Does hoarding really hurt Bitcoin?

[tj4dmx]

Does hoarding really hurt Bitcoin?

[neurotypical]

Does hoarding really hurt Bitcoin?

Nope. Everyone is free to hoard. It's really stupid when people claim "if you just hoard it, and don't transact it, you are hurting bitcoin!". What the hell is this logic? It is my bitcoin, I do whatever I want with it. If I choose to hoard it then so be it. It is stupid to spend your high quality money that appreciates with time when you have bad quality money that depreciates with time (fiat) to spend things you can already buy with it. Hold the bitcoin, dump the fiat, that is what the intelligent people do. There's no point in doing payments in bitcoin unless you really need to (like paying an VPN service for example.)

[teilwalL05]

I really think that hoarding is a good thing specially if you compare bitcoin with gold and try to think that bitcoin is an asset more than a currency then after a year or two bitcoin will sure increase it's value and thinking that your hodl bitcoin is a precious metal can be a good thing actually, and right now in just a small amount of time we can see that bitcoin had hit it's new all time high again and gaining momentum up to $6500 dollar.

[warrior333]

I have a different opinion. Hoarding is bad for bitcoin. The money should work. When bitcoins are in the wallets of users, they create a gap in the market and it stimulates the growth of prices. This has nothing to do with the real price. We must face the fact that the bitcoin price will fall to a reasonable level. It will be a shock to everyone who keeps the coins.

[Silberman]

Does hoarding really hurt Bitcoin?

Hoarding is neither good or bad, it is just what it is, think about it if the price of bitcoin went down then all those hoarders are going to lose a lot of money, fortunes can be lost in a matter of days however those that are hoarding bitcoin are waiting for the opposite scenario in which bitcoin goes up in value a lot and they are able to benefit from that change in the price.

[candy27]

I would say Yes.

Basically if bitcoin is never used it just becomes a ponzi scheme where people buy and hoard, in the hopes of selling to someone at some point in the future. But why would the person in the future buy? The answer seems to be, "simply because the price will always go up, it doesn't matter if it is not used", which is a classic definition of a ponzi.

If the price actually managed to stay flat, instead of climbing so fast, peope WOULD use it as a currency and it might have a long term future.

[BillCoin]

I think that it hurts bitcoin at some aspects.

Unlikely at the bitcoin case, when you hoard fiat it's okay, because the government are always able to print more money if the total funds in circulation gets low.
But  at the bitcoin case, if there are a lot of people that hoarding instead of using, it makes the total funds in circulation go lower, but it's still impossible to print more money into the system( nature of  bitcoin), it makes the bitcoin price rise, which could be count as a bubble, because the total funds in circulation are much lower then the total funds that exist.

[BrewMaster]

long term investors, hoarders, hodlers, or whatever you want to call them exist in any market. they buy up the assets and hold them. sometimes cash out some and most of the times they just keep buying every now and then, mostly in the dips.

that doesn't hurt bitcoin because it is not everyone that does this. and besides we are headed for a high price and a stable price in the far future. by that time when we talk about how much 1 satoshi is worth, people will have a stable satoshi price and today's hoarders will be spending it happily like a multi millionaire.

[Kronos21]

I'm on the forum I read that Amazon wants on Thursday to make a statement about the use of bitcoins. If so then bitcoin will have the possibility of a turn and then the price can stabilize. But the stabilization will apply only to falling prices. We will have the opportunity not to sell bitcoin on the exchange where it will all depend on whales. We can spend bitcoins to purchase goods more profitably. Then the price of bitcoin will always go up.

[NeuroticFish]

"Everything counts in large amounts"

Hoarding is not bad, especially at current levels. There's a good number of Bitcoin flowing around, the economy works. So no harm is done.
People do the same with USD or EUR, why wouldn't do it with Bitcoin?

If the amounts locked on safe storage will become too big, then this will become visible and will hurt, but for now I think that we are far from that point.

[BitHodler]

Bitcoin is an investment option that has a very limited supply. If people continue to hoard/accumulate long enough, this market will keep going up in value constantly ~ not something many people will complain about, right?

Important aspect is the fact that it helps in getting coins out of circulation, and thus off-exchange. People looking to come on board will have to accept the fact that they some times might end up paying a significant premium.

It's nothing to worry about for me personally. Bitcoin's currency aspect has never really been utilized fully by the majority of the people, and likely never will if the general mentality doesn't change dramatically.

[aardvark15]

Does hoarding really hurt Bitcoin?

I originally felt like holding/hoarding would be bad for Bitcoin because if we never try to spend Bitcoins at stores and businesses, there will be no demand for Bitcoin to be used as a method of payment. Why would a store get set up to accept Bitcoins as payment if no one ever pays that way?

I’m assuming that currently, very few businesses accept Bitcoin for payment and most people just hold or trade Bitcoins and still the price keeps going up at a huge pace. So at least for now, holding/hoarding isn’t hurting Bitcoin.

Apparently Bitcoin has found a niche as a store of value. The fees are so high right now that this may be all that Bitcoin is ever used for.

[aardvark15]

Another thing that could happen is that as people keep hoarding Bitcoins, the price could level off or drop. If that happens, people may be more inclined to spend their Bitcoins. If they start spending them, this could create a demand for more businesses to accept it as a payment method which in turn could make Bitcoin more useful and more in demand.

Basically, I think this issue can fix itself because as long as the price keeps rising like it has, people don’t want to spend it. But if the price were to start dropping, they would probably spend it and put those Bitcoins back into circulation.

[diouf67]

It really depends on the level of hoarding and the level of usage, there has to be a balance between use and hoarding so that bitcoin has a true value, if this is the case then hoarding is no problem, it would be nice in future to see some system whereby bitcoin is recycled, by this I mean something alike to a bitcoin bank.

[Slash61]

why should it hurt? From the hoarding of all people can benefit can also be a loss. I mean if someone hoards bitcoin I'm sure someday he will got profit from the bitcoin he heaps. Stockpiling is also the only investment for individuals, I see the market is increasing. the more he accumulates the bitcoin the better.

[richardsNY]

No. People here are constantly advising each other to buy at whatever price and to hold for the long term, which obviously hints at one thing, and that's getting people to not sell anything for a few years (at least, that's my definition of long term). This has been going on for quite some time now -- people aren't selling their coins as easily as they used to back in the days. I think this will continue to happen when you take into consideration that Bitcoin will more and more function as store of value for people. There will always be enough coins for people to buy, because the higher the price goes up, the lower the amounts are that they can afford to buy. It basically evens out the lower availability of Bitcoin.

[Cranidos]

Does hoarding really hurt Bitcoin?

Actually it does not. Hoarding or "hodling" Bitcoins make the price high. If you have a hoard of Bitcoins, you cause scarcity to its market. Scarcity would mean that the supply in the market is low, thus making the price surges. It does not hurt Bitcoin since it is natural. We cannot exclude the fact that a person has the right to his asset and he can hoard all he want.

Some are grateful to those who hodl their Bitcoin, because of them, the increase in Bitcoin's price is incomparable.

[afbitcoins]

Does hoarding really hurt Bitcoin?

No

[rjbtc2017]

Does hoarding really hurt Bitcoin?

No,But if it will be a culture of all Bitcoin users (this is for example that EVERYONE HOLDS Bitcoins and no one ever uses it as a currency or doesn't even transact it) it may definitely hurt Bitcoin. Bitcoin will be surely dead if these miners will not process transactions because no one creates them which means mining will not be that profitable. Bitcoin is a currency. Every now and then it should be used as a currency and not just hold it.If you really "care" about Bitcoin and Bitcoin Community, then i think , you should use Bitcoin as a currency

[Welsh]

Does hoarding really hurt Bitcoin?

Nope. Everyone is free to hoard. It's really stupid when people claim "if you just hoard it, and don't transact it, you are hurting bitcoin!". What the hell is this logic? It is my bitcoin, I do whatever I want with it. If I choose to hoard it then so be it. It is stupid to spend your high quality money that appreciates with time when you have bad quality money that depreciates with time (fiat) to spend things you can already buy with it. Hold the bitcoin, dump the fiat, that is what the intelligent people do. There's no point in doing payments in bitcoin unless you really need to (like paying an VPN service for example.)

You are partially correct in that hoarding doesn't hurt Bitcoin on it's own, but if everyone did hoard and there wasn't any supply and only demand then Bitcoin wouldn't be worth what it is today.

Bitcoin requires people to actually use Bitcoin to continue to grow in terms of price. There needs to be a reason to own Bitcoin and a reason to spend/trade it. Yes it's true that paying things in Bitcoin you could be overpaying due to it rising in a few years, but really that's only because people are trading in the currency.