Regardless of whether it is going up or down, the fact that its value fluctuates so much is a pretty good demonstration of its utter failure to fulfil the role of a currency.
As in, why am I ever going to spend any of the stuff if I think it is going to be worth twice as much two weeks from now? great for a few investors, also a demonstration of the total failure of the ideology behind it.
It's misclassified as a currency. Financially, it operates as a commodity. You can use a commodity as currency as well of course, gold and silver were for most of the existence of recorded history. And oil is now to a point.
That Bitcoin swings wildly shows the effects of a limited number of participants in the commodity market buying and selling as happens in other commodity markets, but the long-term rise also demonstrates what has happened to global fiat-based currency systems, especially from 2008 onwards. Right now since the beginning of the year, I could've had sheets of plywood as my personal currency to buy items with, and would be doing pretty well.
(Disclaimer: I do not invest in Bitcoin or any other e-coin.)
