Bitcoin and similar are computationally intensive to run because of a thing called decentralization. Visa and Mastercard don't need consensus to perform payments, but they for sure don't have a single server running, I am sure they have more servers than bitcoin nodes, without counting on stripe, paypal, ... and other payment providers IN THE WORLD :)

There is something called lightning, which is p2p payments through bitcoin!

> Furthermore, a currency needs a government (or similar kind of body) to manage its stability, by printing (and buying) money. Otherwise, we'll see wide fluctuations in value like what happens with Bitcoin.

call the economists! a currency needs a government! But only from 1971 onwards, before that people didn't have currencies! Oh, you don't want to use the US dollar? the best currency ever!? I guess we'll have to bomb your country and neighboring ones to change your mind.

> to manage its stability

aka lose 2-4% of purchasing power per year. Thank you central bank! you saved us!

> Otherwise, we'll see wide fluctuations in value like what happens with Bitcoin

Oh no! The horror! A currency that can also go up!!! I guess we need a central bank for oil! to keep the price of oil stable! And food too!