Reading the responses to the recent topic titled, "I would sell all my bitcoins if…." has left me concerned.
The kinds of responses on that thread reveal a deep misunderstanding of bitcoin and the current monetary system in many of those who are speculating. Let's consider the scenario in which bitcoin reaches $1000 or let's say $10,000 per bitcoin. Many have said they will cash out if bitcoin reaches this point. Why??
If bitcoin reaches $10,000 it will have to be because the fiat currencies of the world are tumbling to worthlessness via a hyperinflation type scenario and bitcoin is the safe haven, which if you know anything about the current monetary systems of the world, you know this is inevitable. (there have been 3800 fiat currencies throughout history and EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE has crashed to worthlessness; a value of zero) Why would you then sell all of your sound money (Bitcoin) for a bunch of fiat money that is inevitably becoming worthless? I don't understand the logic in doing that.
If bitcoin ever reaches $10,000 per bitcoin, you will NEVER see me selling for fiat paper money. You may however see me having a shopping spree at Overstock.com or TigerDirect.com or NewEgg.com! I will be buying things I want with my bitcoin profits DIRECTLY WITH BITCOIN, not selling my bitcoin for paper fiat. Hopefully by then there will be many more options, perhaps even Amazon.com will be accepting bitcoin for goods and I can have my shopping spree there.
Point being, selling bitcoin for dollars seems counterproductive. Why convert your paper fiat currency into sound value storing superior bitcoin, only to sell all of your superior bitcoin back for worthless antiquated fiat currency again? Why not just spend the bitcoin itself to buy what you want instead of taking a loss by converting back into dollars which will inflate away eventually anyway?
Since we are virtually halfway to what everyone would have considered at the time of this post to be a
ridiculous notion (that bitcoin would anytime soon be at $10,000 when it was trading below $300), we should have enough of an idea at this point to lay waste to the assertions made in the original post that the only reason Bitcoin would be reaching $10,000 is because the fiat currencies of the world are tumbling due to hyperinflation and everyone is turning to bitcoin to flee the ravishes of the evil central bankers,
dear god save us all.
With bitcoin now trading above $4500 in a not completely volatile way, it is not the failure of world currencies that has pushed bitcoin to this price, but pure speculation. The OP also misses the irony of saying that at $10,000, they will never sell for fiat but would rather go on a shopping spree at various merchants, which is the same as converting to fiat anyway. The point isn't whether or not you cash out to fiat specifically, but cash out period to lock in your gains. If you do that with fiat or consumer goods, that's a distinction without a difference; it's the same effect.
If you're sitting on a pile of gain in a speculative asset, there's no reason here (and certainly no reason provided by OP) not to take risk of the table and convert to a more stable currency, which all the major fiats of the world are compared to btc, eve though it trades at $4500.