Bitcoin is NOT dominated by a few major players. A few years ago when some large commercial players wanted to increase the block size, they weren't able to do so because a majority of nodes on the network rejected their code.

The Bitcoin network has stayed remarkably stable and it's still possible to run a node on a raspberry pi, which is done exactly because the Bitcoin community value the ability of normal people to participate and be able to verify their transactions and that of the whole chain.

Concerning scams. Let's look at another relatively open technology. Email.

The vast majority of emails are actually spam, and a lot of those are scams (phishing, Nigerian princes etc.). In the beginning a lot of people fell for email scams, many still do, but by and large people are aware they exist and are able to use email productively without constantly falling victim to scams.

Exactly the opposite has happened: most players, including the lead developers, wanted block size to increase, because of the insane fees. But a small minority, who happened to hold the passwords to some major sites like bitcointalk, bitcoin.org and /r/bitcoin succeeded to wrangle control over and through bans and censorship took over the bitcoin project. They promised to deliver a solution to the problems of fees in the form of Lightning network, but it failed - still doesn't work reliably after all these years. Now that governing body gave up on Bitcoin development and advance their own projects based primarily on Tether. As a result, Bitcoin development has stagnated compared to competition, which is reflected in its market share diminishing.

Most people who have Bitcoin don't spend it, only trade it. If you're only trading it, then your only interaction with Bitcoin is via exchanges. A handful of exchanges control most of the trades.

Well said.

the ecosystem from 12 years ago is radically different from what it is now. Heck, it's radically different from what it was just 2 or 3 years ago.

And well, it benefits (smart) ordinary people. That is, those who have invested or are investing. Smart money is here - and small investors are here too. And I'm saying purposefully "investing" as opposed to "trading". The former doesn't require any technical skills.

As for "ordinary people" not versed into technologies doing what their government is telling them to do (bans, warnings, hackers, criminals, murderers, ...), well... I'm feeling sorry for them, but crypto cannot just replace local country currencies without government consent. Now think again: who is to blame?

Yeah 12 years ago people actually thought they'd be using Bitcoin as it was intended: as a currency. Now most people know better than to do anything but trade it.

It's designed to be harder than gold. When there is a shortage of gold people starting mining it. With Bitcoin there is always a shortage of money. I don't know why people think expensive money is good money. It really isn't.

oh come on. - defi? - Twitter introducing tips in crypto? ..

personally speaking I'm paying every day with a crypto card (which gives me a few % cashback ..). But that's ok, you seem to purposefully want to miss the train, can't help people against themselves I guess :shrug:

For the past year your train cost you <$1<$4 for every dollar you spent.

You do know you're missing the train by spending your crypto?

Spending does not prevent stacking… The more you spend sats, the less you need Fiat…

Also velocity will get rid of volatility !

And value. One of the reasons Bitcoin is so expensive is bcs most of it isn't being traded. If people actually start using it and loosen the supply, value goes down.

who says I'm spending my crypto? I'm spending my Euros moved over to my Crypto account...

lol