in it is the intentionally energy consuming mining procedure, which has tied up resources by the many miners out there. There are alternatives that offer the same basic utility without all the energy consumption (and hence a lower built-in transaction cost), but since they don't require the physical assets, they don't have a real physical presence and crumble easier when the speculation money dries up.

I personally hate the Bitcoin mining process and subsequent energy footprint requirements, Also, the diminishing return to miners means either the coin will eventually have to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, or it will be way too cost prohibitive to either trade or mine. I'm hoping for the latter, the speculators are obviously hoping for the former. Or just hoping to get out before the crash.