Do you have a feeling BTC has slowed down a bit?

[crazyivan]

Well it all comes to the BTC adoption rate. I simply cannot belive that 6 years into the game the market still cannot consume these couple thousands BTC produced every day. I do not believe early adopters dump a lot so this slowing down caused by the price drop which s caused by supply being over demand must be the reason behind the lack of faster BTC development.

[frankenmint]

I still read the boards every now and then but I am out. Completely. Bitcoin solves nothing for me but it was a great way to make extra cash since I discovered it. But the easy money is gone for me personally and I think the people like me will move on to other things. Very neat idea though but just another type of fiat currency in monetary economics. A house built on sand in other words. I highly doubt it will have any value in 20 years as something else will replace it. Internet users are a fickle bunch.

I've witnessed that too. People are moving on. There's a small fraction of the users here now that were here when I first registered. Even the evangelistic born again Bitcoiners are gone now. I always chalked it up to kids graduating, growing up and starting their real lives. Everyone is idealistic in college. Save the whales, save the trees, free (insert current martyr here) slowly becomes feed the kids, pay the mortgage, please the boss.

I'm not gone, I'm just on other platforms more often.  I find that a lot of people here seem to ask the noob stuff all too often.  I think you can find many of us still active on places like facebook twitter reddit instagram has some... This place is good, but relatively, but I wish that the marketplace section was more active. 

[frankenmint]

Well it all comes to the BTC adoption rate. I simply cannot belive that 6 years into the game the market still cannot consume these couple thousands BTC produced every day. I do not believe early adopters dump a lot so this slowing down caused by the price drop which s caused by supply being over demand must be the reason behind the lack of faster BTC development.

It will be interesting to see what happens if/when bitcoin gets to 3k or more...will many adopters hold or cash out?

I look at BTC as an investment, but I probably wouldn't exit unless BTC reaches less than 5 dollars a coin and EVEN THEN, I would probably just triple down anyway on the notion that we're back to the good ol speculation days with huge volatility.  As often as I'm around the ecosystem though, I would probably see signals that its worse than just a currency crash - like fundamental thefts everywhere along with movement of millions of early coins - that would probably signal me to exit my bitcoin holdings. 

As someone else here said, the network effect will be what determines crypto 2.0's winer.  If we use sidechains and they are indeed superior, many (including me) will transfer a little bit of BTC to those new chains, but will keep BTC as a true stored reserve of value in case the new instrument crashes, or even perhaps, we speculate and trade with those pairs instead of USD btc. 

[crazyivan]

Well it all comes to the BTC adoption rate. I simply cannot belive that 6 years into the game the market still cannot consume these couple thousands BTC produced every day. I do not believe early adopters dump a lot so this slowing down caused by the price drop which s caused by supply being over demand must be the reason behind the lack of faster BTC development.

In 2013 there was a serious influx of money, especially from China and a lot of that money was withdrawn in 2014 when their government's stance changed. Bitcoin went back to the prices from before the 2013 pump, which is completely normal, and did not collapse.
You're also wrong about early adopters not dumping. I remember that about 2 weeks after Hal Finney died last year there were huge regular dumps and people suspected his family of cashing out. Those dumps made the price go down by $200 and reach the lowest point in 2014, so there was obviously at least one whale involved.

Well, only mindless people can dump that way. If they do want out, selling over longer period of time makes them earn much more. I doubt any early adopter s that dumb.
I understand that this constant price decrease might actually be due to higher retail adoption and selling BTC as soon as retailers get them. However, there has to be a bottom line, thing need to pick up soon.

[HI-TEC99]

I still read the boards every now and then but I am out. Completely. Bitcoin solves nothing for me but it was a great way to make extra cash since I discovered it. But the easy money is gone for me personally and I think the people like me will move on to other things. Very neat idea though but just another type of fiat currency in monetary economics. A house built on sand in other words. I highly doubt it will have any value in 20 years as something else will replace it. Internet users are a fickle bunch.

I've witnessed that too. People are moving on. There's a small fraction of the users here now that were here when I first registered. Even the evangelistic born again Bitcoiners are gone now. I always chalked it up to kids graduating, growing up and starting their real lives. Everyone is idealistic in college. Save the whales, save the trees, free (insert current martyr here) slowly becomes feed the kids, pay the mortgage, please the boss.

I'm not gone, I'm just on other platforms more often.  I find that a lot of people here seem to ask the noob stuff all too often.  I think you can find many of us still active on places like facebook twitter reddit instagram has some... This place is good, but relatively, but I wish that the marketplace section was more active. 

This place comes alive when there are big movements either way in bitcoin price. The most activity seems to happen when bitcoin gets pumped, but it's still very active when it suddenly crashes. The tumbleweeds start blowing around when nothing is happening.

[franky1]

After quite turbulent events during the last few years, I somehow feel BTC economy s been slowing down a bit. Maybe people are losing interest after not seeing those price jumps/decreases which we witnessed in the past. I know statistics ll probably dispute my claims but this is just my feeling. How do you feel about it, are people still into BTC?

some say no because:

3 years ago it took ALOT of effort for prices to move from $6.20 to $6.60 in a month ..
but now prices are moving $225-$270 every week roughly.

$50 dollar movement as oppose to 50 cent movement means that alot of dollar is moving about...

.... or (my theory) not much bitcoin is on exchanges allowing movements to be rapid, without much dollar involvement

[ensurance982]

After quite turbulent events during the last few years, I somehow feel BTC economy s been slowing down a bit. Maybe people are losing interest after not seeing those price jumps/decreases which we witnessed in the past. I know statistics ll probably dispute my claims but this is just my feeling. How do you feel about it, are people still into BTC?

No the VC fundings are through the roof already and things are still very much alive, pace has picked up last September/October again, which is even more impressive given the price decline!

[Lorenzo]

After quite turbulent events during the last few years, I somehow feel BTC economy s been slowing down a bit. Maybe people are losing interest after not seeing those price jumps/decreases which we witnessed in the past. I know statistics ll probably dispute my claims but this is just my feeling. How do you feel about it, are people still into BTC?

Bitcoin tends to have short bursts of highly rapid growth surrounded by long phases of slow, zero, or slight negative growth. If you look at the history of BTC adoption as well as historical price charts, you will see that there was very little growth or activity happening in the BTC scene between January 2009 and January 2010. In the beginning of 2009, the network difficulty was 1.0. On January 2010, the network difficulty was 1.18. One month after Satoshi launched Bitcoin, the network hashrate was 5 MH/s. Ten months later, it was 6 MH/s. Much of this hashrate could be attributed to Satoshi himself as well as a few extremely early adopters such as Hal Finney mining on their home computers.

In 2010, Bitcoin adoption grew at a slow but steady pace. The first significant spike in terms of activity didn't really happen until early to mid 2011. That was during the June bubble which pulled a lot of mainstream users into the BTC community. The price went from cents to $33 before crashing back down to $3 later in the year. A lot of miners joined in resulting in the hashrate exploding from 100 GH/s to 10,000 GH/s. Many businesses started accepting Bitcoin too. Silk Road and BitPay were both also established in this year.

(Keep in mind that before mid 2011, Bitcoin was almost completely unknown to the outside world. Those few months constitute a very special and significant event in Bitcoin's history.)

Compared to 2011 however, 2012 was another lackluster year for Bitcoin similar to 2010. Bitcoin's price started off at $7 in the beginning of the year and only grew to $13 by the year's end. Bitcoin was still growing, new companies were still entering the scene, and new Bitcoin startups were still being created although most of this happened behind the scenes.

Then came 2013 which was another repeat of 2011 except now there were two bubbles this time. The first happened when the price shot up from $13 to $266 by April before collapsing. Then it repeated itself later in the year when the price reached over $1,200 before collapsing again. This of course created huge publicity which brought Bitcoin back onto television screens and the mainstream media. Tons of people started entering the Bitcoin community.

Since the last bubble happened so quickly and was almost completely sustained by hype, naturally the price fell afterwards as the hype failed to materialize.

2014 was mostly about dealing with the after effects that this massive bubble created. You now had a lot more people involved in the Bitcoin scene than previously but the increase in price was still way out of proportion to the increased demand. People realized this and so money began leaving the scene. Then as prices dropped further, more people cashed in their coins and left.

TL:DR; Price goes up and people rush in = increased activity. Price doesn't go to the moon so people lose interest and start to leave = decreased activity.

[crazyivan]

After quite turbulent events during the last few years, I somehow feel BTC economy s been slowing down a bit. Maybe people are losing interest after not seeing those price jumps/decreases which we witnessed in the past. I know statistics ll probably dispute my claims but this is just my feeling. How do you feel about it, are people still into BTC?

Bitcoin tends to have short bursts of highly rapid growth surrounded by long phases of slow, zero, or slight negative growth. If you look at the history of BTC adoption as well as historical price charts, you will see that there was very little growth or activity happening in the BTC scene between January 2009 and January 2010. In the beginning of 2009, the network difficulty was 1.0. On January 2010, the network difficulty was 1.18. One month after Satoshi launched Bitcoin, the network hashrate was 5 MH/s. Ten months later, it was 6 MH/s. Much of this hashrate could be attributed to Satoshi himself as well as a few extremely early adopters such as Hal Finney mining on their home computers.

In 2010, Bitcoin adoption grew at a slow but steady pace. The first significant spike in terms of activity didn't really happen until early to mid 2011. That was during the June bubble which pulled a lot of mainstream users into the BTC community. The price went from cents to $33 before crashing back down to $3 later in the year. A lot of miners joined in resulting in the hashrate exploding from 100 GH/s to 10,000 GH/s. Many businesses started accepting Bitcoin too. Silk Road and BitPay were both also established in this year.

(Keep in mind that before mid 2011, Bitcoin was almost completely unknown to the outside world. Those few months constitute a very special and significant event in Bitcoin's history.)

Compared to 2011 however, 2012 was another lackluster year for Bitcoin similar to 2010. Bitcoin's price started off at $7 in the beginning of the year and only grew to $13 by the year's end. Bitcoin was still growing, new companies were still entering the scene, and new Bitcoin startups were still being created although most of this happened behind the scenes.

Then came 2013 which was another repeat of 2011 except now there were two bubbles this time. The first happened when the price shot up from $13 to $266 by April before collapsing. Then it repeated itself later in the year when the price reached over $1,200 before collapsing again. This of course created huge publicity which brought Bitcoin back onto television screens and the mainstream media. Tons of people started entering the Bitcoin community.

Since the last bubble happened so quickly and was almost completely sustained by hype, naturally the price fell afterwards as the hype failed to materialize.

2014 was mostly about dealing with the after effects that this massive bubble created. You now had a lot more people involved in the Bitcoin scene than previously but the increase in price was still way out of proportion to the increased demand. People realized this and so money began leaving the scene. Then as prices dropped further, more people cashed in their coins and left.

TL:DR; Price goes up and people rush in = increased activity. Price doesn't go to the moon so people lose interest and start to leave = decreased activity.

Hah, interesting analysis. So if this all true, when do you foresee the next phase of highly rapid growth?

[Amph]

After quite turbulent events during the last few years, I somehow feel BTC economy s been slowing down a bit. Maybe people are losing interest after not seeing those price jumps/decreases which we witnessed in the past. I know statistics ll probably dispute my claims but this is just my feeling. How do you feel about it, are people still into BTC?

some say no because:

3 years ago it took ALOT of effort for prices to move from $6.20 to $6.60 in a month ..
but now prices are moving $225-$270 every week roughly.

$50 dollar movement as oppose to 50 cent movement means that alot of dollar is moving about...

.... or (my theory) not much bitcoin is on exchanges allowing movements to be rapid, without much dollar involvement

you can't really compare like this, now there is more people "playing" with bitcoin, the volume is larger, more transactions, and the price is higher, which mean more money involved in any movement, it's called proportion

0.5 cent is rougtly 1/12 of 6 50 is 1/6(but that was just one case), normally we are moving of 20-30 only now, which mean 1/10-1/12, about the same as before

[QuestionAuthority]

I still read the boards every now and then but I am out. Completely. Bitcoin solves nothing for me but it was a great way to make extra cash since I discovered it. But the easy money is gone for me personally and I think the people like me will move on to other things. Very neat idea though but just another type of fiat currency in monetary economics. A house built on sand in other words. I highly doubt it will have any value in 20 years as something else will replace it. Internet users are a fickle bunch.

I've witnessed that too. People are moving on. There's a small fraction of the users here now that were here when I first registered. Even the evangelistic born again Bitcoiners are gone now. I always chalked it up to kids graduating, growing up and starting their real lives. Everyone is idealistic in college. Save the whales, save the trees, free (insert current martyr here) slowly becomes feed the kids, pay the mortgage, please the boss.

I'm not gone, I'm just on other platforms more often.  I find that a lot of people here seem to ask the noob stuff all too often.  I think you can find many of us still active on places like facebook twitter reddit instagram has some... This place is good, but relatively, but I wish that the marketplace section was more active. 

Yeah, I see some people that have been here a long time. Satoshi considered this to be the main forum for Bitcoin info and development and it's losing the oldest supporters. Either this forum is losing it's position in the Bitcoin world as you suggest or people are moving on and losing interest for whatever reason (graduating, scammed out of their faith in the system, scared of the legal standing, finally see the fight will be decades not months).

[crazyivan]

I still read the boards every now and then but I am out. Completely. Bitcoin solves nothing for me but it was a great way to make extra cash since I discovered it. But the easy money is gone for me personally and I think the people like me will move on to other things. Very neat idea though but just another type of fiat currency in monetary economics. A house built on sand in other words. I highly doubt it will have any value in 20 years as something else will replace it. Internet users are a fickle bunch.

I've witnessed that too. People are moving on. There's a small fraction of the users here now that were here when I first registered. Even the evangelistic born again Bitcoiners are gone now. I always chalked it up to kids graduating, growing up and starting their real lives. Everyone is idealistic in college. Save the whales, save the trees, free (insert current martyr here) slowly becomes feed the kids, pay the mortgage, please the boss.

I'm not gone, I'm just on other platforms more often.  I find that a lot of people here seem to ask the noob stuff all too often.  I think you can find many of us still active on places like facebook twitter reddit instagram has some... This place is good, but relatively, but I wish that the marketplace section was more active. 

Yeah, I see some people that have been here a long time. Satoshi considered this to be the main forum for Bitcoin info and development and it's losing the oldest supporters. Either this forum is losing it's position in the Bitcoin world as you suggest or people are moving on and losing interest for whatever reason (graduating, scammed out of their faith in the system, scared of the legal standing, finally see the fight will be decades not months).

You cannot lose interest in BTC, not if you are really into this. You can if you get scammed, especially multiple times. About people leaving the industry due to personal reasons, that can happen, but wouldn't these get replaced by new entrants. This is exactly what I am talking about. I do not see so many new entrants to the BTC economy as before. Consequently, the number of good projects has decreased. Who s to blame? IMHO, SCAMMERS.

[QuestionAuthority]

I still read the boards every now and then but I am out. Completely. Bitcoin solves nothing for me but it was a great way to make extra cash since I discovered it. But the easy money is gone for me personally and I think the people like me will move on to other things. Very neat idea though but just another type of fiat currency in monetary economics. A house built on sand in other words. I highly doubt it will have any value in 20 years as something else will replace it. Internet users are a fickle bunch.

I've witnessed that too. People are moving on. There's a small fraction of the users here now that were here when I first registered. Even the evangelistic born again Bitcoiners are gone now. I always chalked it up to kids graduating, growing up and starting their real lives. Everyone is idealistic in college. Save the whales, save the trees, free (insert current martyr here) slowly becomes feed the kids, pay the mortgage, please the boss.

I'm not gone, I'm just on other platforms more often.  I find that a lot of people here seem to ask the noob stuff all too often.  I think you can find many of us still active on places like facebook twitter reddit instagram has some... This place is good, but relatively, but I wish that the marketplace section was more active. 

Yeah, I see some people that have been here a long time. Satoshi considered this to be the main forum for Bitcoin info and development and it's losing the oldest supporters. Either this forum is losing it's position in the Bitcoin world as you suggest or people are moving on and losing interest for whatever reason (graduating, scammed out of their faith in the system, scared of the legal standing, finally see the fight will be decades not months).

You cannot lose interest in BTC, not if you are really into this. You can if you get scammed, especially multiple times. About people leaving the industry due to personal reasons, that can happen, but wouldn't these get replaced by new entrants. This is exactly what I am talking about. I do not see so many new entrants to the BTC economy as before. Consequently, the number of good projects has decreased. Who s to blame? IMHO, SCAMMERS.

I think there were only a few types of people that were into Bitcoin in the beginning.

One would be the cypherpunk crypto-geek types that were into all the latest trends in the crypto world since the 90s. If you followed and liked the concept of Hashcash you were going to do the same with Bitcoin. These people are still playing with Bitcoin because there's a lot of data to sift through but they have a tendency to move on to the next leading edge development. That's what they do - they create and creating means moving on.

Another one (and a big group) was the college crowd that saw the original Slashdot and Galker articles about SR and they latch on to anything trendy, edgy and cool. Let's face it, there's nothing cooler than having ecstasy(MDMA) mailed straight to your dorm. These people graduate, grow up, get lives and move on. They aren't being replaced because SR is gone and the concept lost its trendy, edgy, cool aura. Now it just looks like another way to get busted.

Another big group of people were the scammers and opportunists. This group constantly searches for new ways to make your money belong to them or make you support their agenda. I dump the liberitarians and anarchists into this group too because they weren't really here to support Bitcoin. They were here to support their agenda and Bitcoin definately has those revolutionary components in its basic design. This group will move on too if they see Bitcoin isn't being used to further their agenda. BUT you are correct, this group will ALWAYS be replaced with new scammers and opportunists. So these people are what we're left with.

[Cryddit]

I think there were only a few types of people that were into Bitcoin in the beginning.
Another big group of people were the scammers and opportunists. This group constantly searches for new ways to make your money belong to them or make you support their agenda. I dump the liberitarians and anarchists into this group too because they weren't really here to support Bitcoin. They were here to support their agenda and Bitcoin definately has those revolutionary components in its basic design. This group will move on too if they see Bitcoin isn't being used to further their agenda. BUT you are correct, this group will ALWAYS be replaced with new scammers and opportunists. So these people are what we're left with.

Unfortunate, but true.  This is why civilizations eventually require laws and law enforcement.  The old "fuck the law" attitude that some of the aforementioned radical libertarians and anarchists adopt enables the ones who are just out for your money to flourish.  But if we want to build anything worth having in the long run, it has to be part of civilization, and that means it will have to have laws and law enforcement to control the population of scammers. 

I think the best we can hope for is that we get the opportunity to participate and try to make sure that the laws aren't stupid or oppressive.  Controlling the scammers is literally all we want the law to do. 

[crazyivan]

I read an article by some analyst recently claiming that the presence of scammers and opportunists in BTC economy is actually a good thing since it signals the vibrant and growing nature of BTC.
Hm, I would prefer they find some other more vibrant economy.

[snarlpill]

I don't think its slowed down but I think there are too many people getting in nowadays hoping to "Get Rich Quick" and it simply isn't happening fast enough for them so they get bored and exit their position. So many people, so many threads (everyday on this forum) asking how they can "double my Bitcoins" and similar. Bitcoin is not some magic money that you can just pull some trick and multiply it. You wouldn't expect to start out with 20 US dollars and raise your capital without doing some kind of work, providing a service, or selling something. I believe the price of Bitcoin will definitely rise in the long-term but I think the days of huge increases overnight might be over, at least for now. As a result, these Get-Rich-Quick people are so eager to multiply their BTC that they invest in so many shady sites/people/operations in hopes of striking it rich without doing their due diligence. I.e.- Shady Cloud Mining operations that can't even provide proof of actual mining, Ponzi schemes, investing in brand new casinos operated by anonymous people that exit with the bankroll, etc. Then these people get scammed out of their money and get even more burnt out.

I personally don't think we need more regulations, but people need to remember that a Bitcoin transaction is irreversible, and if they can't trust who they're sending it to 100% then they shouldn't "invest". Bitcoin was created so that YOU could control your money, not a third party site or centralization. HODL your private keys.

[crazyivan]

I don't think its slowed down but I think there are too many people getting in nowadays hoping to "Get Rich Quick" and it simply isn't happening fast enough for them so they get bored and exit their position. So many people, so many threads (everyday on this forum) asking how they can "double my Bitcoins" and similar. Bitcoin is not some magic money that you can just pull some trick and multiply it. You wouldn't expect to start out with 20 US dollars and raise your capital without doing some kind of work, providing a service, or selling something. I believe the price of Bitcoin will definitely rise in the long-term but I think the days of huge increases overnight might be over, at least for now. As a result, these Get-Rich-Quick people are so eager to multiply their BTC that they invest in so many shady sites/people/operations in hopes of striking it rich without doing their due diligence. I.e.- Shady Cloud Mining operations that can't even provide proof of actual mining, Ponzi schemes, investing in brand new casinos operated by anonymous people that exit with the bankroll, etc. Then these people get scammed out of their money and get even more burnt out.

I personally don't think we need more regulations, but people need to remember that a Bitcoin transaction is irreversible, and if they can't trust who they're sending it to 100% then they shouldn't "invest". Bitcoin was created so that YOU could control your money, not a third party site or centralization. HODL your private keys.

That s the problem. Most of people, at least from the developed world, come to BTC from money transmitting industries which are quite safe and regulated. In other words, their money s been generally protected. Paypal, Payzaa, credit cards, banks, etc, there s always someone to call and complain if something goes wrong. Now, they come to a "wild, wild west" industry where they can be ripped off at any corner and there s nobody to complain about it. I don't think we should change behavior of BTC users, I do not think they need to get accustomed to this kind of scam free economy, I think we need to change BTC to resemble some of more traditional money transmitting industry, ONLY in terms of consumer protection. Wild, wild west s not good for BTC, I do not want to think "is it a scam" every time I see a new business opportunity in the BTC world and this is EXACTLY the first thing which comes to my mind.

[Amph]

I read an article by some analyst recently claiming that the presence of scammers and opportunists in BTC economy is actually a good thing since it signals the vibrant and growing nature of BTC.
Hm, I would prefer they find some other more vibrant economy.

scammers usually dump fast, they aren't like hungry early adopters, this is actually a good thing because it help spreading bitcoin faster, even if there is a big dump for this, the price will eventually recover, but now with a greater chance that more people are owning bitcoin

[Daniel91]

I don't think its slowed down but I think there are too many people getting in nowadays hoping to "Get Rich Quick" and it simply isn't happening fast enough for them so they get bored and exit their position. So many people, so many threads (everyday on this forum) asking how they can "double my Bitcoins" and similar. Bitcoin is not some magic money that you can just pull some trick and multiply it. You wouldn't expect to start out with 20 US dollars and raise your capital without doing some kind of work, providing a service, or selling something. I believe the price of Bitcoin will definitely rise in the long-term but I think the days of huge increases overnight might be over, at least for now. As a result, these Get-Rich-Quick people are so eager to multiply their BTC that they invest in so many shady sites/people/operations in hopes of striking it rich without doing their due diligence. I.e.- Shady Cloud Mining operations that can't even provide proof of actual mining, Ponzi schemes, investing in brand new casinos operated by anonymous people that exit with the bankroll, etc. Then these people get scammed out of their money and get even more burnt out.

I personally don't think we need more regulations, but people need to remember that a Bitcoin transaction is irreversible, and if they can't trust who they're sending it to 100% then they shouldn't "invest". Bitcoin was created so that YOU could control your money, not a third party site or centralization. HODL your private keys.

That s the problem. Most of people, at least from the developed world, come to BTC from money transmitting industries which are quite safe and regulated. In other words, their money s been generally protected. Paypal, Payzaa, credit cards, banks, etc, there s always someone to call and complain if something goes wrong. Now, they come to a "wild, wild west" industry where they can be ripped off at any corner and there s nobody to complain about it. I don't think we should change behavior of BTC users, I do not think they need to get accustomed to this kind of scam free economy, I think we need to change BTC to resemble some of more traditional money transmitting industry, ONLY in terms of consumer protection. Wild, wild west s not good for BTC, I do not want to think "is it a scam" every time I see a new business opportunity in the BTC world and this is EXACTLY the first thing which comes to my mind.

I agree with you.
Online users really like paypal, for example, because of very good customer protection.
If they pay for some service and don't receive it, they can open dispute in their paypal account and receive money back.
With bitcoin something like this is not possible.
Yes, BTC should definitely change and offer some kind of protection for both buyers and sellers.

[bryant.coleman]

Yes, BTC should definitely change and offer some kind of protection for both buyers and sellers.

I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon. Something like this is against the most important concepts of Bitcoin, which is designated to be a decentralized currency.

Providing protection for both buyers and sellers is not the responsibility of Bitcoin. The marketplaces should do that.