If bitcoin shall continue to grow globally, this must also mean that the price will always, at least for many years, be steadily increasing. So it may look good as an investment. But in the long term the goal is, I suppose, that it shall be used as money? But why would people use it as money when the price is always increasing? Or do they have to wait until the investors are done?
think of it this way:
you work and earn money, and then lets say you invest $1000 in bitcoin. then that $1000 grows because bitcoin price is going up and some day you want to buy some stuff. you have to buy them, lets say things like groceries or whatever. you pay with that $1000 investment which is now worth $1500.
so you stored your money in bitcoin instead of putting it in a bank or in your mattress and now for your daily needs that same money is worth a lot more.
I think with that example, why would anyone spend money that is growing, why not use cash or debit/credit cause you know that ain't rising in value at the same pace as bitcoin. Heck even mutual funds and stocks don't typically return on investment that much compared to bitcoin and alt coins
What incentive is there for people to spend bitcoin in this scenario? Over hoarding it.
because you need to eat to stay alive
you need to spend money anyways right? so why not turn that money into bitcoin first and let it be there and grow and when the times comes for spending that money it would worth more and also you can use discounts such as using Gyft.com to make even more profit when buying the same stuff you bought with fiat.
I think Bitcoin will serve four main purposes:
safe haven asset like gold ----> people put money into this because to protect their money from inflation or when world economy goes nuts
investment vehicle like stocks ----> people put money in this in order to gain wealth, save for retirement
payments ----> to actually buy stuff in bitcoin, though this will be the last use of bitcoin that gets widely adopted
bank account ----> instead of storing money in a bank where you have to trust the bank, you can store it yourself in bitcoin
To answer the question that RoommateAgreement has already been answering, let's focus on the third and fourth features: payments and bank account. Obviously people aren't going to spend the money they are investing in bitcoin, because that is a long term investment they want to grow, just like people wouldn't spend the money from their stock portfolio until they were ready to start drawing from it. So when would you buy stuff with bitcoin? When you also use bitcoin as a bank account.
People spend money in their bank account. This is money you aren't investing. Money in a normal bank account will lose value because the interest you get from a savings account is barely above zero, and obviously checking account is zero, and so it doesn't nearly match inflation. When people decide to start storing their bank account money in bitcoin then not only will they be in charge of their money, rather than a bank, but their bank account will also greatly appreciate in value, instead of staying the same fiat amount and losing value due to inflation.
An example to illustrate this:
I likely plan to quit my job later this year, and need to save up a few thousand dollars (since I just put essentially every cent I own in bitcoin and ethereum haha!) the next few months cuz I'll probably spend two or three months not working. So I planned on saving $8000 these next few months. I was gonna keep that in my bank account. I will need to spend that money this Fall/Winter while I'm not working and start looking for a job. But, seeing as I have full confidence that bitcoin and ethereum will continue to grow in value, why would I put my $8000 in my bank account when I could put them in crypto this summer. By the time I'm spending it later this year it will likely be worth a significant amount more than the original $8000. Now I won't actually be buying things directly with bitcoin, instead when I need some money I'll transfer it back to USD and into my bank, but if bitcoin payments were widespread today then there would be no reason for me to not just straight spend my bitcoin.
So the key is, when people hold their money in bitcoin instead of a bank account - that is money they plan on spending in the short to mid term, not bitcoin they've bought for long term investment purposes - that's why people would buy things in bitcoin despite bitcoin's value always going up. Precisely because that is money they are going to spend, they just use bitcoin in the meantime to 1) be in control of their own money rather than the bank, and 2) allow their money to appreciate a bit before they spend it so that they have even more money in their bitcoin "bank account".
To be fair I was wondering the same thing the past few days, thinking why would people in Japan actually buy things in bitcoin, until I realized this yesterday or this morning, which is when I also realized I should put a good bit of the money I'll be saving for later this year in bitcoin rather than my bank, cuz it just makes more sense.