You are the X-Man of investigations Mister Phinnaeus!   You must tell everyone the Tu-Tu is the source of your super powers (just because that would be awesome).

-B-

The million dollar question.  Most of the incentive is for merchants.  90% of it.
Some incentives which may motivate consumers in the future:

1)  Slightly discounted prices offered by merchants that save money on merchant fees.
2)  Bitcoin being offered as a salary option from employers.
3)  Bitcoin being included in retirement and pension funds as an option.
4)  The biggest in my opinion:  Press and Economists finally acknowledging that Bitcoin will increase in value over time.  General awareness of this.  Financial advisers mentioning it to clients. Its deflationary aspect I believe will be its biggest incentive for consumer acquisitions.  But getting to this stage, where its a "well known fact" and mentioned repeatedly on television and news articles, is going to be awhile.  

In the end, people will buy bitcoin, and then subsequently spend bitcoin because the longer they hold it, the more it is worth.  Many will see the small gains, and think:  "I can spend some of that now, because the rest that im holding, will continue to increase in value".  This encourages commerce.  If you know your $10,000 worth of Bitcoin holdings today will be worth $13,000 in a year, you'll freely spend $2,000 of that on a vacation.  And all you have to do is wait another year to get another free vacation. Bitcoin is a savings account with interest, among a million other things.  There will also be 3rd party services that will create incentives as part of their product offerings, I believe.  The volatile fluctuations will decrease, and a very slow, creeping-upward in price will be the new norm.

-B-

Demand must be greater than the supply, or the price doesn't rise.
Merchants adding Bitcoin at this stage do *not* result in increased consumer demand, adoption nor commerce.

This lays the foundation for future consumer adoption and commerce.
We are currently in the "Merchant Adoption" phase, which is a necessary first step.

Price will rise when consumers begin getting on board.  
Then, maybe good news articles will result in price increases.

This is why day trading bitcoin is stupid.  Bitcoin is "long" by definition.  You should be too.
Buy, hold, put it on a paper wallet, and keep adding to that balance.
And wait.

Who knows.

Maybe a bunch of people mining 0.0001 BTC will be sitting on $100 from that one day.

If we truly believe BTC is going to the moon - then technically - these are a great deal for Walmart buyers.

Fast forward 10 years where you hear a dude say:  "Man they were selling those 10G miners at Walmart back in 2014 - i SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT ONE!"

Price rises when demand outweighs supply.

That isn't going to happen until people (consumers) start needing Bitcoin.

Right now, they don't need Bitcoin.   There's almost zero incentive. 

We are in the phase of merchant adoption, and that doesn't equate to sales or commerce yet, so price shouldn't move much.

The good news is that this builds the foundation for the rocket to the moon later.

-B-

I'm sensing a lack of awareness of proper analogies here.  

Gox happened.  And then I realized.  Anarchy is idiocy.  Because human beings are dicks.  Quite a few of us, if allowed to do whatever we want, would do horrible things to eachother.  

Bottom line is this:  Skype and Bitcoin are a poor comparison.  Worst thing that happens with unregulated Skype is someone drops a call.
Bitcoin is money.  Worst thing that happens with money?  Life savings are lost.  Lives are ruined.
That's why regulation is more of a topic with Bitcoin.

If you want Bitcoin to continue to be ignored by the public because month after month, some new asshole is stealing mass volumes of them from people, then by all means, keep ranting that there should be "NO REGULATION".    

Otherwise, realize that human beings are corrupt.  And third party services (not bitcoin itself) need to be regulated, or the disasters will continue to happen.  Regulation, done right, saves us from losers who don't know right from wrong.  Or don't care.  The key is responsible regulation that doesn't overstep its bounds or stifle innovation.  Assholes need to be restricted, hindered, and monitored.  I think everyone here agrees with that.  Except maybe Amir Taaki.

Anarchists and Libertarians love Bitcoin because it restricts institutional corruption.  Yet they push an ideology that involves "no rules" (freedom) for the general public.  The institution itself must be corrupt.  Yet apparently the general public is made up of angels.  And people with jobs are the only dicks.  The logic escapes me.  I think most of these folks just hate authority in general.  As children, someone in authority abused their power.  Now they're adults, and they hate anyone who makes any rules.  About anything.  They'll sit at a border patrol checkpoint in AZ for 2 hours like a tool, because they refuse to say "American" when asked their citizenship (John Bush - Lets Talk Bitcoin / Sovereign BTC Podcast host).

Simply put, because people like Mark Karpeles exist, we need someone to stop them from ruining people's lives. That doesn't mean Bitcoin has to suffer.   If Bitcoin has a reputation for being safe, reliable, and welcoming, it wont suffer.  It will flourish.  Leave the 3rd party services unregulated, and your stash of coins will never be worth more than $500.  And nobody's going to fucking use it.

Caveat:  If regulation can be "recreated" by mathematical algorhythms, then I am all for that too.  It doesn't always have to come from institutions.  A big part of what the Bitcoin paradigm is introducing, is the possibility of a self-regulating environment.  I am excited to see if this is even possible, because it *will* be superior to institutional regulation.  Not because institutions are corrupt.  But because human beings in general are often corrupt.  Even Libertarians.

-B-

I have no idea what you are talking about but it doesn't relate to the topic of this thread at all.

-B-

CCBill is ... huge ... huge ... huge.   Like super huge.   If they got on board it would be incredible.   Like you mentioned, especially with all the adult sites they sponsor.  Not that I would know about that.   

I read that its roughly a year for ETF approval and they applied when ... Q4 2013 right?

-B-

Yeah my first reaction to the article was that it read like an advertisement for the company, honestly.

They mention the company name way too many times.

Human dishonesty / shadiness never fails to disappoint.

-B-

Maybe he means on the chinese exchange.  I think it got much higher than that at one point when it was 1100 on US exchanges?

-B-

Honestly sounds like something I would like to see.

-B-

yeah the time has come.  fortunately adoption is increasing exponentially now.  At least among merchants :-/

I pulled out about $60,000 back when litecoin hit $50-ish.   Sold to BTC and cashed out through Coinbase.  Had no problems at all.

Some tips I got from a banker:

*  Domestic ACH transactions (Coinbase to USA) are usually much less suspect and given less scrutiny than international wires (Bitstamp to USA, etc)
*  If you're going to have a deposit of over $200,000 (i think that was the thresshold) you should contact your bank rep ahead of time and in good faith, inform them of it.
*  Describe your deposit as profits from an investment in international currency trading.   This is considered a reasonable explanation in our situation and will result in less scrutiny.
*  Most important:   Don't move the money out too quickly (if over $100-200k).  Let it sit in the bank account for a few months.  They look for "in and out" large sums to trigger scrutiny.

I am still curious how people will effectively cash out larger sums though, when Bitcoin hits $5,000+ 

-B-

This is the best thread on the forum and it will be a cult favorite in the years to come.  Glad its back

-B-

Yah Im still confused about this.  Also what is that URL at the bottom there.   Obviously mocking Mark Karpeles. 

Latin House Grill in Miami (Kendall) does this.  No BitPay needed.

1)  Open up Blockchain app
2)  Type in the Bitcoin amount and the app tells you exactly how much USD it equals while you type.
3)  Fine tune it until correct
4)  Submit.

No merchant fees for Latin House Grill (even low ones via BitPay).
Fortunately for them, Bitcoin went up significantly since I paid $52 for our dinner.
I have now paid them $70 for dinner :-P
Fortunately I replenished *my* bitcoin immediately.

-B-

I don't see any irony in the statement above.   Can you clarify?

-B-

You're comparing only commerce numbers.   They are comparing numbers based on one thing:   "online funds transfers of any kind".   The ability to move money for any reason, friction-less-ly.  Paypal is restricted to commerce.  Bitcoin can do commerce and much, much more.  So its a little bit of a twist, but its a relevant comparison still.  However if you only look at b2c sales, then yes, Bitcoin is nowhere near PayPal. 

-B-