BTC Demand.

[oystercard]

Question: Is the BTC exchange price (On Mt. Gox, etc) a good indicator of growing demand for coin on a larger scale? Or is it merely a snapshot of demand at a specific moment in time? Or does it not give any clues?

[Lethn]

If there's a massive spike that stays like with what happened to gold in 2008 then sure, that's a definite indicator, however you don't want to be like all these politicians and economists who get giddy and excitable over barely 1% change because that's nothing realistically in the long term.

[SAC]

Question: Is the BTC exchange price (On Mt. Gox, etc) a good indicator of growing demand for coin on a larger scale? Or is it merely a snapshot of demand at a specific moment in time? Or does it not give any clues?

It is good indication of the speculators/manipulators mood that control the price. If it is going up they are on their pump cycle if going down they are in dump mode.

[Stephen Gornick]

Question: Is the BTC exchange price (On Mt. Gox, etc) a good indicator of growing demand for coin on a larger scale? Or is it merely a snapshot of demand at a specific moment in time? Or does it not give any clues?

If bitcoins were only used for commerce, and were sold as soon as each transaction confirmed there would only be a small valuation of all the coins combined (e..g, well under one dollar USD).

So the entirety of value above that is speculation that in the future the amount of commerce including bitcoins will be much higher than it is today.  While some are today thinking $11.75 is a good spot to unload, others are thinking the exchange rate goes higher.

So a rising exchange rate is only a good indicator of future expectations, not necessarily a good indicator of growth in current demand.

This is a chart that is a pretty good indicator in the growth of current demand:
 - http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions?daysAverageString=7&scale=1

And the WordPress announcement has emboldened speculators in increasing their future expectations.

But there's no way to know if there's further upside, or if Bitcoin's traction will increase enough to justify current expectations.

It's purely speculation.

[Vod]

This is a chart that is a pretty good indicator in the growth of current demand:
 - http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions?daysAverageString=7&scale=1

Isn't that spike around May due to the dice game?