Bitcoin Forum

As you know , trading with bitcoins (actually buying something ) is an issue.
Most users are "sitting" on their coins , waiting for the value to go up and down.

I don't think many people are actually buying stuff with it.

An idea that might make a change is "negative interest". If you don't use your coins for for let's say a few weeks , you pay a "tax" for not using your coins and the system automatically reduces a certain amount of coins from your account.

The reduced value goes back to the "system" and now new people can mine them as a new coin.

Pros :
1) People will trade their bitcoins and stop accumulating them !
2) The trade volumes will get huge
3) High trading volumes will encourage more and more people to use bitcoins so the amount of bitcoin users will get dramatically higher.

Cons:
1) People can move money from wallet to wallet so their "old" coins won't pay tax. Need to think about technological solution for that
2) People don't like paying taxes ....

Thoughts ?

Fast forward a little and this will inflate bitcoin, as there will always be coins that will be lost/deleted, thus the 21 million coins cap will never be reached.

Freicoin.

Nailed it.

Never work because there are any number of ways to "sell things" or trade with yourself directly or via a friend. Its just too simple to do to even contemplating ways of stopping it. And besides, taking bitcoins off people is akin to EU banks taking money out of customers' bank accounts. One of bitcoin central tenets is "people control their own money" to do with as they please. If that includes hoarding (i.e. saving), so be it. People have a right to save, a right to spend, a right to give away, to do what the heck what they want with their coins.

People won't sit on their coins forever. As more and more services take bitcoins (this week piratebay, porn, dating sites + many others I have missed), and the volatility decreases, people will slowly start to spend and when that happens, there is no going back.

Rome wasn't built in a day. The progress of bitcoin in 3-4 years has been staggering. The progress in the next 18 months will be many times as great.

We must first assume that low trade volumes are bad.  If there's no work to be done, you've got low trade going on.  If there's a lot of work to be done, you'll have more trade.  Lighting a wick on someone's wallet every time they stop spending is an artificial way to keep an economy moving.  People should have the freedom to spend their cash as they please.  There's nothing wrong with holding; they'll spend it when they deem it appropriate.

I believe it's time to break free from the spell that is fiat; we're so used to our money disappearing in smoke if we wait too long to spend it (as a cause of inflation.)  I believe a deflating currency in times which work is becoming more and more scarce is a god send.

How is people not spending their money a problem? Consumerism is the problem, and bitcoin might fix it.

A common misconception.

I pay my bills with dollars because currently that is the only option. Everything else, I use bitcoins.

Bitcoin spending is at an old time high.

I agree as suggested start thinking of it as 1coin = 1000mB

One of the *many* reasons why the American economy is doing so poorly compared to previous generations is because the concept of saving has become non existant. Even otherwise comfortable middle class families seem to live pay check to pay check. When bitcoin goes mainstream and you can use them to buy or pay for nearly anything - it's concievable that people will get their paychecks deposited into bitcoins, from there they can spend as they please while also enjoying a small increase of value for what they continue to hold.

I was going to start doing this with a large portion of my extra cash through OKPay, and have them send me a debit card in the mail - before I learned about OKPay's terrible history with customers.

Hoarding, Day trader's, and price swings aren't a big deal for bitcoin. It's a natural part of the growth process.

Just like weighting over 1,200 pounds, taking up the size of a room, and only being able to do very basic calculations wasn't a big deal for the first computer. Got past all that to be the amazing tools that they are today. 

Sorry, but adding a tax into bitcoin is a retarded idea.  It's an awful idea with any currency really, why would you want your money to go away as it just sits there?

If you don't spend and just keep and accumulate your money, the bitcoin will never work !
The economy grows when people use the money and don't let it die in their account.
How else would you tempt people to spend their coins ?

I'm not sure of the best answer for how to get people to spend, I just think a tax is a horrible idea.  The better way is to just have more services/vendors/etc that accept bitcoin, not to take it away from people who already have it.  Use the carrot not the stick.

Easy, you give them something worth spending that money for.
As long as the deflation rate isn't crazy this is working well.

I can't really imagine anyone liking a system where if you don't use your money you get punished for it. 

It's true bitcoin isn't much of a currency right now because people hoard but in an open market that is peoples choice and right to do so IMO.

This

Read up on it and the concept of demurrage before you post a reply  ::)

NO

Oh sorry I thought I'd wandered into a thread entitled, "Really, really, really bad ideas for the development of Bitcoin."

Inflation is a similar “tax” for consumers. If you don’t spend money today, you will have “less” of it tomorrow. Are you sure you want Bitcoin being inflationary?

Awful idea. User added to ignore list as he doesn't understand a thing about BTC.

Nothing intrinsically wrong with the concept except that the OP didn't realise it's being done already with Freicoin. If you dig your teeth into the economics of demurrage there is very sound reasoning behind it. Worth spending 10 mins of your life understanding. But not right for Bitcoin.

I save Bitcoin. I spend Bitcoin. I also buy Bitcoin to spend at retailers who accept Bitcoin.

BitPay have also made this easier for retailers to do now with little risk of currency fluctuations. I have also implemented their payment gateway on my site Art Galleries Direct (www.artgalleriesdirect.com) which sells original art imported from Bali (was that a blatent plug or what?)

I didnt read any of the comments, but your idea is awful, no one is going to want to be part of a currency that charges you for not spending it

People will spend what they want to and wont spend if they dont want to, how would you honestly feel if you left £20 in your wallet and came back to find £18 and a note saying 'You had not spent your money in 2 weeks, therefore we have taken £2 from you'

Yes, actually if you look at bitcoincharts, you can see that $200 million in USD is spent per day in BTC.

Your £ devalues every single day. It may look like £20 remains £20 after 2 weeks but in real terms it absolutely doesn't.