My fundamental value is a floor based on commerce. My assumptions:
- The price is driven by utility (people who use coins to buy things) plus speculation (people who buy coins mainly hoping they will gain value)
- Utility is based on enthusiasts (people who use coins but do not use an exchange, IE, treating it as an isolated currency) plus practical users (people who use coins as a proxy for their local fiat)
- 80% of coins do not hit the exchanges, either due to loss, long term hoarding, or enthusiasts
- The remainder are traded for utility (upon which I base my price floor) and speculation
- Actual commerce in BTC is around USD$10,000 per day
The practical-utility cycle is: buy coins on an exchange; store them in the wallet for a few days while shopping; buy goods; merchant sells coins on an exchange. The fundamental value is the minimum required to fulfill this need. Here's the formula I use:
Utility == ($10,000 commerce per day) * (3 days average time coins are held) / ( (7.2M total coins) * (20% coins in circulation) ) == ($30,000 stored value) / (1.8M coins) == USD$0.0208 per BTC.
Note that I've already included hoarders in that price. So, in my opinion, the remainder of the difference between the $0.02 floor and the $5.00 current price is speculation.
My speculation: I don't think it will ever hit my $0.02 floor. As the price starts dropping close to that (perhaps $0.20) the floor will start cushioning the fall, and when that happens people will become comfortable holding coins for longer periods. Unfortunately at those lows it's cheap for speculators to start driving it up again (Yay! the crash is over! BUY BUY BUY), though the next bubble won't be nearly as big as the first. The bottoms of the speculative waves will find a practical bottom around $0.20, at least until utility is increased by stability (longer hold times) and greater daily commerce.
So, your turn. How do
you compute fundamental value?