Did Bitcoin fail in its promise? Where next?

The original promise of Bitcoin was that it would free people from dependence on a banking and financial system many consider corrupt, unethical, arbitrary and unaccountable. 12 years on from its creation, can it be considered anything other than a failure?

Sure, Bitcoin’s phenomenal performance as a speculative asset made many people rich – that doesn’t replace a financial system though. Volatility makes it a poor and risky store of value, as well as a difficult-to-use medium of exchange – due to constant fluctuations, numbers mean so little, meaning you just have to mentally operate in fiat and constantly convert back and forth.

As a person who runs a human rights NGO and deals with activists every single day, what can I do or tell others to do? I can pay people inside authoritarian states censorship-free, converting to FIAT at both ends, but that’s it. And as someone running an NGO, I can’t make an annual budget of $XX and then wake up one morning and find I have Y% of that available due to volatility. Which means I’m locked in FIAT banking, dependent and vulnerable. That’s what I thought Bitcoin was going to fix.

I’m asking these questions because I was (and still want to be) a believer in the original promise of Bitcoin. I want to be free from an arbitrary banking system that can sanction and cut people off as easily as social media apps do. Is there still hope?

I want to commit to this idea and technology, including with resources – so what role can I play in making this vision actually play out? I feel those developing this stuff don’t see people like me, only speculators tweeting #HODL all day. Smart, non-dogmatic people who care about this space, please reach out with thoughts, ideas, solutions, projects etc.