Does the deflationary nature of BTC "encourage hoarding and delay spending"?

[frenulum]

Most recent entry to "Bitcoin Obituaries" got me thinking..

We have yet to see any meaningful adoption in the retail world and the institutional world seems quite lukewarm. . . . The deflationary quality of Bitcoin - by design and not by accident - is a major drawback. Deflation naturally encourages hoarding and delays spending, which is the behavior we are witnessing with BTC holders.

Original article here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/distributed-ledgers-part-i-bitcoin-dead-pascal-bouvier-cfa

Wondering peoples opinions on this.. Does the deflationary nature of BTC "encourage hoarding and delay spending"?
If so, is that a huge problem? .. and can it be addressed?

I do get the impression with Bitcoin that there are more speculators (on this forum at least) than people who really want to use the technology in their every day lives.

[meono]

Most recent entry to "Bitcoin Obituaries" got me thinking..

We have yet to see any meaningful adoption in the retail world and the institutional world seems quite lukewarm. . . . The deflationary quality of Bitcoin - by design and not by accident - is a major drawback. Deflation naturally encourages hoarding and delays spending, which is the behavior we are witnessing with BTC holders.

Original article here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/distributed-ledgers-part-i-bitcoin-dead-pascal-bouvier-cfa

Wondering peoples opinions on this.. Does the deflationary nature of BTC "encourage hoarding and delay spending"?
If so, is that a huge problem? .. and can it be addressed?

I do get the impression with Bitcoin that there are more speculators (on this forum at least) than people who really want to use the technology in their every day lives.

terrible article. This has been discussed multiple time. The idea that deflationary cause hoarding is very shortsighted.

We're so used to the deficit spending to a point that "saving" become hoarding. In the fiat world, your "saving" account cant even beat the inflation, thus ppl must looking into various " investment" just to keep their "wealth".

[RocketSingh]

Deflationary nature ? Ask those who bought @ 1000

[seedtrue]

I am guilty of hoarding my BTC, and I rarely spend Bitcoin. But this is not because of the deflationary nature of Bitcoin. I hoard gold, silver, old coins, and good scotch. I hoard cash to, but in a different way and for different reasons. I guess I am just a financial hoarder by nature if such a thing exists.

[hodedowe]

It's too inconvenient for everyday retail use right now. Who wants to pull out a laptop at the checkout counter? Online or delivery only for me. So yes, I'm hodling as the kids say. 

[galbros]

Deflationary nature ? Ask those who bought @ 1000

In theory, yes, this is a problem.  In modern macroeconomics deflation is a bad thing because consumers defer consumption since prices will be lower tomorrow.

However, as RS pointed out, this really hasn't been much of a practical problem with bitcoin.

In addition, this problem is in the future because a large number of bitcoins are still being created, so still some inflationary pressure.

Good Luck!

[jonald_fyookball]

hoarding ?  or prudent saving?

spending?  or wasteful splurging?

Right now people who save are either punished by inflation or
have to accept risk of investments.  A deflationary currency
will reward savers. 

[odolvlobo]

Wondering peoples opinions on this.. Does the deflationary nature of BTC "encourage hoarding and delay spending"?

Deflation encourages hoarding and delays spending no more than inflation encourages wasteful spending.

However, it must be noted that hyperinflation seems to be a regular occurrence, whereas the dreaded deflationary spiral has never happened, even when countries were on a gold standard (which is also similarly deflationary). So, it seems to me that inflation should be feared much more than deflation.

[marky89]

It's too inconvenient for everyday retail use right now. Who wants to pull out a laptop at the checkout counter? Online or delivery only for me. So yes, I'm hodling as the kids say. 

Really, though, at this point I do the vast majority of my shopping online (Amazon and the like). And with services like Foodler (damn you, Grubhub, for basically shitting on bitcoiners by joking that you will accept it in like 30 years), it's damn easy in both cases to just load my account and buy stuff.... I spend coins probably 5-10 times a month, depending on the month. (And depending on my trading profits )

[n2004al]

Does the deflationary nature of BTC "encourage hoarding and delay spending"?

Who told that? I have my strong doubt about this. Bitcoin is produced like a clock every 10 min, the amount of bitcoin is well known and there are no other possibilities to create new coins in other ways. The price of bitcoin one year ago were 1200 us dollar one. Now is moving regularly between 200 and 300 us dollar. Who can told that again will not go 1200 this year or the next?

In economics, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Continuously. That's all.

What this behavior of bitcoin must be called deflationary nature of bitcoin when this is not true?

[Amph]

i think everyone has a target, so the answer is no, at some point many are willing to spend comfortably

the point is that right now, bitcoin value isn't reflecting its enormous  potential by any means

[Possum577]

Deflationary nature ? Ask those who bought @ 1000

Expand your view of time. $1000 was barely two years ago. Think about deflationary in terms of 10 years or 20 years...that's what we're talking about. Full mining will take over 100 more years (if they all get mined), so that's the deflationary time frame you need to think of. OR at least think of it in terms of the time between halving milestones.

A lot of things encourage hoarding - lack of every-day places to spend some coin are big contributors...I want to spend some at a coffeeshop or a pizza joint...no such luck in my area though.

[Mickeyb]

Bitcoin has been designed to mirror the precious metals market, gold in the first place. So if some people are hoarding, I don't see anything bad here. Also, Bitcoin was designed purposely so that 1 token is and would be very rear, again just like gold is. So deflationary characteristics in my opinion won't have any effect when you see a new influx of 1 million newbies the next time in the Bitcoin ecosystem, price will go up and up.

Many believe that Bitcoin's only characteristic is a currency and a day to day paying. I think this is short-sighted. Bitcoin is much, much more. It is currency, an asset that we can hoard, a safe haven that we can save into, etc..

[LiteCoinGuy]

people that hoard (or safe) their bitcoins make the whole ecosystem possible. otherwise there would be no value and no opportunities, no companies, no jobs.

but if you move further, you should also use your bitcoins because you increase the value of your own BTC at the same time.

[Kprawn]

Some people were not around when the price hit $1000.... There were a lot of people spending Bitcoin when they felt the time was right to spend it.

People use Bitcoin for many different reasons... and they will spend it, when they feel it's the right time and the right price. Lots of people save

money in a bank and at one stage, they decide to use it. Bitcoin has a store of value feature and it's a currency at the same time. The deflationary

nature of Bitcoin only temporarily cause people to hoard, until they reach the price where they willing to spend it. 

[Brad Pitt]

Both hoarding and spending are good for bitcoin. Hoarding takes coins out of supply but those who are hoarding will want to spend them or cash em out eventually.

[Angelina Jolie]

Both hoarding and spending are good for bitcoin. Hoarding takes coins out of supply but those who are hoarding will want to spend them or cash em out eventually.

Both electron & proton are good for an atom. But, in this case, we are discussing proton's impact only.

[Thekool1s]

Most recent entry to "Bitcoin Obituaries" got me thinking..

We have yet to see any meaningful adoption in the retail world and the institutional world seems quite lukewarm. . . . The deflationary quality of Bitcoin - by design and not by accident - is a major drawback. Deflation naturally encourages hoarding and delays spending, which is the behavior we are witnessing with BTC holders.

Original article here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/distributed-ledgers-part-i-bitcoin-dead-pascal-bouvier-cfa

Wondering peoples opinions on this.. Does the deflationary nature of BTC "encourage hoarding and delay spending"?
If so, is that a huge problem? .. and can it be addressed?

I do get the impression with Bitcoin that there are more speculators (on this forum at least) than people who really want to use the technology in their every day lives.

what i think is that the bubble made the situation worse for bitcoin, Many people started to look at bitcoin as something which will make them rich quick so this increased the holding. And the effect is still not gone many people just buy bitcoins to become rich.

[MUFC]

Wondering peoples opinions on this.. Does the deflationary nature of BTC "encourage hoarding and delay spending"?
If so, is that a huge problem? .. and can it be addressed?

It delays spending (for the hoarders), but no it's not a bad thing. I always find it funny when people complain about hoarders. You don't have to spend money as soon as you get it (though people don't seem to realize this). I even prefer to save most of my fiat money because I'd like to do something productive with it in the future.

[johnyj]

Most recent entry to "Bitcoin Obituaries" got me thinking..

We have yet to see any meaningful adoption in the retail world and the institutional world seems quite lukewarm. . . . The deflationary quality of Bitcoin - by design and not by accident - is a major drawback. Deflation naturally encourages hoarding and delays spending, which is the behavior we are witnessing with BTC holders.

Original article here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/distributed-ledgers-part-i-bitcoin-dead-pascal-bouvier-cfa

Wondering peoples opinions on this.. Does the deflationary nature of BTC "encourage hoarding and delay spending"?
If so, is that a huge problem? .. and can it be addressed?

I do get the impression with Bitcoin that there are more speculators (on this forum at least) than people who really want to use the technology in their every day lives.

History has proved that when bitcoin price is higher (deflation), people spend more, when it gets lower (inflation), people spend less and start to hoard. Many facts are against those theories from economy books, so it is very likely that those theories saying inflation is good are just excuses for banks to print themselves more money: Sounds reasonable, but never have any real world example backing them

This is very easy to understand: When there is deflation and your money worth more and more, you become richer, then you don't care spend a little bit more. On the other hand, when everything's price is rising and you can not afford them, you spend less