Bitcoin's been flat for almost a year..

[gentlemand]

If mass adoption is the main focus we would need to have it at a level where everyone can pick up a few BTC and not just satoshis worth. 

How does mass adoption happen if everyone can pick up complete coins for comparative peanuts?

[Q7]

That's what I was hoping for. Rather than having the price boucing up and down and apprease the short term speculators, wouldn't it be better to have it within a stable range in order to encourage long term business adoption? People would also start to see it as a safe haven opportunity to store their wealth without potential risk of sudden devaluation.

[gentlemand]

People would also start to see it as a safe haven opportunity to store their wealth without potential risk of sudden devaluation.

But that can only really work once it's reached a vast number of users. Let's say it retains $240 worth of buying power for the next few years with the amount of users it has now. To the outside world it's small, boring and stable so becomes considerably more attractive if there is some type of crisis. If ten million newcomers people suddenly wake up to the idea of it being a safe haven then it's back to fireworks again.

[damiano]

People would also start to see it as a safe haven opportunity to store their wealth without potential risk of sudden devaluation.

But that can only really work once it's reached a vast number of users. Let's say it retains $240 worth of buying power for the next few years with the amount of users it has now. If there is some type of crisis and ten million people suddenly wake up to the idea of it being a safe haven then it's back to fireworks again.

Fireworks would be an understatment if we get 10 million new buyers lol

OP not sure we will be holding this price for much longer but its been a good time to stack up I've changed my bearish ways and think we will take off in the next few years.

How soon?

Who knows.

[slojina]

People would also start to see it as a safe haven opportunity to store their wealth without potential risk of sudden devaluation.

But that can only really work once it's reached a vast number of users. Let's say it retains $240 worth of buying power for the next few years with the amount of users it has now. To the outside world it's small, boring and stable so becomes considerably more attractive if there is some type of crisis. If ten million newcomers people suddenly wake up to the idea of it being a safe haven then it's back to fireworks again.

Stable price @ high volume: stability.
Stable price @ low volume:  dead market.

[d5000]

In my opinion, the actual stability is still not sustainable. It is product of impredictable situations which happened to "level" themselves - some were bearish, other were bullish.

- First, the MtGox fiasco. This events caused the price to plummet to the actual price level.
- Then came the recognition by the community that most of the price bubble in 2013 was artificially inflated. So the first intents for a new rally ended rapidly with dumps.
- Another bearish event were the dumped coins from Silk Road.
- Then came the Greek crisis and a new hype was forming.
- But the Grexit did'nt happen and many took their profits, so it went down again.
- The last price swings were related to the Bitcoin XT debate. There was first a down swing as a "deadly" fork seemed a real possibility, but then a light upswing as XT seemed to stagnate. But it's not over.

Now we can think about what would have happened if, for example, there was no Greek crisis at all. We wouldn't have had this short rally and I think in this scenario price should be lower now, even possibly sub-200. On the other hand, I think we would see actually prices over $250 if the scalability debate was resolved by consensus of all developers.

So I think the actual stability is not an "automatic" thing. But it can help to reduce expectations for pump-and-dump oriented (or pro-cyclical) speculators.

[Darude Sandstorm]

Quite interesting it's just held around 220-240 for most of the year. 

Think we'll sit here for years to come? 

Doubt it, but hopefully it will enjoy a slow but steady growth at some point.

No way in hell

Why not? I'd rather it remain stable at this price than fall any lower.

[pjsonowal]

Srry i dont agree with that.... It was quite between 220-240 for some time but last may to june or july it was like 286$.. So see wat ur talking... 

[1Referee]

Srry i dont agree with that.... It was quite between 220-240 for some time but last may to june or july it was like 286$.. So see wat ur talking... 

It was Juli to August where the price had been attempting to break through the $300 level and where it peaked at $310. I do believe that we'll go through the $300 again next year.

[Febo]

Quite interesting it's just held around 220-240 for most of the year. 

Think we'll sit here for years to come? 

Yes i think at least next year, probably 2017 also. After that we will see a steady raise.

[NoRespect]

Well, I'll be waiting until years 

[victoryboy]

I think from the first semester of next year 2016 things will begin to move in good way.It seems that price will be more higher than now and may be touch $ 300 by the middle of 2016.

[buddu]

I do agree bitoins price were between 220-240 $ except two pumps.I see some rises in price before the end of this year which will keep continue till the halving of blocks.This rise will be steady and will show some stability too this time.