Direct merchant support is very important. A store of value is useless if there's no direct way to realize stored value down the line. It's not enough to have hope of adoption down the line, some folks don't want bitcoin unless they know there are spending exits from the start, otherwise bitcoin feels like a trap.

Agree 100%

There are people who are not going to sign up for exchange accounts, bitcoin credit cards, visit gift card merchant pages or want to do peer to peer trades (at high spreads). They need bitcoin to be something that they take to the merchant and spend like cash. It's okay if the merchant uses a payment processor as long as that stays out of the way and doesn't add friction to the transaction.

Agree 100%... this is more or less what Cashapp/square is trying to accomplish.

It's okay to HODL, but that belief has to rest upon the idea that there will be some people in the future exercising the utility.

Agree 100%

but there's a risk of not enough miner subsidy to secure the network against attack if this takes too long.

That is my belief as well. Bitcoin needs usage, and it needs more great sites like Stacker News to provide the day-to-day utility. That's why I wrote this post and that's why I think we're all here.