Forget the real application, the real value of Bitcoin is investment

[MUFC]

Bitcoin may become the real global currency and replace central bank of all the other countries when it develops to some position. As a payment system, it may replace of Visa and Mastercard after the value of Bitcoin is stable. As a kind of foreign exchange method, Bitcoin may replace of Western Union Company. Forget the usage of Bitcoin, we assume that there is no use for Bitcoin but just a kind of  scarce electrical commodity with private property right, then calculated by the market value of gold, the market value of Bitcoin should be in the scale of thousand billion, that is, Bitcoin can finish rising of 100 times just as the method of storage. In the view of Martian, that Bitcoin appears on the market in ETE may be the foundation of next 100 times' rising. It must be an extraordinary year for Bitcoin in 2015, let us wait and see what happens.

Bitcoin is never going to replace things like central banks. Hey, don't get me wrong I would love for nothing more than to get rid of them but it just wont happen. Call me cynical but nothing ever changes when it comes to politics and economy because the corrupt few wont let the power slip away and they can buy anything they want with their current wealth and you sadly can't fuck with that sort of power. Best we can hope for is a shake up of the system or bitcoin's use growing as an alternative system that we can use outside of the mainstream.

[Q7]

If there is no application then I suppose the term investment wouldn't mean anything in the first place. I don't know. I just think people wouldn't just be putting their money into something which they think has no real application. Gold was different because it was unique and throughout history of mankind we have seen and perceive gold as valuable and thus we maintain that thinking until today. But for bitcoin it's slightly different scenario. We need two of these to go along together.

[minerpumpkin]

Bitcoin can be a great investment. It totally depends what you expect form an investment: Do you want thick fat returns or do you want your money to be save, preferably even from global financial or political crisis? Right now it's still more an investment of the first kind, people expect it to grow and invest because they want big returns. If the adoption has gone up and the mining rewards down, Bitcoin doesn't need new money entering the system. It's purely a good storage of wealth then.

[Raize]

The only question I have is why would a person jump through hoops to buy bitcoin so he can buy something from a merchant when he already had the ability to do that beforehand without taking the additional and complicated step? This is the roadblock to your suggestion.

It's only a perceived hindrance because there isn't an end-to-end system of Bitcoin being actively used at the moment for anything other than maybe some developers and miners that "get paid" in it. With more adoption and people getting paid in it, it will make sense in the respect that you're talking about.

Right now, however, there are early adopters who could live off their Bitcoin entirely, and some in fact do so. It may take years for folks today to see a significant return on their "investment" in Bitcoin compared to the early adopters who may now live off their coin entirely, but once this happens for the accumulators today, they will also want goods and services, so there will always be merchants adding support for it.

In the past, economies based on gold and silver had coinage, but because of the weight, it didn't make sense to carry your entire "gross worth" on you or in your pocket. Bitcoin solves that problem by being a virtual commodity. It certainly turned the tables on fiat, at least, and will continue to do so. There are always going to be people that want a currency that holds value even after the government that represents it dies.