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Topic: Why switching to mBTC won't increase Bitcoin price. - page 3. (Read 3540 times)

newbie
Activity: 53
Merit: 0
Switching to mBTC wasn't one to increase the Bitcoin price.... it was done because the price per bitcoin rose.
People didn't want to see the price of BTC0.00xxxx for a coffee, they wanted to have whole numbers like mBTCx.xx
legendary
Activity: 2184
Merit: 1056
Affordable Physical Bitcoins - Denarium.com
Okay, I give up.
hero member
Activity: 924
Merit: 1001
Splitting bitcoins to smaller pieces does not affect the amount of bitcoins.

I never said splitting bitcoins affects the amount of bitcoins.
I said splitting bitcoins affects the number of sub-1 BTC purchases that can be made.  Therefore effectively reducing "scarcity" for buyers.
Totally different statement.

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The supply is exactly the same regardless of where we decide to put the decimal separator.

I never said the supply of Bitcoins changed.

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The max amount of bitcoins will always be 21 million even if we switch to mBTC.

I never said otherwise.  

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What you're implying is that since it would now be very cheap to buy 1 mBTC, people would buy only 1 mBTC.

No... I didn't imply that.  Nor say it.

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mBTC can decrease the perception of bitcoins being "too expensive", thus it can help as far as the valuation is concerned.

How can a change in perception physically cause the price to rise?  
That is a false statement.
My post provided several examples.  So I guess I will repeat:

Price *only* rises if there is a lack of availability.  
Switching to mBTC increases availability of getting a piece of the bitcoin world.
1 BTC is still $650, but now 10 million people can own that 1 Bitcoin.  Therefore, price doesn't change.  Understand?

Why did the price rise with China?  Because most people were buying whole bitcoins, in large quantities, and there was a lack of availability.
If everyone in China was buying mBTC, there would have been plenty of whole BTC to supply that demand, and price would barely have changed.
There's absolutely nothing about converting to "mBTC" that would make the price rise, unless even mBTC were hard to come by.
Far in the future I can see mBTC being scarce.  Maybe?   Hard to say when its "infinitely divisible".  You'd need a lot of hoarders and a lack of availability.
For the time being, the very opposite would be true.  Right now there's plenty of whole Bitcoins to supply trillions of mBTC purchases.  
Therefore:  No rise in value. And if everyone starts buying in mBTC, scarcity (in the sense of being able to get some piece of Bitcoin) decreases.

legendary
Activity: 2184
Merit: 1056
Affordable Physical Bitcoins - Denarium.com
You seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of Bitcoin and economic basics in general. Splitting bitcoins to smaller pieces does not affect the amount of bitcoins. The supply is exactly the same regardless of where we decide to put the decimal separator. The max amount of bitcoins will always be 21 million even if we switch to mBTC.

To put this another way, if you have 100 000 people buying bitcoins with $100, the scarcity equation is the same regardless. The amount they get will simply be shown in millibitcoins by default, instead of bitcoins. People buy bitcoins primarily with a certain amount of USD/EUR/ETC and get whatever they get.

mBTC can decrease the perception of bitcoins being "too expensive", thus it can help as far as the valuation is concerned. It is also a more sensible unit since 1 mBTC is much closer to the value of USD/EUR, or basically any other fiat currency, than 1 BTC is.

What you're implying is that since it would now be very cheap to buy 1 mBTC, people would buy only 1 mBTC. That is false. People want as much bitcoins as they can get, with whatever amount they are investing with. The problem with full unit bias is that people who don't afford to get a full bitcoin at all, might skip Bitcoin entirely and spend the money on something else. The problem is not that they will only buy 1 even if they could easily buy more. 10 is better than 1, 100 is better than 10 and 1000 is better than 100. If a buyer can afford it, he or she will buy 1000 mBTC (or more).
hero member
Activity: 924
Merit: 1001
I edited the first line to correct my poor phrasing.  Thanks.
hero member
Activity: 924
Merit: 1001
Hello.

I have created numerous threads asking people exactly how Bitcoin is supposed to reach the $10,000 mark.  By what method.  Pages of responses all say "We need to switch to mBTC, which will encourage more people to purchase BTC, which will in turn push the price up".   Exactly how does "more people buying mBTC" push the price of 1 whole bitcoin up?  Switching to mBTC won't necessarily do a thing to increase price of Bitcoin.  In fact it may cause it to go down.

Switching to mBTC will actually act as a psychological (and literal) multiplier of increased availability.  People no longer "need to buy 1 whole bitcoin".  Instead of 100 people buying 100 whole Bitcoins, you could very well have 100,000 people buying subdivisions of 1 Bitcoin.  And they could, theoretically all do so, at an unchanging price of $650 per BTC.    If everyone can get a portion of a bitcoin at $650, there is nothing which will push the price of 1 bitcoin to $10,000.  So why would switching to mBTC result in 1 whole BTC going up in value?  I simply don't get it.

Its like offering a $10 pizza to a group of people.  None of them can afford a whole pizza for $10.  So instead, you offer them a slice each, at $1.00.
Guess what happens?  10 people now have a part of the pizza, and the price is still $10 for the whole thing.
Exactly how does offering slices of bitcoin make a whole bitcoin go up in value?

EDIT:  removed discussion about scarcity.  

Thanks all!

-BB-
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