To understand bitcoin you need to understand what money is, and so few people do. Money is something that humans have assigned value to. For millennia it has been physical objects: shells, metals, livestock, and even rocks. Paper money was created out of convenience because moving around heavy gold coins was cumbersome, BUT the paper money WAS tied to gold. For the past five decades, the dollar has been back by nothing but a promise of value, but the government is proving time and time again it just can’t keep its hands out of the cookie jar. The “drug” of being able to create money, to create value, is highly addictive. And what has happened is the government and those in power have created wealth for themselves and created a widening wealth gap in the USA.
Bitcoin cannot be printed into oblivion. It allows you to control your money (something humans have agreed upon to have value) in that you don’t need a bank or third party to send or receive it. Fees are low. No PayPal bullsheezy. It’s censorship resistant, meaning once you have it, no one can take it (unless you are careless). It’s open for use 24/7/365. It’s actually more secure than your PayPal account.
The volatility is a challenge and happens mainly due to whales playing the market, trying to make large price swings happen to profit from them. The volatility will subside as adoption grows. You can convert bitcoin into fiat very easily though if you didn’t want to hold funds in bitcoin.
I highly recommend reading THE BITCOIN STANDARD by Saifedean Ammous (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119473861/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_jyGXEbWYPVDJD). It’s a lesson on the history of money, Austrian economics, and the future with bitcoin.
Cryptocurrencies are here to stay. We live in a digital world. Bitcoin is an immutable, non-sovereign, digital cash.