I want you to have a look at this graph

[Cluster2k]

Current bitcoin value is down almost 30% in two days, yet the next estimated difficulty level is still high at 781,000.  I put forward two ideas:

The difficulty level will continue to rise even if the price falls much further.  Those who have already invested in mining rigs are not about to switch them off.  They may even overclock more to try and recover their costs as soon as possible should BTC fall much further.  There is the cost of electricity in all this too, much it's still much lower than the price of a BTC.  But it will curtail further investment in mining rigs.  Who is going to spend $1k on a 3x 6970 rig when it can earn maybe 2 BTCs in a day (at future difficulty level)?

The other thing is we need is people to be pumping USD$ into the marketplace.  The value of BTCs cannot sustain itself based on existing BTC miners trading with each other, as the majority are no doubt interested in selling and making money rather than high ideals about a P2P currency.

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[Rodyland]

The other thing is we need is people to be pumping USD$ into the marketplace.  The value of BTCs cannot sustain itself based on existing BTC miners trading with each other, as the majority are no doubt interested in selling and making money rather than high ideals about a P2P currency.

What we REALLY need is people to start using bitcoin AS A CURRENCY.  People need to start using it to buy stuff, sell stuff.  If bitcoin gains traction as a true medium of exchange, its value when compared to other currencies will stabilise (relatively).  You are correct that BTC cannot exist as medium mainly for miners and speculators to buy and sell off each other.

[neptop]

Want to see a similar chart?
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=price+of+gold

[BombaUcigasa]

Bitcoins aren't consumed, so saying that because 67 times more of them are moved around than were produced in a day is errornous.

They are not consumed, but the extra swapping needs overhead. This is in the form of financial liquidity, which attracts with it opportunity benefits proportional to price.

For all that is known, that could be one bitcoin moved from person to person 670,000 times.

What you don't know, is that my quoted volume was for USD/BTC trades for each day. Those trades carry a 0.6% tax. I suppose that person would pay 92500$ a day just so his one bitcoin is worth 20 times it's cost to make...