Topic: Bitcoin Shrinking - The Long View - page 4. (Read 19400 times)

It's not over yet.  We haven't had capitulation yet (plenty of perma-bulls still calling for $100/btc by year end, no "all is lost" sentiment at all), but there is now a possibility of that in the next 2-3 months.

After that is over -- who knows.  There's still long term upside potential, especially if the algorithm changes from sha-1 to a memory-intensive algorithm + sha-1 and opens the bitcoin ecosystem participation to the general public again.

If it becomes a small club of FGPA and ASIC hardware owners as the entire bitcoin community IMO the odds of mass adoption go to zero.

Overall, I agree with the OP's sentiment.  I've been quite frustrated with how slowly things have been progressing.  In the last 6 weeks, I have worked with two separate sites to begin accepting Bitcoin as an alternative payment method.  These aren't little mom and pop operations either.  One of the sites is hard coding the exchange rate at $20.  The other is using market price + 0.5, so there is already a huge discount being factor in.  Yet sadly, fewer Bitcoin orders have come in over the last 6 weeks combined than either of these sites typically receives by credit card over the course of a single hour.  The vendors I've talked to absolutely love the idea of getting out from under Visa/MCs thumb, but there's just not enough incentive to accept this form of payment if no one's using it.

However, I also think there are a few relatively minor developments that could turn the trend very rapidly upward.  There is still presently no effective way to introduce the average consumer to Bitcoins.  We're facing a major chicken and egg problem, and this side of it is just as important as getting the merchants to accept it (if not more so).  The only solution I see for this is for someone to build a very professional online wallet service that also sells at least small units of bitcoin (even at 2x market price).

One of the sites I've referred to above is an online game that sells monthly subscriptions.  They have expressed an interest in selling the service on a per game basis (for something like $0.05), using Bitcoin for micro-payments.  They won't move on this until they can also link to a wallet service where their customers can sign up for a Bitcoin account and immediately fund it, even with just $5-10 worth of coin.  Once these initial road blocks to growth are overcome, things could expand very quickly.

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In the absence of too-easy credit, savings is the tool with which bitcoiners come up with enough money to start large projects.

Yes, savings (hoarding) is part of the bitcoin economy. In fact, savings is the tool with which bitcoiners regulate the rates of deflation and inflation (note: not referring to the exchange rates with fiat currencies) in the bitcoin economy. It's just too bad that hoarding is plaguing the bitcoin economy at the early days of its development. Today, everyone should be spending, not hoarding.

There's also savings, which in this context some people mistakenly call hoarding.

Capitalism cannot function in the high-energy, efficient, automated society we are headed to and that is why society must adapt. Bitcoin is just part of that transition. Cost of living is kept artificially high through various means. Most people have jobs which doesn't create much social value if any. Many jobs are just there to support the control systems that has been built during that last decades.

With bitcoin, the game is different. There are no loans, just payments. Hence, if you can't convince others (right now that's mostly techies) to pay for the implementation of your idea, you will never get it off the ground. Beautiful setup, isn't it?

Cost of living is kept artificially high through various means.

I think this is probably a bit TOO conspiratorial, even for how full of shit the exchanges are.  What is for certain is that the people who run the exchanges, as well as the bitcoin aristocra....I mean "early adopters," are in total and complete control of the markets as long as people continue to buy into bitcoin.

Fortunately regular people are beginning to move past the hype and not throwing their paychecks into such a bullshit scheme anymore.

But did the underlying economy, people, families, businesses just disappear with them?  No.  They just started using a different currency.

That's why I don't care at all what happens to the Dollar, the Euro, whatever. Doesn't fucking matter. Life goes on. Cycles happen. Humanity learns, grows.

Dude, being able to just flip a switch and print your own money is exactly why we have regulated monetary organization in the first place. It doesn't fucking matter that a central authority prints the money, it's still a proof-of-work instrument.

Furthermore, inflation is a economic INCENTIVE to innovate, invent, and expand.  That's why I believe people who stash away cash and bitch about inflation deserve to have their money divested from them, because I believe everyone should always be looking for ways to actively improve theirs and other's financial situations.

Would have to disagree with you on one thing...

Currency belongs to those who issue it. So, if you let others (e.g. government, central bank, etc) to issue currency on your behalf, then it belongs to them, not you. In bitcoin's case, although it is the miners who are the issuers of BTC, everyone can set up their own mining rig at any time. The biggest hurdle that must be overcome is miners believing that bitcoin is an investment asset. And that's why I'm here... to help them realize that bitcoin will die unless there are millions of transactions in the block chain daily.

Negative. Every currency belonging to a democratically elected government is directly beholden to the populace. The point is that democratic populations are impotent and ineffectual at managing their own government and essentially deserve everything that they get coming to them.

Also, I'd much rather deal with the Dragon's Den on Wall Street and the Fat Cats in the Fed than the shithole excuses for monetary exchanges that belong to bitcoin and the Bitcoin Elite that hold the lions share of the entire currency among a tiny number of hands...

Don't delude yourself. Bitcoin is not a "currency" by the people for the people. It's a Multi-level Marketing scheme run by "Oligarchs" and market shysters.

which facts ? only rants