Please remember what BitCoin is about

[JackH]

Alright there is mining, and there is speculation happening at the moment. But BitCoin should not be about getting rich quick, nor should it be about how many cluster networks one can build to mine like mad.

BitCoin is fantastic because it is anonymous, it is decentralized and it is the first money tool in the world to offer an alternative to the world we have known for so long. Its a commodity with no resemblance to anything we have witnessed before and we should love it for just that. The other things are just perks 

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[realnowhereman]

While you're right that getting rich is not what bitcoin is about, there must be some element of "getting rich" to it.

If not, what incentive is there for those earlier adopters to monetise it?

It is self interest that drives everything in a market.  Without that, there would be no bitcoin.

[JackH]

Self interest is of course a driving factor that will push the popularity and price upwards of the BitCoin value, but at the end of the day its still a monetary value in a system the offers a significantly different approach to money management than what we have now.

I think the core factor for joining BitCoin should be that people can its advantage over Liberty Reserve, Pecunix, Paxum, Neteller, AlertPay, PayPal and all the other systems. At the moment the best reason I can see is that I dont have central banks correcting the pricing of a currency as well as I dont have to answer to why I did a transfer to someone somewhere. No due diligence is a big factor, the biggest for all I care.

[kwukduck]

ok ok... you're right, i was being selfish, i'll just send you all my bitcoins for free.

[joan]

If not, what incentive is there for those earlier adopters to monetise it?

It is self interest that drives everything in a market.  Without that, there would be no bitcoin.

Well, if there was only that, there would be no bitcoin either.

I'm interested in Bitcoin because of the P2P monetary system experiment. I don't care about mining or speculating, and I think too much emphasis is put on mining.
In 5 years from now, we'll all be considered early adopters. Disrupting the way banksters create money and the ability to wire funds without relying on a trusted third party is enough an incentive for many.

[Timo Y]

What Bitcoin should be is academic.

The market decides what Bitcoin is.  2-5 years from now Bitcoin will probably have a lot of weird uses for which it wasn't intended.  I foresee that paying for goods and services on merchant websites will only constitute a niche part of the Bitcoin economy by then. Anyhow, why do you care what other people use their BTC for?

[finnthecelt]

I've put a lot of hours into this over the past week. I looked at this a year ago and just dismissed it.

Taking a second look and looking hard, I find it incredible. The implications are simply staggering. To me I am going to go full throttle in the mining for speculation and will participate in the philosophical debate about money as well.

Speaking to friends and family about this yesterday made me realize that bitcoin is going to incite people to speak and think about money in ways they never imagined. The nature of money and why we use it, how is it created, what gives it value, etc. will be dicsussed in many circles. I've already been on top of that for years having invested in precious metals. This is very exciting for me.

I've also been very interested in following a couple lines of thought on this board (and the net). People are suggesting that it's more economical to just buy the coins. This makes no sense. Where will you buy them if no one is mining? If no one is mining the market will recognize this and just not sell. If no one sells the price will continue to rise. If no one EVER sells, than due to lack of liquidity the market will just dry up and become obsolote. Mining MUST continue.

Given that, as the difficulty level rises and mining becomes more intensive, the exchange rate WILL go up. Simple supply and demand.

Consider the oil industry. Without miners there is no oil. The less oil there is the more expensive it is. The more people want it the more expensive it is. Of course we all have to have oil today but as the oil world is going away so is the paper money system. We are entering a digital, virtual world the likes the world has never seen (as far as we know).

I will mine. For those who won't, I'll sell you some coin. When I'm good and ready that is!