Skyrocketing value is not a desirable trait for a would be currency.

That's true, but it's also the only thing you can expect if Bitcoin succeeds. Eventually the volatility should subside somewhat, as the market grows. It already has, although obviously it's still a roller coaster ride. How much volatility an uncontrolled currency exhibits should be interesting to see if Bitcoin sticks around for good.

Why exactly will the volatility ever subside?

Currencies that are considered stable are not magically so - this is the result of a careful balancing act by central banks. Bitcoin doesn't have an equivalent entity managing the rate of increase in the money supply.

I'm not saying it will go away, I'm just saying, as the trading volume and usage of BTC increases, the amount of money it takes to move the market grows higher. This should result in lower volatility than we have now, but how much lower is an open question we'll see answered if Bitcoin keeps growing.

For the same reason that the volatility of gold subsided. Bigger pool of water = smaller splash when you throw the rock in.

During the adoption phase the value needs to appreciate. Think about if you wanted to use a currency to do a $1 million USD transaction. If there is only $500k of that currency in USD terms you are going to have a hard time. So the value of the currency needs to be an order of magnitude or more above the largest transactions it will accommodate.

Better than going to zero.

Is it succeeding or are people gambling on the value of it?

It's used every day in some legitimate ways. For example, Premise Data Corporation pays their data collectors in almost entirely bitcoin. https://medium.com/@premisedata/premise-payouts-get-easier-w...

> or are people gambling on the value of it?

Welcome to investing. Adoption is success.

Does a skyrocketing penny stock imply a successful company?

A penny stock that skyrockets and holds value is no longer a penny stock. Bitcoin is 8 years old and has hit $1000 USD twice now over multiple years.

The "market cap" is currently over 16 billion dollars. It would place 68th when compared with 192 countries M1 money supply (2015) data: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...

The hash rate securing the network is currently at 2.5 quintillion operations per second which is really 5 quintillion SHA256 operations every second: http://bitcoin.sipa.be/ Speaking of pennies... if every operation was a penny laid flat on earth, you could cover the surface of the earth, land and sea, twice over every second.

Bitcoin surpassed the penny stock phase a long time ago.

If it stays 'skyrocketed', yes.

Is this a currency or just a (totally speculative) stock then?

It's Forex which is both.

How would you decide that?

Both although it's hard to tell how much is success and how much is speculation.

Bitcoin's dirty little secret: Illegal drugs/services.

If you can't buy drugs with it then I'd argue it isn't money. In Baltimore you can trade a bottle of name brand laundry detergent for drugs. I guess that is a clean secret though.

It's hardly a secret. It was designed to be a tool for circumventing states' financial control. Illicit transactions are an obvious application.

My belief is that after the crashes, few weak hands remain. Brexit's speculation bubble was extremely tame and corrected back to modest growth after only days. Only in the last couple weeks has the growth looked particularly bubbley. Fully unqualified speculation from a casual investor: I suspect the correction goes to no lower than $800.

I'm more than happy to read technical matters, but it's gone up and down over and over. It's no more interesting that posting Google or Apple stock prices. It's becoming a dead horse with these price posts.

It's been out for years. Price reports are not novel or interesting anymore. Might as well post USD reports.