Is necessary to mention  that as the difficulty grows as time goes   is necessary to use more hashrate  more and more so hardware vendors
manufacture and sell their mining products driving this industry, in the same way the miners need a price to afford their operation or at least cover operating expenses, other services such as pools, exchanges, betting sites, faucets, etc ,  all this has created and sustained the growing of the demand that you mention, as time passes surely use will continue in new ways and obviously as you know the offer is limited therefore an upward pressure is exerted speaking in long periods of time mainly that is where those increases are noticed more.

With the amount of information and services flooding Internet, much more efficient and fast electronic media are needed than the conventional media, having specified that it still seems that new emerging systems need to be refined to make them easier and safer to use,
but what is certain is that while BTC resolve to those challenges will continue to be a valuable instrument, I think it's too early to say anything else to the validity or permanence of this, but from what peoples see at the time of writing this, is that despite the ups and downs it has had still seems very strong, and is very distant from what the title says, we will have to wait longer to have a clearer definition.

Actually yes, another of its functions, and in fact I just mentioned it in another thread, but I would like to emphasize here again if you let me, is that it can also be used for the payment of services or jobs due to is ease of handling especially for people who have access to devices that interact in one way or another with BTC, And that undoubtedly in the future will increase dramatically and will require the use of very efficient electronic media and  is where it has advantage  in comparison to traditional methods, but it would be absurd to want to replace traditional methods also,  I think these must coexist and in any case improve.

Ok, You refer perhaps to geopolitical factors, but we must also consider many other factors that affect the price, similar to times of the year, some kind of bad news, that is to mention some examples only, it would have to analyze in more depth that other factors could intervene, but yes, generally speaking all that has been mentioned is perhaps the most representative so far, the only thing I wanted to add is that all that factors  are multiplying dozens of times since there is a greater distribution in the daily run, provoking an effect according to the nature and duration of the event and which is also minimized by new participants.

Exactly, that is an angle or point of view which has a lot of certain, fiat must always exist for not limit a nobody in the world to buy anything to meet their needs for example, some kind of balance even in any form of currency must exist, the more options and cheaper you have the better, in the other hand peoples need to explore the possibilities that the use of BTC has, for example is a good alternative for the payment of services remotely which allows if not all, more people to provide their services and then exchange BTC by fiat and viceversa,
so it is possible to keep more people busy doing certain tasks that  otherwise could be much more difficult and costly to carry out.

Besides is the fact that there are still aspects that developers should improve such as ease of use, as well as that if someone needs to acquire BTC to buy other goods in stores it will be more expensive to do so than buying directly with the traditional media, so for the common customer is not very attractive to perform and maybe that is another reason where local businesses  are not very interested in that matter yet, perhaps over time the rate of  conversion will be lowered and  then one could speak of a greater use by such businesses but I repeat, for now it does not seem to be the case maybe in a couple of years things are a little different of what they are now.

Much has been said about the limitations of BTC compared to other newer technologies that don´t yet enjoy the same popularity, However, it has already been seen that even changes can be implemented in BTC to provide solutions especially to the great demand that could arise in the processing and handling of transactions in the future, what is more interesting is that some peoples  are already talking about some integrations along with other projects that exist around which draws much attention for which price has remained at these high levels and if everything goes of the same way the price at least will be stable.

Affirmative, gold is a tangible value that can be touched in addition to its apparent beauty maybe that's one of the main reasons why it's so expensive, the above  together with that it has become very difficult to extract due to the high cost mainly,  have placed it in a shelter of value par excellence, in the case of BTC it's intangible, resembles more to a class of service, and facilitates certain transactions enormously as well as uniting certain areas in the area of technology and finances, there is still no point of comparison between the two, since gold has long been a valuable instrument but the outlook could change more in the future, who knows.

Well do not forget that it is also the most populated country in the world, maybe that's another reason why they have more predominance in some things, as in this case for example, but as they sell their stock to make a profit, or to cover mining expenses, so finally someone else buys their stock, or they end up buying more expensive themselves, of course that for a long time more would remain in the lead in this area how has it been, but no doubt other countries would end up approaching this just in case it was necessary, not to forget that there are much more valuable stocks which could be auctioned to exchange for another to give security to their investment.

In point of fact I think you're right, those two countries have a very strong presence inside BTC, has been seen in the last days, but do not detract from any of the others because as soon as some start selling in large quantities of insurance another will buy the same amount, if not how it could be explained that it is already returning to the same levels at the beginning of the year, In the same way you can see that there is confidence at the moment because the price was expected to fall to lower levels, therefore it can also be a mishmash of various things, the truth is that until now  it would be better to observe price  in the long term, because it has happened that people believe that it will continue to rise in value in short time and nothing! sometimes happens that the price collapses in a few hours.

Because if we analyze it carefully, The price has been increasing until reaching the current levels, it is true that along the way there has been an infinity of p&d or at least that's what it seems, for example recently, I not know if you remember very periodic increases and decreases in the range of +50 -50  in the  prices, now it seems to have stabilized a little more, then and recapitulating, even though you're actually right BTC is strong when compared to the rest, so although some people dump it, this  eventually  will recover as long as there is the demand that has been submitted up to now, but as time passes, this question will be further defined.

It is a little complicated sometimes talking about in general terms  and people tend to blame someone, each time has been different and will continue to be so, for example it occurs to me that overpopulation plays another important role in economic equilibrium, the same or fewer resources  and a gradual increase of the population impact on the availability of satisfactors, another factor might be that more peoples are moving into the services sector neglecting the primary and secondary sector which are the basis of the rest, besides peoples are betting too much on technology neglecting issues as important as the economic and financial sector and what really drives and sustains them.

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At some point in 2013 it was the same thought, although it is true that there is less reward in each new block now , but anyway  it is too early to say how it will be 2017,  until now the demand comes only from certain niches only.

Some time ago I guess gold was used in coins physically, maybe someday its will come back and then the balance would be tilted more by the yellow metal, I mention this for what you just mentioned: The interest of the people changes from time to time.

There! If  even 2x  of that the price is now it could take time, 3x,4x or 5x it's too much to reach in short time(talking about months or one year), so far people use traditional  method of payment  or sending money easier and methods more efficient and with less associated risk, eventually with the course of time could change it, perhaps with some great application that can compete with the rest of the services offered would generate such sudden interest to cause drastic changes in the price.

Excuse me, Out of curiosity I went through this thread and I wanted to point out that I think that's not the amount he's offering, You would have to add a zero to the right to be as follows: 0.001, maybe you would have to evaluate it again to see if you accept or reject his offer.

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You are largely right, but it occurs to me to suppose that the big holders they are well-informed people of what happens around them, as they must stay well aware of what happens when there are  changes  in terms of price for example or changes such as updates or improvements on the code, so well, they surely will not spend all the time in this forum, but they will surely be aware of what is happening in some way or another, and with respect to their influence on prices, yes, they undoubtedly have a great influence on it.