Gold and silver is different. They'll always go up in value but we can't say the same for something like bit coins which is not so popular and truthfully might never.
Nigga what?
Why would anyone buy in when you lose $50 dollars in value? That's like you paying me $100 bucks and I give you $50 bucks. The main reason why I think this will never make it as big because its a hassle to get bit coins, lots of scammers just to get bit coins, and a lot of big bit coin banks got hacked and everyone lost their bit coin unlike a bank those people get it back but with bit coin you lose them forever with nothing to back it up.
I agree it is annoying, but that is something you have to factor into the cost of the transaction. It doesn't easily go from cash to crypto and so the services that do provide that charge a premium, again factor that in, all things being equal you could potentially sell it for what you paid and you'd only lose the moneypak fee. That $50 that I gave you is a token with the value $50 associated with it, but you can sell it for $100. On localbitcoins everyone more or less has the same prices, nobody is scamming you it is the cost of business.
As far as coins being stolen. It's no different than someone robbing a bank, a common occurrence. The people who had coins stolen from online services chose to store their money in a bank that is not subject to the same government oversight and regulations. Frankly it's what they asked for and its what they got. The thing about bitcoin is that it demands more personal accountability from the individual. It's foolish to hold more than your willing to lose in an online storage account, even more foolish to leave them in an exchange. Leave them in an offline and encrypted wallet for safe keeping.
You are right that it is a problem that will prevent many from adopting it and the volatility will keep people from using it too. It is mostly just novelty with a ton of speculators. And like everything else involving money, TONS and TONS of sleazy shit is going down.