They should rename Bitcoins to Hoardcoins because no one is spending.

[calista]

i have talked to some businesses accepting bitcoins and none of them has had a customer using BTC.

everyone is hoarding for speculation and no one is using it as real money.

[1713409247]

1713409247

[bitcoinbetas]

i have talked to some businesses accepting bitcoins and none of them has had a customer using BTC.

everyone is hoarding for speculation and no one is using it as real money.

+1 Everyone says bitcoin downfall will be some security breach.... Wrong it will be hoarding and treating this as an investment not a currency.

[Oldminer]

i have talked to some businesses accepting bitcoins and none of them has had a customer using BTC.

everyone is hoarding for speculation and no one is using it as real money.

I think the issue is theres a lot of people sitting back at the moment waiting to see where the dust settles with regards to the current 'real' value of BTC.

Add to that the fact a lot of people cant even access their coins atm, and you have very few people left who are actually spending coins.

[sublimnl]

Completely untrue - BTCDeals.com has orders every day - some days are obviously better than others, but I can tell you from first hand experience that there is a customer base out there.

For anyone wanting to start a business accepting bitcoins, or start offering bitcoins as an additional payment option, keep in mind that it's a smaller market, and more importantly remember what the average early adopter's interests are in.

As for those worried about security - don't keep your bitcoins on the server - transfer them out to a secure and unavailable wallet often.

[Lea Calot]

It's fundamental economics, specifically Greshams Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham's_law

CITE: "This law applies specifically when there are two forms of commodity money in circulation which are required by legal-tender laws to be accepted as having similar face values for economic transactions. The artificially overvalued money tends to drive an artificially undervalued money out of circulation and is a consequence of price control."

If people have to choose among different types of money they spend the "artificially" overvalued money and hoard "the real money". And looking at bitcoins, they actually have several advantages over paper money.

[Jimerson]

i have talked to some businesses accepting bitcoins and none of them has had a customer using BTC.

everyone is hoarding for speculation and no one is using it as real money.

I think the issue is theres a lot of people sitting back at the moment waiting to see where the dust settles with regards to the current 'real' value of BTC.

Add to that the fact a lot of people cant even access their coins atm, and you have very few people left who are actually spending coins.

^ I agree with waiting for the dust to settle. It has been a fun week and many are making outrageous predictions on what will hapen with the future of bitcoins and the market.

[compro01]

i've been spending.

only a little (a seedbox from seedunlimited) though, as i haven't found many items of compelling interest.

[Blinken]

The number of bitcoin owners out there is relatively tiny. For example, New York has a population of 8 million people and there are at most a few thousand active bitcoin owners, so it is hardly suprising that the retail volume of bitcoin trades is negligible.

In general any currency has a low circulation relative to its total value.

[bonker]

i have talked to some businesses accepting bitcoins and none of them has had a customer using BTC.

everyone is hoarding for speculation and no one is using it as real money.

Great point! +1 rep 4 ewe!

The problem with a limited supply is no one wants to spend it! Get them difficulty levels down

[libertyzeal]

It's fundamental economics, specifically Greshams Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham's_law

CITE: "This law applies specifically when there are two forms of commodity money in circulation which are required by legal-tender laws to be accepted as having similar face values for economic transactions. The artificially overvalued money tends to drive an artificially undervalued money out of circulation and is a consequence of price control."

If people have to choose among different types of money they spend the "artificially" overvalued money and hoard "the real money". And looking at bitcoins, they actually have several advantages over paper money.

Dead on, I was going to reply with this but you beat me too it.  There's another project called AOCS (http://www.opencurrency.com/) that uses precious metals to transact with. Their suggested solution for Gresham's law is to ask the merchants give a slight discount to people who use AOCS approved coinage vrs dollars.  I think the same strategy could work well for merchants with bitcoins.

[BitcoinPorn]

Illegal trade will keep this going. 

And porn.

[bonker]

Illegal trade will keep this going. 

And porn.

if bitcoin were around say 10 years ago, porn would have shot it into the mainstream in months