Bitcoin still doesn’t provide any significant value outside of black market purchases, though. The increase in value is due to an increase in hype and a lot of people hoping to get rich quick - not due to increased practical adoption. Governments aren’t going to let it replace currencies they can control - and to be honest, I’m not sure we’d want it to - somebody’s always in control, and I’d argue it’s better to at least know who they are (see any HN comments on “flat” organizations). It’s just a bunch of wasted energy to arbitrarily move money from one set of traders to another.