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A Look at the Bitcoin Economy

thegenesisblock.com

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Re: A Look at the Bitcoin Economy

#31

Post by BrokenPipe »

JohnDoe365 wrote: post #27
jval wrote: post #23

With respect, the press is regularly quoting how many places now 'accept bitcoin' but it is all really a vanity metric. I know it is difficult to know how much these merchant accounts get used without internal information from the providers themselves, but from all internal accounts I have heard, the usage is dismal. For no surprising reason customers are generally disinterested in purchasing anything with Bitcoin th…

Usage will rise once the value starts to drop. Why would anybody spend on real god as long as the value is soaring? This is of course only true for those currently holding Bitcoins. The current rise of Bitcoins' value is actually very unhealthy for the market.

Why would I spend bitcoin when the value is soaring? Because I have no alternatives eventually.

See, let's say i start out with 5k worth of bitcoin and 5k worth of USD. The bitcoin go up in value while the USD go down via QE.

As you suggested I avoid spending the 5k in BTC but thing is eventually I will run out of USD and even if I don't because say I got a day job source of USD income eventually I will want to buy something which is above my pay rate and I will have to use my btc.

The same thing happens with gold or with an estate property, only thing, bitcoin is more liquid than that and unlike gold or a house I can decide to use a tiny part at anytime without selling or exchanging the whole cake.

And with BTC merchant can offer discounts which may encourage the use of btc.

Time will tell.

Re: A Look at the Bitcoin Economy

#32

Post by lectrick »

lumberjack wrote: post #5

What is an example of a service* or product* that is served better with cryptocoins than with cash, bank transfers or credit cards? What are people spending bitcoins on and why? That would be nice to know and definitely more informative than a graph of daily activity within the blockchain. * preferably something mundane and totally within the boundaries of the law

> served better with cryptocoins than with cash, bank transfers or credit cards?

Buying things online from other countries without having to go through the "demoninational dance"

Anyone who is unbanked and/or uncredited (still most of the world, btw) could benefit from doing business with cryptocoin

Anyone who is in a country with a completely overinflated currency

Anyone who wants to take their money out of a country with lame capital controls

Anyone who wants to carry their money inside their head (brainwallet) instead of in a controlled-by-third-party bank account

Donating without giving any personal information (don't even get me started about the outright harassment I experienced after donating to someone who unfortunately got my number)

Kids can use them to buy things online without credit

Re: A Look at the Bitcoin Economy

#33

Post by lectrick »

lumberjack wrote: post #5

What is an example of a service* or product* that is served better with cryptocoins than with cash, bank transfers or credit cards? What are people spending bitcoins on and why? That would be nice to know and definitely more informative than a graph of daily activity within the blockchain. * preferably something mundane and totally within the boundaries of the law

http://www.cointagion.com/

Check this site out. Seconds after you send the specified bitcoins to the QR code/address using your smartphone or bitcoin wallet app... It triggers the download.

No entering in of CC information or account creation required. Just blip, get download of book, done.

How fucking cool is that?

Re: A Look at the Bitcoin Economy

#34

Post by maxerickson »

kissickas wrote: post #25
TylerE wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I don't trust the merchant, at least not when I don't have to.

So even if you go to the same restaurant twice a month, you would never pay cash? I'm not sure we're understanding each other here.

Sit down meals are generally eaten on credit. I guess you have to trust that you don't get food poisoning.

Re: A Look at the Bitcoin Economy

#35

Post by JohnDoe365 »

BrokenPipe wrote: post #31
JohnDoe365 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usage will rise once the value starts to drop. Why would anybody spend on real god as long as the value is soaring? This is of course only true for those currently holding Bitcoins. The current rise of Bitcoins' value is actually very unhealthy for the market.

Why would I spend bitcoin when the value is soaring? Because I have no alternatives eventually. See, let's say i start out with 5k worth of bitcoin and 5k worth of USD. The bitcoin go up in value while the USD go down via QE. As you suggested I avoid spending the 5k in BTC but thing is eventually I will run out of USD and even if I don't because say I got a day job source of USD income eventually I will want to buy s…

Your argumentation is valid yet I bet that you are very unlikely to invest all your money in Bitcoins thus you will not run out of USDs or Euros, whatever. Let's see.

Re: A Look at the Bitcoin Economy

#36

Post by TylerE »

kissickas wrote: post #25
TylerE wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I don't trust the merchant, at least not when I don't have to.

So even if you go to the same restaurant twice a month, you would never pay cash? I'm not sure we're understanding each other here.

There's a big difference in a face to face transaction with cash, and online with BTC, in that in the former case I have physical product in hand (or services rendered) BEFORE I hand over a dime.

Re: A Look at the Bitcoin Economy

#37

Post by kissickas »

TylerE wrote: post #36
kissickas wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So even if you go to the same restaurant twice a month, you would never pay cash? I'm not sure we're understanding each other here.

There's a big difference in a face to face transaction with cash, and online with BTC, in that in the former case I have physical product in hand (or services rendered) BEFORE I hand over a dime.

BTC aren't only for the Internet. Until you said the word "online," the thought didn't even cross my mind. Thanks for clarifying my confusion, you have a valid point. I guess I never disagreed with you.

Re: A Look at the Bitcoin Economy

#38

Post by PeterisP »

jval wrote: post #23

With respect, the press is regularly quoting how many places now 'accept bitcoin' but it is all really a vanity metric. I know it is difficult to know how much these merchant accounts get used without internal information from the providers themselves, but from all internal accounts I have heard, the usage is dismal. For no surprising reason customers are generally disinterested in purchasing anything with Bitcoin th…

If I have a choice of paying a provider with card or bitcoin, why would I choose bitcoin? I get more rights and benefits if I do the same thing with a card.

For the majority user, who is mostly buying and not selling, Bitcoin currently has an advantage only in cases where I can't/don't want to pay with a card - say, a need for anonymity, but that is only a small niche. How bitcoin can improve the experience for common transactions?

Re: A Look at the Bitcoin Economy

#39

Post by industrialwaste »

ra wrote: post #30
industrialwaste wrote: post #26

So, if I had invested when I planned to a couple of years ago (or actually bought decent hardware to mine on) I would have made a decent return. But now I'm curious if we're in a bubble that will decrease in popularity or if it's still something that will continue to be on the rise. Seems to me that all of the recent news has brought attention to bitcoin which has helped with it's popularity. Is it something that wil…

The market price of BTC has grown fairly consistently on the logarithmic scale for a couple of years now. There have been ups and downs, but the majority of the price growth obviously comes from an increase in demand that isn't being met by supply. Supply will not increase, but demand might. What would further increase demand? Well the status quo, i.e. BTC breaking new market highs, having crashes and recovering, tha…

I didn't expect such a great response. Thank you for this, I think this answered all my questions and even more that I hadn't thought of asking yet.
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