If bitcoin is becoming even more successful (in the sense of high transactions number) and if blocksize remains at ~1 MB, what will be the impact on fees? And could we imagine unsustainable fees?
The older folks in the US (the same group who put the US in the situation it's in now) are still writing paper checks, putting them in envelopes, and sending them through the postal service. Sure, you can send a bank wire, but the sender will pay $15-30 for the privilege, and the receiver often has to pay $15 or more as well. Oh, and it can take 1-2 business days; and the receiving bank may decide, based on whatever reason, to hold the funds for 10 business days.
Things are slowly changing with US banking, becoming slightly more modern; but it's still the dark ages.
I'm amused when I visit family in the US and hear local people expressing superiority over the rest of the world, while Kenya has been doing mobile banking for 10 years.
Anyway, until you've lived in the US, you don't know how sucky banking is. Any extra-bank financial system in the US is better than what they have now!
Remember just a year or two ago when it was cool to buy your coffee at a shop that took bitcoin? You wouldn't do that now, since your coffee would cost the equivalent of $20 ($4 for the coffee, $16 for the transaction fee).
It's also painful to realize how much bitcoin some of us have spent on little things in the past. I've had some coffees that are now worth $300 a cup had I treated the btc as value store rather than currency ;).
I see bitcoin as a proof of concept that was much needed, so it grew legs and became a "real thing". Something better will replace it (and I wish I knew for sure which it would be so I could "bet" on it now! ;) ).