Why won't BTC drop in Value when Mainstream?

[BittBurger]

It seems to me that the price of BTC right now ($100-ish) is "our" price. 

BTC is hard to obtain.  Only those of us who know how to acquire it, can get it. 

Therefore its value is high.

The average person out there still has no means by which to obtain it.

To me that is "Scarcity".   

To me that justifies its $100 value.

Fast forward a bit - to when people can obtain bitcoin easily.   

Why won't its value take a sharp skydive when it is abundant, and easy to obtain?

Suddenly its not so hard to get.

Suddenly its not scarce.

Quantity of coins will also be going up.  Even less scarcity.

Scarcity increases value.  Easy to acquire decreases value. 

No?

-Burger-

[Birdy]

It will be easier to aquire Bitcoins, but harder to aquire the same amounts of Bitcoins.
There are 21 mio Bitcoins max, simple math tells us that the price has to skyrocket if Bitcoin goes mainstream.

[BittBurger]

It will be easier to aquire Bitcoins, but harder to aquire the same amounts of Bitcoins.

It will only be harder to *Mine* the same amounts of bitcoins.  It wont be harder to acquire the same amounts.  
It will become significantly easier to acquire them if you are purchasing them straight-out.
The only way they'd be harder to acquire in the same amounts, is if the price went up.
But when something becomes easy to acquire and quantity (mined) is going up, its value goes down, compared to when it was hard to acquire and quantity was limited.
Isn't that the process?

There are 21 mio Bitcoins max, simple math tells us that the price has to skyrocket if Bitcoin goes mainstream.

There wont be a cap on the number of available coins for 40 years.  
So its limit wont have any relevance until that time comes.
Once they are easy to obtain, their quantity will continue to rise.
During this time period, I am theorizing that their value will decrease significantly.
No?

-Burger-

[tinus42]

If every person in the world would use Bitcoin there would be 1/600th BTC on average per world citizen.

[BittBurger]

Once again you are referring to 30, 40 years from now. 
I am referring to the next 5 to 20 years.
The time period where BTC is easy to get, and its quantity is increasing.
Value of $100 should go down.  No?

[elor70]

The price will rise,just look at the past

[bitcoinbboyce]

I might be wrong but I'm quite sure the more people have bitcoin then the price will likely go up.

I think it may have something to do with supply and demand but there again I could be wrong.

[Birdy]

Once again you are referring to 30, 40 years from now.  
I am referring to the next 5 to 20 years.
The time period where BTC is easy to get, and its quantity is increasing.
Value of $100 should go down.  No?

Only if demand stays the same, I don't think that will be the case.
Also I don't think the hard cap of 21 mio will change.

But feel free to sell all your coins or even short them, if you believe otherwise. ^^

[Gabi]

Why won't its value take a sharp skydive when it is abundant

Quantity of coins will also be going up

Wrong, max numbers of bitcoin is 21 millions and more than half are already in circulation.

So no, they will NOT be abundant and the quantity of coins won't go so up, at most 21 millions.

If more people start buying bitcoin then its price will increase, since the total number of bitcoin does not change. As i said, more than half already have been mined. It is not you can suddenly create 100 millions btc

[JoelKatz]

BTC is hard to obtain.  Only those of us who know how to acquire it, can get it. 

The average person out there still has no means by which to obtain it.

To me that is "Scarcity".   

To me that justifies its $100 value.

This is entirely backwards! The amount someone is willing to pay for something is at most its utility less the transaction cost. Reducing transaction costs therefore increases the amount people would be willing to pay.

But it also completely misses the big picture. The supply of Bitcoins is effectively fixed. The demand, however, is not. Increasing adoption means increasing demand.

[Van3cespencer7]

Bitcoins value will be the same as ever other thing in this world is based on, simply what someone will pay for it. Therefor bitcoin will never reach a million a coin or anything close to. Simply because no one will ever pay 1million for it.

You will always have other currencies accepted. Bitcoin will never be that needed for the price to go insanely high.

[gollum]

The price of bitcoin is actually too high if you consider the competition from other alt-coins, but people are seldom rational when it comes to economics.
Just like other technology wars or brand wars, the winner takes it all and thats why bitcoin has sustained the price around 100$.
Most people and most merchants ignore or don't know about alt-coins.

In the long run I think other coins will take some more market share and outperform bitcoin as an investment.
If bitcoin becomes to mainstream and becomes too regulated, the need will emerge for less regulated and more anonymous coins.

[Van3cespencer7]

The price of bitcoin is actually too high if you consider the competition from other alt-coins, but people are seldom rational when it comes to economics.
Just like other technology wars or brand wars, the winner takes it all and thats why bitcoin has sustained the price around 100$.
Most people and most merchants ignore or don't know about alt-coins.

In the long run I think other coins will take some more market share and outperform bitcoin as an investment.
If bitcoin becomes to mainstream and becomes too regulated, the need will emerge for less regulated and more anonymous coins.

100% agree with this. Bitcoin paved the way and deserves credit for its accomplishments but you are right, there are improvements to be made and another coin will surely catch some notability.

[Ekonom]

Quite interesting this topic just above "Why do most Bitcoiners seem intelligent?"  

[cryptocoinmkt.com]

It seems to me that the price of BTC right now ($100-ish) is "our" price. 

BTC is hard to obtain.  Only those of us who know how to acquire it, can get it. 

Therefore its value is high.

The average person out there still has no means by which to obtain it.

To me that is "Scarcity".   

To me that justifies its $100 value.

Fast forward a bit - to when people can obtain bitcoin easily.   

Why won't its value take a sharp skydive when it is abundant, and easy to obtain?

Suddenly its not so hard to get.

Suddenly its not scarce.

Quantity of coins will also be going up.  Even less scarcity.

Scarcity increases value.  Easy to acquire decreases value. 

No?

-Burger-

Rather than "scarcity" , one possible perspective is look at Bitcoins from the point of the economic principles of Supply / Demand.
When Cypress bank accounts were being raided the price shot up, because "heck" there was a big demand , Cypriots were trying to get their money out of the country and used Bitcoins, so they bought Bitcoins as a store of value.

Cypriots demand drove the Bitcoins price up.

The same will happen as economic instability is increased around the globe.  When people realize that they need to get their savings out of banks fast, and gold/silver is too heavy to carry around and unsafe (killed for it) they will discover Bitcoins and used it to store value, as more people subscribe to this idea the higher the price.

Argentina is also a good example.  http://www.coindesk.com/why-bitcoins-are-60-more-expensive-in-argentina-than-the-us/

This is also well documented in the most recent "The Genesis Block" report.
http://thegenesisblock.com/bitcoin-mid-year-review-and-outlook/

Just like a hot stock on the stock market, when the demand is there people will drive the price up. 
This can be said about more average joes and janes learning about Bitcoins and wanting to try it out and use it for exchange.
The more people get on the bandwagon the higher the price.....demand.  

Think "Supply / Demand", but your are correct too that "scarcity" has some factor in it.

My 2 cents.

CryptoCoinMKT

[Wary]

Quite interesting this topic just above "Why do most Bitcoiners seem intelligent?"  

LOL

[DeathAndTaxes]

Quite interesting this topic just above "Why do most Bitcoiners seem intelligent?" 

Key word ... most.

[BittBurger]

I am playing Devil's Advocate by creating this thread.  I don't necessarily believe what I am saying.  And I hope I am wrong.

I am buying up BTC like wildfire, but I have always had this nagging fear that once "Average Joe" can get their hands on it with a simple click, its value will decrease.

Why?

Because I equate "supply" as increasing, when "average joe" is able to easily get bitcoin.

I am not talking about literal "supply" here.  Im talking about *availability*.

I equate "insufficient supply" as the current status, where availability to the general public is extremely limited.

Right now BTC is not easy to get.  Therefore "supply" (availability) is limited.  

This has created "demand" among all of us.  Not the general public.

That's why I said $100 is "our price" ..... $100 is what BTC has settled at for "our little world" of QT wallets and mining.

Later, when BTC becomes simple for the general public to acquire, because there are tools, websites, apps, which make acquiring it simple for the average person - SUPPLY increases.

Availability increases.   Now anyone can get 10 BTC ....

No longer 10 internet geeks playing with BTC, now there are 10 internet geeks and 300 average joes who have it.

Increased availability. 

Price goes down.

This is a temporary, not permanent thing.  But I do believe it will happen when BTC goes mainstream at first.

[DeathAndTaxes]

No longer 10 internet geeks playing with BTC, now there are 10 internet geeks and 300 average joes who have it.

That would be increased demand.  Even if you want to play semantic games about "increased available supply" surely you can see that we are looking at increased demand under that scenario. 

Now Bitcoin might not RISE further under increased demand simply because the current price has some "future expectations" built into it.  It is possible that demand rises (but slower than some expect) and thus the price declines (less of a speculative) premium despite there being higher demand.

[mgio]

The price of bitcoin is actually too high if you consider the competition from other alt-coins, but people are seldom rational when it comes to economics.
Just like other technology wars or brand wars, the winner takes it all and thats why bitcoin has sustained the price around 100$.
Most people and most merchants ignore or don't know about alt-coins.

In the long run I think other coins will take some more market share and outperform bitcoin as an investment.
If bitcoin becomes to mainstream and becomes too regulated, the need will emerge for less regulated and more anonymous coins.

Most people ignore alt coins because alt coins are worthless. Anybody can make an alt coin as easily as I can take a green piece of paper and write "1 dollar" on it. That doesn't make it money.