Ask HN: Bitcoin owners—how many of you have actually *bought* something with it? I think there's little question that bitcoin is unsustainable unless an ecosystem emerges for spending it. So how many of you actually transact in bitcoin? What for? And if you haven't, why not? |
Of course, that seems excessive for the individual user, which is why your wallet service provider will do it on your behalf and assume the risk. I imagine Coinbase will do this very soon.
Assuming that in a couple of years there will be a functioning derivatives market, the wallet service provider can then offload that risk to investors.
Speculation isn't a "bad thing", it's a natural thing that is necessary for an efficient market.
Either way, this implies BTC doesn't have intrinsic worth. The OP's argument stands: deflationary forces make it even harder to create a market in bitcoin since no one wants to trade an asset that they think will appreciate in value.
I like to think of myself as a user of the currency, not necessarily an investor.
The price was a little higher than if I had paid old fashioned money, about $700 instead of $680-690. But I needed one. I guessed the price of Bitcoin would be likely to go down temporarily, which was right. It was one way of taking some profits from the increase in value
I earn money in Bitcoin, so it is a closed loop for me.
I've also bought two 4TB hard drives, for about $300.
(The prices are all in USD, and the price of bitcoin when I bought each thing varies.)
Basically, merchants who benefit from Bitcoin are those that VISA/PayPal don't want to touch.
Interestingly, that site has Visa and Mastercard logos on the home page.
it can also be used by people in countries that restrict internet access to buy vpn services.
However, as long as people have access to cash in their local currency, it doesn't make commercial sense to spend BTC. Bitcoin is a self fulfilling prophecy because of this...