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This whole poll just serves to illustrate the problems with bitcoin. Bitcoin is supposed to be a currency, but people are treating it like an investment. The more relevant statistic to bitcoin's popularity as a currency would be how many bitcoin transactions people have participated in over the past year.

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It's supposed to be a decentralized, unseizable, un-inflatable value transfer mechanism. Looks like it is succeeding. Also, you have to bootstrap a stateless currency somehow. Day to day transaction volume will always trail speculation/exchange trading volume. Analogously, forex trade volumes for traditional currencies dwarf global GDP.

It's also useful as a store of value. If you live in a country with an un-sound currency, Bitcoin is a compelling product.

Right now there's a good chance we're in a bubble. But that doesn't remove the fundamental value behind Bitcoin.

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