If you have bitcoin and you aren't spending any of it, you are not helping the cause whatsoever, and ultimately just hurting yourself.
Not quite. Individual self-interest conflicts with group self-interest. As long as people expect the price to dramatically increase, they won't spend. Virtually no one will spend coins out of altruism to the group of all bitcoin holders.
I disagree. Individual self-interest is the
same as group self-interest in this case. If people don't spend their bitcoins, major retailers will announce they are no longer accepting them. This would have a devastating effect on the value of bitcoin, period. Therefore, bitcoins must be spent. If everyone holds onto theirs expecting someone else to do the spending, it's over. If you are worried about losing future value, simply immediately replace the bitcoins you spend, problem solved. In the meantime, for your self interest AND the group's self interest, spend bitcoin.
They aren't the same at all.
Suppose all but one person agreed with you, and spent their bitcoins. This would cause the price to skyrocket as merchants adopted it, and the one hold-out would make a killing by hoarding. On the other hand, suppose that 99.99% of bitcoin holders disagreed with you, and hoarded. The other 0.01% spend their bitcoins. This would cause a bubble that would quickly burst, causing the price to plummet. The 0.01% who already spent their coins would make out well, while the other 99.99% would be stuck with coins worth nothing.
Neither scenario is realistic, and reality falls somewhere between two extremes. As long as people expect the price to rise, they will be more likely to hoard. When the price stabilizes, people will spend more. This is inevitable in the early days of cryptocurrency.
In an open market people act in their own self-interest, not in the best interests of the group of competing players.
