Why You Should Never Sell Your Bitcoins Ever

[BitProdigy]

Reading the responses to the recent topic titled, "I would sell all my bitcoins if…." has left me concerned.

The kinds of responses on that thread reveal a deep misunderstanding of bitcoin and the current monetary system in many of those who are speculating. Let's consider the scenario in which bitcoin reaches $1000 or let's say $10,000 per bitcoin. Many have said they will cash out if bitcoin reaches this point. Why??

If bitcoin reaches $10,000 it will have to be because the fiat currencies of the world are tumbling to worthlessness via a hyperinflation type scenario and bitcoin is the safe haven, which if you know anything about the current monetary systems of the world, you know this is inevitable. (there have been 3800 fiat currencies throughout history and EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE has crashed to worthlessness; a value of zero) Why would you then sell all of your sound money (Bitcoin) for a bunch of fiat money that is inevitably becoming worthless? I don't understand the logic in doing that.

If bitcoin ever reaches $10,000 per bitcoin, you will NEVER see me selling for fiat paper money. You may however see me having a shopping spree at Overstock.com or TigerDirect.com or NewEgg.com! I will be buying things I want with my bitcoin profits DIRECTLY WITH BITCOIN, not selling my bitcoin for paper fiat. Hopefully by then there will be many more options, perhaps even Amazon.com will be accepting bitcoin for goods and I can have my shopping spree there.

Point being, selling bitcoin for dollars seems counterproductive. Why convert your paper fiat currency into sound value storing superior bitcoin, only to sell all of your superior bitcoin back for worthless antiquated fiat currency again? Why not just spend the bitcoin itself to buy what you want instead of taking a loss by converting back into dollars which will inflate away eventually anyway?

[PenguinFire]

This is a fair enough argument but some goods and services you can only pay for via fiat.  In fact most goods/services can only be paid for by fiat or credit.  Inflation is going to be a thing at all if you are just selling the amount of BTC you need to make a purchase in fiat.  I am guessing you mean exchanging for large amounts of fiat that you wouldn't be using in a few days time.

[BitProdigy]

To convert from BTC to fiat there will be a fee, whereas just buying whatever it is directly with bitcoin there will not.

[PenguinFire]

To convert from BTC to fiat there will be a fee, whereas just buying whatever it is directly with bitcoin there will not.

Yes, but it is uber low some places.  It is 1 percent at Coinbase for example.  I could find change in my room to cover those transactions fees.

[nextgencoin]

I get what you are saying but even if you are a gold bug there are times when your gold is worth a lot in terms of other assets like property, oil company stocks, land etc so there are times that Gold gets you past an economic collapse to the other side far richer.

Bitcoin is no different.

[achow101]

I second this. Instead of converting Bitcoin to fiat which may be useless, I would most certainly use it to buy stuff priced in fiat yet still accepting Bitcoin like on newegg or dell. Turning that Bitcoin into a product would benefit me more than converting it to fiat which will either go to crap or sit somewhere and do nothing. There are still things though that will need to be bought with fiat but a quick small conversion can easily solve that problem.

[Possum577]

This is a great, interesting perspective. The one thing I want to add is about the options of retailers accepting bitcoin. If fiat is failing and hyperinflation exists and bitcoin is the "safe" currency, or perceived to be safer, then many retailers are going to accept bitcoin as a matter of staying with the currency that is working and strong.

Now, if the major currencies of the world are failing that means the major governments are failing, which means war, chaos, and civil unrest. Bitcoin may be a lucrative distraction but we'll be living in a brave new world.

[aakashsangwan]

Yes Bitcoin is like a long term investment and have proven to give very very good returns in long term and more profitable than gold.
In 2009 you could buy lots of Bitcoin for $1 and in 2013 price was above 1000$ for one Bitcoin only.

[letyouearn]

It was my bad luck that I came to know about the bitcoins when prices are $1000 / bitcoin. I was just wondering to collect some satoshis from bitcoin faucets in that period.

[Cashew]

Time will prove Bitcoin's potential! Nowadays bitcoin has the value in term of fiat, most of ppl come to it and expect to earn a chunk of fiat money in the future! When the price increases to $1200 per bitcoin, I believe many ppl will liquidate their holding! Bitcoin's price is too volatile and decline from the peak $1200 to $260 now! It is affecting the adoption rate of it! It is probably the perfect instrument for speculation!

[fryarminer]

OP, you get it. You understand Bitcoin.

Even though if Bitcoin reaches those prices it will not be because of fiat being useless, it will simply be because of the sheer mass of people using it.

[jonald_fyookball]

good post OP, I would like to add the following points:

1. fiat need not collapse in order to have a BTC boom.

2. if BTC explodes in value, no point to sell unless you believe it's a bubble.
But even that is risky, you are in effect going from a long term holder
to an active trader and can easily make a mistake by cashing out too early.

3.  As BTC rises, you can sell small portions of your BTC to take some
profits while keeping the bulk of your holdings.  Ironically, the higher BTC
goes, the less you need to sell of it to create some serious paper (fiat)
while continuing to HODL bigtime.

[pooya87]

In my opinion when asked "I would sell all my bitcoins if…" answer from an speculation standpoint and look at the near future (maybe not more than one year) and say we will sell out bitcoin.
on the other hand a lot of it is because of the bitcoin price history . many are expecting another rise (pump) to the moon and after that they expect that history repeats itself which means another crash! as the result they will consider selling at high prices to gain this profit and get out before the crash.

but what you are saying is a scenario in which bitcoin price actually goes up and not just get pumped to the moon. in that case i personally don't see myself even considering selling my bitcoin because it would be the most valuable thing in the world!

[Kprawn]

OP, have you been around when the Bitcoin price hit $1000 before? There was NO fiat collapse when it happened... The fiat price was unchanged during that period... it was just the Bitcoin price that climbed.

Some blame the Willy Bot... but for whatever reason.. Bitcoin was more valueble than any fiat currency, even gold.

Most of the people in that thread, assume that the situation would repeat itself... Fiat price stay the same, and the Bitcoin price skyrockets. 

Some services do not accept Bitcoin, so for those things, people would convert to fiat... for the rest, people would spend in Bitcoin. 

[MadAlpha]

OP, have you been around when the Bitcoin price hit $1000 before? There was NO fiat collapse when it happened... The fiat price was unchanged during that period... it was just the Bitcoin price that climbed.

But there were plenty of those who expected the dollar to collapse any day. They look pretty dumb now, don't they? But wait, those people are still around. And they still think the dollar will collapse any day now...

[Hopalong]

OP, you get it. You understand Bitcoin.

Even though if Bitcoin reaches those prices it will not be because of fiat being useless, it will simply be because of the sheer mass of people using it.

How would the sheer masses get to using bitcoins if you follow op´s advice. If you wont sell your coins for fiat then the people using fiat will continue with that. If that fiat got problems with hyperinflation or other things they would not be able to buy bitcoin since noone will sell bitcoin for a useless currency.

You end up holding a currency noone but you and a few others see the value in when the masses will move to something else. You will be like a stamp collector who has used a fortune getting his collection complete and then trying to sell it only to realize that nobody want to buy it.

[Amph]

no one said that he will necessarily  sell them, but that he is only waiting for that target price for use his bitcoin, at least this is true for me, just hope that bitcoin will be used for everything when the time comes, otherwise many will be forced to sell

there was another thread that was asking if people would pay in bitcoin only if it was accepted everywhere, so the problem is always that global acceptance, not the price

[crazyivan]

So the discussion should be about when to spend BTC and not when to sell it for fiat. Right?

[shorena]

-snip-
Point being, selling bitcoin for dollars seems counterproductive.
-snip-

[Amph]

So the discussion should be about when to spend BTC and not when to sell it for fiat. Right?

the answer is easy, everyone should wait untill fully adoption, to spend it everywhere, for now you can spend it only in the shop that accept it, and if you need somethign that isn't in those shop, then you use you other money called fiat....