If I look back to ~2017 or so and what I thought could happen with Bitcoin back then, the price is not what most surprised me (in fact, in 2017 we almost saw 20k - not that far away from the current price).

Instead, it's mainly two things:

First, that its first layer still is the most used. In 2017 I thought on-chain transactions would collapse in 2-3 years and everybody and their grandma would flee either to Layer-2s like Lightning or directly to altcoins. This is of course not necessarily good news: people still hold many coins on exchanges, and retail adoption could be better. Institutional adoption is not something I'm surprised about, it was logical given the popularity Bitcoin had already reached in 2017, but the attention ETFs and similar products, and of course Saylor, are getting in the community, is something I wouldn't have predicted.

Second, that no altcoin came even close to Bitcoin's popularity. In 2017 Ethereum reached half of Bitcoin's market cap in one occasion, and BCH was also close to that mark for a short period. That looks like a very distant past now, with Bitcoin constantly over 50% dominance. And I was among those dumb folks who thought that some altcoins were "better than Bitcoin" back then. How wrong I was

Big investor's attracting while still general people not using it most.
Why did I not buy back then?


This is just a load of crap, a PC sitting around and generating money.

I'm surprised to see how far the government has gone to try to limit or control Bitcoin's dominance in the mainstream world. Since they've realized they can't "kill" or "destroy" Bitcoin, they've decided to infiltrate the system by trying to accumulate as much of the circulating supply as possible. Governments are doing this both directly and indirectly (through institutional investment firms, banks, etc).

The core Bitcoin Blockchain might remain decentralized in the long run, but it won't be of any use if centralized forces dictate who buys or sells Bitcoin. They will be the ones holding all of the cards with the supply they hold. Most people don't care about this, so they will continue to carry on with their lives as usual. Here's hoping for the best.

Freaking everything is unbeliveable. In 2014 everyone who talked about bitcoin going to $10k sounded like crazy people, and it didn't help that many of them were legit crazy.

Saying it would be a $100k was probably someone joking. People holding it a lot that turned out to be famous were these unreal characters, so the very idea of this scene being taken seriously was absurd to me. That was actually what i liked about it. That this was all some weird cyberpunk dystopian monopoly money among few nerds and crazy idealists.

And i would like to say it's has gone far from that, but when president of USA is craziest consipracy nut on the planet, it's quite fitting that he speaks about it as well, even if he doesn't understand it.

Bitcoin has really come a long way. Since 2010 till now, Bitcoin has grown massively in price, and the adoption has increased too. Actually it is very surprising to see Bitcoin where it today, if you new the price of Bitcoin back in 2010, and how it has gained so much interest from individuals, and institutions it is really very surprising. In the past when Bitcoin was only traded in few exchanges, and with institutional interest, many people never believed in Bitcoin potential, and such unbelieve is what many not to invest in Bitcoin, but today many who never believed in the potential of Bitcoin are now interested about Bitcoin as many things has really changed. People who ones doubted if Bitcoin would be sustainable in the future now see , and invest in Bitcoin with clarity.

What I see as the strength of bitcoin and  the driving force is the belief that some set of bitcoin enthusiast had in bitcoin. It gave bitcoin the strength to fall back after all the challenges. Many coins come and go after just few years but from the look of things, bitcoin has gained acceptance beyond anyone's expectations. I think that the world was getting tired of the government control over money and their unending inflation. Bitcoin was envisaged to be the only way out of inflation and preserving values of labour which is why I think the adoption has continued.

If bitcoin can survive this 17 years when the world wasn't too digital, I think it's enough to say that bitcoin is just starting since the adoption is now rising daily. So in summary, I will say that the world needed a way out of inflation and preserving values for their labour which led to the bitcoin unending adoption.

The most surprising aspect of Bitcoin is no more longer a news to us all, has bitcoin has always been consistent over the years with its value and trusted reputation, you can hold your assets in it and make more profits within a couple of time, bitcoin has never fail us in many ways because we rely on it to be a decentralized digital currency that does not saying so user in it.