Accepting Bitcoin means having a Bitcoin wallet. Period! The more merchants like TigerDirect and Overstock "embrace" Bitcoin, the more bitcoins will be sold at the exchanges and the price will be dragged down further and further. It's funny that just about now hoarders start to realize how negative is this for their empty hope to wake up millionaires one day due to Bitcoin suddenly becoming $10K a piece.
"The more merchants like TigerDirect and Overstock "embrace" Bitcoin, the more bitcoins will be sold at the exchanges"
False.
Case in point: the number of merchants accepting bitcoins has dramatically increased over the last year. Yet the exchange rate has increased. This is the case because interest/demand in bitcoin seems roughly proportional to the size of the Bitcoin economy (what you can do, where you can spend them). So the more merchants -> the more interest -> the higher the exchange rate.
I don't get your logic. Liquidity doesn't change supply. It just makes exchange simpler. A set market price has to be found between the people who want to trade Bitcoins, which will very much be influenced by the supply.
Liquidity will help to lessen volatility (fluctuation), but the price point has to be decided by the people who want to own some Bitcoin (traders, spenders and savers). Savers will drive the price upward as long as they save, but that's ok, as long as not too many people decide to liquidate their Bitcoins at the same time. It's the same for lost Bitcoins, the value for the rest of them adjusts to the demand level based on supply.
I only said this drags the price down. In order for somebody to sell, there needs to be a buyer. My comment was that hoarders are in an internal conflict - they both want to spend it to drive adoption up and, yet, continue to hoard it as supply drives the price down decreasing the value of their stash.
Someone has to buy the Bitcoin and spend it before it can be sold on an exchange. Nothing has changed in that regard; the part of the Bitcoin economy you are referring to is zero-sum.
Not necessarily. Most coins are hoarded (i.e. this is a way to make hoarders finally start to sell, i.e. increase supply) and miners get a lot of coins daily, which they need to sell to cover their high energy costs. Why in their right mind would people buy bitcoins (paying 1% + $0.15 with Coinbase and giving up on credit card cash back and miles) just to spend them?!
Maybe you haven't been following the discussions over at Reddit and Bitcoin Forums. Some idiots buy what they spent at Coinbase, which basically is costing them 1% + $0.15 + margin difference in hopes to keep bids and asks in balance. You're dealing with people with serious psychological disorders here!
>You're dealing with people with serious psychological disorders here!
Says the guy patrolling Reddit, HN and even a few other websites constantly bashing bitcoin and calling its users idiots. People engaging in this kind of behavior usually do it because they feel like they've missed the boat and are trying to resolve their cognitive dissonance by convincing themselves it doesn't matter because it's not going to work anyway.
If you have no vested interest in bitcoin going either way, why are you spending such an inordinate amount of time participating in the bitcoin community constantly trying to drag it down? What's in it for you? Don't you have anything better to do with your life?
For instance, I own no gold so I really couldn't care less where it goes and reeducating misguided gold owners would be the lowest thing on my list of priorities.
