Somehow cryptocurrency became a very polarizing technology. I think it's because Bitcoin has climbed to 1200 dollars plus and created internet millionaires overnight, funded black markets, been subject to thefts, and been the main catalyst to a very public prosecution of a hacker who went by the alias "Dredd Pirate Roberts".
Because the media focus is on these kinds of sensational stories, there is very little reporting on what bitcoin actually does and why it' valuable. I want to give a short answer without using buzzwords like "decentralized".
Ok, so every single business transaction requires a payment system. Early on, markets used barter systems, and eventually gold replaced direct barter because gold was scarce and portable. Plus it made it easier to trade gold for ANYTHING you wanted in the marketplace. Rather than only trade the chickens you possess and have to find someone that wants chickens, you can now trade your chickens for gold and buy anything you want. Major improvement. Then came banks, which meant, for a small fee, you are now able to trade value with a very large portion of the world in a fairly fast manner. Huge improvement over having to be face to face with both transacting parties. It's so obvious that using a 3rd party that allows transactions, and will hold your wealth for you (so you don't have to put your gold in a safe) is clearly superior. It's just the next evolution of payment systems.
Enter Bitcoin. Now, you have the ability to see where ALL of the money is at the same time on the blockchain. Now, ALL of the transacting parties can do so instantly without a 3rd party. Now, your wealth can be safely stored in a variety of ways. This is clearly the next evolution of how to do business.
One reason why people have a hard time seeing the value of bitcoin is because the evolution of payment systems is so slow, they don't really see how many flaws our current system of (yes worldwide but) still using a 3rd party that takes days and collects fees. And i'm just talking about the fees the banks charge...I'm not even going to start to ramble about the way a 3rd party that controls ALL of the payments can be controlled and manipulated.
But once you start to think about ATM fees, and remittances, and banking hours, and 35 overdraft fees, and which credit cards are aceepted where, and on and on and on you start to realize this is all an inefficiency with our current payment systems. Sure Paypal and credit cards are actually pretty impressive technologies, but they can be improved, and once you start to think about how they could be improved, you realize Btcoin actually solves those problems. And given that payment systems are the backbone of EVERY SINGLE TRANSACTION, inventing a new global standard could change the world, just like banking did during the last paradigm shift. It could seriously be a big deal.
So, I guess my point is that all of this talk about "buying drugs" and "price volatility" and "thefts" are all just sensational stories that are red herrings. Once you start to understand at an extremely basic level what Bitcoin can do, the big picture starts to come into focus.