Bitcoin Forum

There are two things that will increase the value of BitCoins:

1) Speculative demand
2) Growth of desirable goods and services

We already experienced #1, which was the expected bubble. People who thought they would get rich from "mining." Now that the bubble has burst, we need more of #2 in order to see growth - for example, more sellers on Silk Road, or greater access and exposure to existing Bitcoin merchants.

Moving the decimal place and keeping it moved.  We need for people to be able to get 60+ bitcoins for $10.  Ideally bitcoins should be worth about 5-15 cents.

The adoption of Bitcoins as a defacto online currency by giant online players ... Google, Facebook, etc.

Facebook already has a currency - "Facebook Credits". Facebook takes a 30% cut, and insists that Facebook apps use their money.

Crappy money.

Survey says...BZZZZZZT! Wrong! Customers are attracted to Bitcoin because they can use it to get something they want, not because of the position of the decimal point. In other words, it is the real value and not the nominal value that drives demand.

That is a specific case of "#2 Growth of desirable goods and services" and therefore, partially correct. If Bitcoin could be used to purchase Google advertisements or acquire Facebook credits, it would represent a significant increase the amount of goods and services available to purchase with Bitcoin.

When the loop is closed .

Meaning you pay the baker in bitcoins
then he can go buy supplies in bitcoins
then the supplier can pay overhead in bitcoins
then his employees can buy from the baker.

Rinse/Repeat

It's my suspicion that having 'one' Bitcoin in the same range as the USD, esp. when it is 1.5 to 1 usd, it will be more approachable to the common man. Of course decimal placement doesn't matter mathematically, but we're talking about psychology here.

Its use as a "safe" currency.

As an example, the European banking authorities have confiscated $70 billion from 1 Arab dictator.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCIQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fislamizationwatch.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F02%2Fmubaraks-assets-of-up-to-70-billion.html&rct=j&q=mubarak%20billions%20frozen&ei=sBUSTpzOE8-ZhQehxIHHDQ&usg=AFQjCNFtnF56ZVBmSZXIEA0cBwW4vW4iRA&cad=rja

If he had that in Bitcoin, they could not take it off him.

The total bitcoin possible is 21 million.  So if he wanted to put all his money into Bitcoin for safety and all 21 million were on the market, the value of bitcoin would have to rise to $3500 each.  From today's $14 each.

And he is only 1 guy...think how many more like him with ill gotten gains all over the world there are.  Once it starts being used, the guys who sold at $14 will feel like fools.

But this is going to take a lot of time. I think a more realistic view is:

You pay the baker in bitcoins.
The baker pays his website hosting in bitcoins.
The website hosting owner buys an offer from Metaco.in
That person buys bread from the baker (yes my imagination is tired, but you get the idea)

You dont need the business to only operate in bitcoins for Bitcoin to be a sucess. As long as people have a place to spend their bitcoins, they will realize in a few years that owning bitcoins is a lot better since they dont depreciate and they will favor it more and more, they will tell their friends, their costumers, other business owners, etc... We just need to create a bit of an economy (this is going to be the hardest part) and then it will snowball.

My loop:

1. People pay me ransom money for articles/comics.
2. I pay my writers and cartoonists.
3. No idea what my employees do with their money. Presumably hording it and spending some. I have three employees.
4. I pay the hosting and domain name bill.
5. In turn, my money is used to pay for mtgox exchange operation.(The company that runs mtgox also host my site)
6. As my business expand, I may take on more employees. Also, I may build different websites that require an employees.

In any case, I lost more money than I gained. However, I cut cost down to where the profit margin is 10%. Last month was good in term of traffic and I hope to grow again and build a healthy war chest.

I am probably one of the longest employer in the bitcoin economy as my economic relationships already stretch a few months.

What will make BTC rise in value? All the people who are building valuable services around it instead of fretting over daily price moves =)

"moving the decimal" in that way is fraud. What people can get cheaply is bitcents or bitmills.

needs to be easier to use and better looking UI

less hackers and scammers could help the equation. 

it's like stealing something, but intentionally damaging it while you're stealing it so that it's worth less money.  What's the point?  There's no free ride in life, and karma is a bitch.

It's not fraud, it's notation. So long as all clients and prices reflect this switch automatically, then nothing has really happened except for a notational change.

What WOULD be fraud is if someone could create new coins themselves that were not part of the 21m set.

actually, security is bitcoin's main hurdle. until we get better security around the wallet, and an easy way for newbies to backup their coins; or even a dependable vault that can't be hacked by script kiddies - it won't be adopted by the masses anytime soon.

all these supposed hacks and shit (probably bullshit hoaxes) aren't building faith by those who don't understand it.

Yes, another way of stating "2) Growth of desirable goods and services "