Is hoarding bitcoins good or bad for it's growth?

[krishnapramod]

Now there are many hodlers among us Is the practice of holding bitcoins good or bad for it's growth?

I had recently come across a statement that bitcoin is a settlement system rather than store of value/digital gold and holding bitcoins is somewhat making it accessible to rich people only.

Arguments in favor of hoarding bitcoins:

1. Since bitcoins are limited in numbers, holding would obviously increase the demand and thus the price.

2. Bitcoin as a commodity/hoarding, as a currency/spending. So once the price increases, what we earlier bought for 1 BTC can buy it now for 0.5.

3. Merchants would prefer BTC over USD. (In the hopes that prices would increase)

4. Bitcoin is divisible. Everyone cannot own 5 or 10 BTC, but still holding on to a few satoshis would be profitable in the long-term.

Now there are some arguments against holding:

1. Deflation.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deflationary_spiral

The ‘deflationary spiral’ is a real condition that affects the popular fractional reserve backing system. Bitcoin is not affected by this because it is fundamentally different from popular currency.

2. If the elites gets hold of majority of bitcoins, the demand and price would be high, but since the common man would not be able to afford it, demand decreases, elites dump, price crashes, common man buys some, market stabilizes a bit, and elites buys back more. It kind of becomes a centralized holding affair.

3. Rather than hoarding, an environment where bitcoins are more used as a mode of payment for buying goods or services is more beneficial for it's growth.

So what do you think, is hoarding bitcoins good or bad for it's growth?

Edited the poll.

[TryNinja]

I believe it would be good for the price, since there are less Bitcoin being sold in the market. The bad news are, if you don't use your Bitcoin to buy stuff, why would merchants accept Bitcoin as a method of payment if no one wants to spend their Bitcoins? This way, Bitcoin would work more like a digital gold rather than a currency.

Also, your poll doesn't make any sense.

Is hoarding bitcoins good or bad for it's growth?
Yes / No

I believe the options should be "good" or "bad" right?

[Xester]

All the reason stated on your list are all true.  If people will hold, keep holding their bitcoins, its price would go up because its supply is less.  People who continue to know bitcoins and got interested will become many thus, the demand would be really high.  High demand less supply equals high price.  But as you also stated its main purpose was altered because everyone holds bitcoin.

[Holliday]

It's called saving and no, there is nothing harmful about it.

Delayed consumption is actually beneficial in many ways, for the consumer (cheaper / better products), the environment (goods are only created when there is a demand), and the economy (less malinvestment).

The opposite, easy credit, leads to malinvestment and the boom bust cycle, which, combined with private profits and public risk, enriches the few at the expense of the many. It also hurts the environment as people are buying things they don't need and products are overproduced (see current automobile inventories as example).

A deflationary spiral is a thing made up in the minds of Keynesians to justify their attempts to control the economy.

[x2666]

It's good until it's bad. Growth. In price? Usage?

A ton are locked and will never be redeemed because of deaths, lost keys, etc.

I think there are less people trading crypto willing to hold them forever (rain or shine) than many expect as well.

When sales hit the exchanges you don't see the full extent of every price movement. 1k sell on one chart may have  really been a 5-10k btc sell on multiple exchanges or even more complex sells could be going on involving altcoins.


There's the tangible then the intangible and the tangible is still going to be the most important thing, you can re-aquire bitcoins at whatever price it happens to be. If you have something tangible you offer more than simply a voucher for tangible things.

When people hold, they believe they will earn more for holding and thus don't redeem their vouchers. When they don't redeem they perceive themselves to have gained or lost value based off the current market price. In actuality their initial holding is still denominated in a "coin" asset and until they successfully find someone to purchase that asset at whatever price they are using to value their holding their holding does not actually have any proof it will be capable of fetching that price on an open market by the time it is redeemed.

Market action can happen quick because all of the money on exchanges is hyper liquid. If you hold your coins for a long time, you might not want to trust exchanges but wallets can be slow. You must be in sync and be capable of securing your keys to redeem. Syncing can take hours, or tens of minutes if you haven't opened in 2 weeks or a month or longer. Then you need to have your transaction processed by the network and be credited by the exchange before finally selling your voucher on the market.

Exchange operators and really advanced traders will follow the margin markets on btc whichever way they go and when it goes it will go sharp. It could break up more but I think a huge short is going to wreck this bull-market eventually.

Many people are naive about how this market actually operates.

[mk3000]

I think hoarding it's great. let's say for some reason you are the first person ever to discovery gold and you know eventually it'll be one of the most valuable assets in the world. Wouldn't you buy and store as much gold as possible? that's exactly what we are doing, just digitally.

[pearlmen]

For me I would subscribe to the position of in between that hoarding should be in-between in that it should not be to the extreme in other for the commodity in this case bitcoin becomes unaffordable for many and on the other hand should not be too available or liquid in other for it not to be cheap and thereby lose value as we have it in the case of so many alt who didn't recover from dumps.

[Ashtville]

if you buy a btc to hold it, I don't think that is bad for it as an investment as the price and since the price rise, interest would increase as well, but for it as a currency, hoarding the coins and not using them at all is bad in a way.
Most people here, although hoarding. buy things with BTC as well, both online and offline, so it would be even.

[peter0425]

While personally for me, hoarding bitcoin is good because it will drastically increased the price. Imagine if you are a bag holders for the last several years and not selling it. Of course as the price increased, your savings will increased as well. So its gonna be a win-win situation especially on your end because of the huge profit you can make by holding/hoarding it.

[iamTom123]

Unlike hoarding foods and other necessary everyday stuffs, hoarding Bitcoin can actually be good for the whole market and the community as less liquidity in the market can mean there would be demand or orders that can not be meet as soon as possible thereby raising the value of the coin. I am sure that there are those who are doing it in hopes that the value can jump meteorically in the coming months. And it is already proven that Bitcoin is now becoming the best investment there is, much better than gold which remained flat and performing well compared to blue chips.

[Slark]

3. Merchants would prefer BTC over USD. (In the hopes that prices would increase)

Certainly not the point at this moment, most merchants accepting business are using payment processors to handle their bitcoin payments.
They would rather have fast dollar in their pocket instantly that keep bitcoin and hope it will get more expensive in the future.

2. If the elites gets hold of majority of bitcoins, the demand and price would be high, but since the common man would not be able to afford it, demand decreases, elites dump, price crashes, common man buys some, market stabilizes a bit, and elites buys back more. It kind of becomes a centralized holding affair.

Isn't thins the issue with every possible currency/asset/commodity/security/bond etc.?
Elites will always be privileged class, there is no way to found a system to distribute wealth equally among all humans.

[citizenh-ssd]

if you buy a btc to hold it, I don't think that is bad for it as an investment as the price and since the price rise, interest would increase as well, but for it as a currency, hoarding the coins and not using them at all is bad in a way.
Most people here, although hoarding. buy things with BTC as well, both online and offline, so it would be even.

I think that today to buy some things or something like that, it makes no sense. It will be wasteful. If you look at the current growth trend of Bitcoin from there, then it is possible to say with certainty what will be there just tomorrow or even in a month. I think that you need to wait and save, and do not waste Bitcoin in vain.

[swogerino]

I believe that is not the case that is a bad thing to hold bitcoins. If you are thinking that because they are limited in number their value will grow that is not totally true but only partially. In fact this is true in theory but not in practice because the last coin will be mined in the distant year 2140 a long time from now. Until then the existing bitcoins will change hands a lot of times and even if some people hold it that does not mean that they are the majority.

[VC George]

I personally think it's a matter of balance. Some people will hold, some people will sell while some others will just use Bitcoin as a means to buy something. The same applies with fiat money but inflation makes it costly & naive to hoard (since you're losing value by the minute due to the unlimited printing of bills backed by pure air).

[olubams]

Hoarding from my point of view is the worst thing to happen to bitcoin and I am sure its not the intention of the founder because it would mean just restricting it to function as a "store of value" which will not increase the amount of users needed for it to achieve full potential of becoming a global currency. Hoarding will mean if I want to come into fresh in bitcoin because of what I have heard, I then cannot do that because I can't get to buy when no one is willing to sell.

[coolcoinz]

I believe the market regulates itself, so no action taken by the majority is bad. It's just a step in the life of currency, its evolution.
If people decide to save up the demand will rise and holders will start selling and using it in stores, because they'll at some point decide they need some things and they can buy so much for a single coin. No need to worry

[mrcash02]

Nothing in excess is good, the same apply to holding Bitcoin. The main point of the list in my opinion is:

1. Since bitcoins are limited in numbers, holding would obviously increase the demand and thus the price.

That is what determines the price, the demand and the supply, if people don't spend it a lot, there will be more people trying to buy BTCs and less sellers, so the price of BTC will increase and I believe everyone who is inside the game likes it. It makes Bitcoin more valuable and helps to make even more people have interest in Bitcoin, searching for it to buy.

On the another hand, if too many people hold it, newbies won't enter the game, and Bitcoin can become a small circle of members, delaying the global adoption.

[HeRetiK]

I'd say hoarding is good, but in its current state I personally see it more as a store of value akin to gold rather than a currency. It just happens to be more easily transferable.

3. Merchants would prefer BTC over USD. (In the hopes that prices would increase)

I think a stabler BTC / USD rate would be more important to merchants rather than steady increases at the price of high volatility.

Now there are some arguments against holding:

1. Deflation.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deflationary_spiral

As long as there are inflationary fiat currency to escape to, I think Bitcoin is fairly safe from a deflationary spiral. The question is where the equilibrium lies.

[eaLiTy]

Even i prefer to see people hoarding bitcoin as that could reduce the number of transactions carried out per day and in turn reduces the transaction fees and faster confirmations  ,i am sure if these things can be carried out in real life which i know is not possible but it will improve the hurdles we are facing right now with the network.

[Hammonds]

Hoarding in my opinion is good because if the more you hoard then the need will increase and make the price increase. That's just my opinion