hype machine," to a system of digital cash, the system would require a major re-working to support the number of users one would think would be proportional to the current valuation. But like you said most people aren't comfortable or willing to shoulder this sort of risk in their financial lives. Another curiosity, or countervailing force to bitcoin's design goals is the ever growing 'blockchain' record that needs to be stored locally to partake in the bitcoin system in the spirit it was conceived. The blockchain is growing at a fairly constant rate, has anyone ever plotted blockchain growth relative to projected future storage costs and bandwidth capabilities necessary to onboard new users? So what is the point of bitcoin other than the original goal of "be your own bank"? But not just your own bank, your own datacenter as well!