Opinion: Speculators Are Corroding Bitcoin

The obsession with Bitcoin's price, driven by irrationally exuberant speculators, is distracting people from adhering to the core values of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is an exceptional, viable concept but it has been hijacked in recent times by people who have barely any idea about its history, its purpose, and its promise - and don't care.

In many ways, there's been a corruption of the original idea, because Bitcoin was designed to be a payment system.

Bitcoin was conceived as an antidote to quantitative easing - a currency no government could control or dilute.

As a trusted, transparent, and accessible way to settle payments, Bitcoin offers the world a refreshing and much needed alternative to our current financial system.

Bitcoin provides an open, secure, and fast way to transfer money.

Bitcoin was designed to purely be a peer-to-peer payments system of electronic cash with no central authority or banks involved.

Detractors are also quick to point out that Bitcoin still has all sorts of operational issues - it's too slow, it uses too much power, it's has a governance problem.

Without strong leadership helping to implement Bitcoin widely, progress on key decisions is awkward, factions emerge with conflicting ideas, and the public struggle to grasp the issues at stake.

We should continue to value Bitcoin for its technical innovation and potential.