If every person that wants to mine instead decides to buy and hold. Never spend there coin only sell if the price rises. How do we expect the currency to grow? Who is spending this coin? It seems to me that one of the driving forces in the BTC world is mining equipment. I understand what you are saying about if I buy hardware it will never have a full return but it seems that there has to be a better investment technique than this simple answer to buy and hold. BTW not I am not saying to buy hardware and Im not telling anyone that they are wrong if they do or not, I simply do not see how the buy and hold approach will work if every person who wants to get into BTC just decides to buy some coin and never spend it.
[edit: I realized I was being snotty and standoffish removed that content, not looking to start a fight.]
Like everything in life we need balance .
Bitcoin is attempting to correct the current financially corrupt market place were free market price discovery is a distance nostalgic memory .
1) Bitcoin need miners to survive .
2) Need a healthy honest market.(fueling a healthy valuation of bitcoin )
Currently mining technology is advancing very fast ,to counter this the mining difficulty is rising at a staggering pace leaving lots of individuals questioning there investment .
The market is very immature and has yet to find its feet ,until the market gains traction and the price rises mining will be seen as a hobby by some ,when the price of bitcoin rises mining will become more attractive again and the cycle will continue through the life of bitcoin.
When you realise The UK as an example is in a financial position such that no other country in history has ever survived without a major currency re-evaluation then the one thing you do not want is that countries fiat in anything larger than you need to spend monthly .
The last re-evaluation in the uk was not long ago ,it was 15 February 1971
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_Day.
That time they took old money till new money was fully implemented ,in the confusion to the public they also halved the value .
As an exampe your £6000 overnight will be worth £3000.
France was a bit more extreme earlier in history just like the USA Holding gold was illegal and the french beheaded anyone found holding gold .
Once these countries collected the gold ( real currency )overnight the price of it tripled and was reintroduced into circulation ,in the current example £6000 = £2000 .
Since our fiat currencies have no actual value ,beheading will not be necessary this time hehe.
Banker was originated from the french were it was an insult lol.
If bitcoin stays strong then since it is not controlled by governments's banksters it will do the opposite of what the governments intend ,in the current example bitcoins owned to the current UK value of £6,000 over a future bank holiday will be worth £12,000 assuming they devalue as in 1971 by 100% while £6000 fiat will over the same weekend become worth £3,000.
The only people that will escape are those owning virtual currencies or physical items of value .
Anyone noticed a big jump in gold prices over recent years and offers to buy your gold have you noticed the price of gold plummeting from the $1800 range ?
You are not being welcomed to gold lol but when the above events takes place gold will reflect immediately real value and could see $5000 over a bank holiday weekend .
Try to see cryptocurrency, physical gold, silver or any commodity as a wealth maintainer and possible windfall, were others not so savvy will see the little they have halved or quite likely reduced to a third .
No one can tell when this will happen ,we just know it has too .
