It seems a bit of a paradox: for BTC to be worth something people need to spend their BitCoins.  Scarcity driving up price only works when there's demand for the scarce thing. 

It's not so much holding on to your BitCoins as it is demanding to be paid in them (and being willing to pay others with them).  The BitCoin economy has to flourish or you've got a wallet full of random bits that may as well be raw disk space.

Every 10 C drop in temps doubles the life of the electronics.

People who are only looking for an investment to increase their hoard of Dollars are missing a major point.

Many of us are here looking for an alternative system.  The value of BTC relative to USD is an interest, but not the whole-and-only reason for using BitCoins.  in fact, most of the problems and FUD seem to be centered around the places where the BitCoin economy intersects the government-sanctioned ones: the exchanges.  ("BTC went up too fast," "it went down too low," "it'll never hold," "it's too volatile," etc.) 

As the BitCoin economy grows and BitCoins are put to use, people will establish their value for goods and services. The exchange rates will stabilize. And, perhaps, people will be talking about the shortcomings of centrally-controlled currency backed by faith in mere governments.

Me? Certified test pilot for BarcaLounger.

Do you not find value in effectively having your own BitCoin exchange in your basement?  You give the power utility bucks, you get out BitCoins.  The account is already set up.  No Big Brother watching your interaction with Mt.Gox. 

Seems like there might be something worthwhile about that.

Hiya!  It turns out there's a lot of thought and discussion and beating around the bush about these ideas.  In fact, I came to this forum by landing on this thread: http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=3176.0 which eventually drifts into a debate about exchanges, the points where the BitCoin economy intersects with the government-sanctioned economies.

One great read (also mentioned in the thread) is: Toward A Private Digital Economy -Trusted transactions in an anonymous world
http://pelagic.wavyhill.xsmail.com/Private_Digital_Economy.html . 

Especially, see the section about Ghost Walkers http://pelagic.wavyhill.xsmail.com/Private_Digital_Economy.html#Ghost%20Walker" who function as anonymous micro-exchanges

There's also a nice post listing news stories of non-sanctioned exchanges that have been shut down:
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=3176.msg45198#msg45198

Thought-provoking stuff.  I'm surprised there's not more discussion about these concepts here in the Newbies section.

Do you have experience dealing with a LETS ?  It seems like a perfect use for BitCoin, both within a LETS and perhaps between LETS(s).