Oh, man... It seems you really can't process what you read. Let me bring it to you in easy to digest bits, ok:

1) Bitcoin needs to gain wider acceptance for it to succeed. Even among the technically inclined, right now, the camp is almost equally divided between supporters and detractors. This holds also for the economists and the traders (though probably more detractors among traders than economists or techs).

2) The only reason your or my grandmother would ever consider getting a single bitcoin is if she has an incentive to do so. The world is full of grandmothers, grandfathers, farmers, doctors, shoemakers, students... the list goes on. They outnumber the techs, economists and traders at least a million to one. What they consider an incentive is important.

3) Bitcoin is currently inflationary. 7200 new coins every day. That places a lot of downward pressure on the market.

4) Bitcoin is naturally deflationary in the long term (please note how 3 and 4 are actually separate statements and not contradictory, thanks). It furthermore bills itself as being deflationary.

5) What constitutes an incentive? A steady rise in price, for one. Other things, like a decentralised nature, the ability to make payments around the world and being resistant to counterfeit are large incentives as well, but not so much for that million other people out there for each tech, economist or trader.

6) Stability = absence of rise in price = non-adoption for the masses.

Heh, hashrate? You're sort of making my point.

Bitcoin will sink or swim on the basis of its adoption by people who have no idea what a hashrate is. These people will be attracted to bitcoin if it can provide something they don't already get... like a steady increase in value. Get it?

If the only people involved with bitcoin can all give you a definition for hashrate, it's a hobby, not a currency or commodity.

Agreed. Stability, when it comes to bitcoin, pretty much equals stagnation. It's great that there's a handful of very smart guys working on new software, start-ups and ideas. But for bitcoin to succeed it will need to be "engaged with" by a significant portion of "other humans".

This means that as long as bitcoin remains stable, there will be very little incentive for anyone to even think of buying a bitcoin, let alone using it. In the meantime, 7200 new bitcoins will appear each and every day for the next few months, and that will cause a slow and steady drop, making it even less likely that anyone outside the little group will look on bitcoins as a good idea or investment.

Much has been said about the advantages of a stable bitcoin... it really is all nonsense. With a naturally deflationary currency, you'd expect, and want, for it to go up in price over time. This is in the nature of bitcoin. Stability is not. Right now, the stable state of affairs is unnatural... Mass adoption of bitcoin will come from its upwards swings, not from its stable periods.

Wrong, actually. The priority for the conference should have been the success of bitcoin. That would have been greatly aided by much more communication and coverage than there was. I'm sure the conference was a success from the participants' point of view, but from the point of view of the larger success of bitcoin as a whole, too many opportunities were missed.

Yup... pretty early on I decided on what amount of BTC I'd like to save for the future. Once I got to that point, if I ever need to, I just buy some BTC on the exchanges and use them.

Not that I fully buy into the concept that until we start using Bitcoin to pay for milk the currency is doomed, mind you. There are plenty of examples of currencies and commodities which aren't used to transact in day to day life, and do quite well, thank you. There are entire areas of the world where the currency used for day to day transactions is PRECISELY the one that's in trouble, and people prefer to use other currencies as a store of value, or to purchase larger things like cars and homes.

But still, if you're going to pay someone who takes BTC, then just buy whatever BTC you need to pay them and transfer it... at least you'll get the exchanges moving.

Certainly not without knowing what your native language is... but that's more about guessing than about spelling.

Yup, it definitely biases towards the low... which is why it's stupid to suggest this is an attempt at shoring up the market. If anything, it's a downward magnet.

Nope, if they had found the meaning of life, the price of BTC would be 42 

Nah, last time he spoke he said he was holding... he's just off the meds 

Oldminer... have you gone off the meds again? Not to worry, he'll be back to his old self soon. 

Yeah, memo to Bruce, as much as we all love bitcoin, a cruise is not a game changer. If that was the big announcement, it was definitely overhyped.

Yes, that's old news.

There were supposed to be TWO big announcements... Where are they?

is anyone blogging live then?

I thought onlyonetv was going to carry bruce's opening speech live... can't seem to get it anywhere

Agreed, strangely compelling, actually.

Here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=38048.0

Forto En Numeros... that's it in Esperanto, I think.

Sorry, my brainfart!

And we should also change the name of this thread to:

Augustus, aenigma habemus