What happens when BTC is too expensive to buy?

[BittBurger]

At $40 a lot of people could buy in.

At $100 .... not too many people could still buy in with any relevant *volume* (and this is the key, before you write your response) ...

At $200 .... for any of you who have been to Asia and seen the Rolls Royce's lining the streets ... you know that China is the reason BTC continued to rise past $200.

To China $200 is chump change.

But how is anyone going to consider BTC a worthwhile investment at $500 per coin, except the already very wealthy?

--------------

Its no different than the guy who makes $250,000 a year who still doesn't bother buying Google stock.

He's got money, but in order to make money, you have to buy a lot of something.  Otherwise you buy 2 shares of Google and make a whopping $10 in four months.

He can't buy *enough* to make it worth his while.

So he doesn't buy.

Without buyers and sellers constantly buying and selling, what is going to keep pushing the price up?

---------------

At some point very soon, nobody is going to be able to afford a Bitcoin.   What happens then?

Buying in sub 1.0 quantities will seem very pointless to many "lay" people.  Buying 1/10th of a coin .... negligible return on investment really ...

Maybe BTC will have to transition ...... from a "stock market"-like "buying and selling" scene ...... to more of an "industry" for exchange of goods and services.

So if that happens ...  what is going to push the value up, past $1,000?

[Newscastix]

Who says you can only buy a full coin?

[Buffer Overflow]

1 Bitcoin is another way of saying 100,000,000.

[DeathAndTaxes]

The number of coins is immaterial.  

It is like saying who is going to buy gold at $20 million per ton (a very good price BTW).  I can barely afford 0.00001 tons.

As for 1/10th of a coin being a lower return than 1 coin come on man is basic math not taught in school anymore.

If you spend $200 for 1 BTC and the exchange rate doubles you now have $400 worth of BTC.
If in some hypothetical future you spend $200 for 1/10th of a BTC and the exchange rate doubles you now have .... TADA ... $400 worth of BTC.


Still if you are worried and your only interest in hype and massive returns there is this revolutionary "altcoin" which has tracked the exact same return as Bitcoin.  You can buy 1 mBTC for the low price of ~$0.25 ea. UNDER A DOLLAR!!!!! MUCH BETTER THAN BITCOIN. Amazing.  Think of how much you can make if 1 mBTC goes to $200.  INSANE PROFITS FOR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!  Plus while you wait to make your billions you can spend/trade/exchange your mBTC EVERYWHERE THAT TAKES BITCOIN.  Forget BTC buy mBTC today.

[Chainsaw]

This topic has been visited a fair number of times.

Stock splits change the perceived public value of a stock.

There's a lot of supporters waiting to pressure exchanges to switch to a mBTC format, for this very reason.
With this current rally, that day will be fast approaching.

A price of $0.262/mBTC doesn't look so daunting now, does it?

[BittBurger]

Why would someone even bother buying 0.2 BTC ?

If a whole Bitcoin only goes up $100 .... why would someone care about making $20 ?

Im new to finance so im asking out of genuine cluelessness. 

Thanks for any educating you can do

[rampantparanoia]

Why would someone even bother buying 0.2 BTC ?

If a whole Bitcoin only goes up $100 .... why would someone care about making $20 ?

Im new to finance so im asking out of genuine cluelessness. 

Thanks for any educating you can do

"free" money is free money dude.

[balanghai]

People will now buy in 0.01 increments. 

[BittBurger]

"free" money is free money dude.

I suppose.  I guess im just a bitcoin snob now with my 175% profit LOL ....

[TERA]

I want to buy 1/21,000,000 of the new global internnet economy. How much do I pay?

[rampantparanoia]

I want to buy 1/21,000,000 of the new global internnet economy. How much do I pay?

$264. nice try

[Elwar]

1 mBTC only costs 27 cents.

They are cheap.

[fxkevin]

Return on Investment is based on a percentage, so if you buy 0.01 BTC and you make 20% on your investment...well you made 20%...

JUST like the guy who bought 1000 BTC...

Percentage wise both accounts are equal.

Cheers,

[Syke]

1 mBTC only costs 27 cents.

They are cheap.

Too rich for my blood. I deal with satoshis.

[Coinseeker]

OP, you're right on point with your thinking.  I agree, people will not buy fractions of Bitcoins in mass and yes, there is likely a cap on the price of Bitcoins or any crypto.  However, the "gold rush" mentality will still live on and that's when people will look to alt-currencies.  What's the "next big money maker?"  99% of people purchasing crypto are doing so for pure speculation, not for actual use.  It's about "getting rich", not changing the world.  

Now, as more people get more educated about what crypto is and assuming they want to actually use it to transact, they will realize there is no reason to pay a premium for a brand name like "Bitcoin", because it offers no advantages over the next crypto or even an exact copy of Bitcoin.  (It is open source after all)  Crypto will likely reach an equalization point where it won't matter that there are only 21 million Bitcoins because the only thing that matters, is its ability to store value.  That can be accomplished with any crypto.  Bitcoin isn't special, it's just first.  So why deal in fractions of crypto when you can deal in whole numbers of another, equally effective crypto?  Not to mention, Bitcoin doesn't scale so there is obviously going to be a limit to what's realistic.  Notice I said realistic, not delusional.  

What I say is, get rich while people are still ignorant.  Because the time will come when crypto is as common as fiat and equally as inexpensive to own and utilize as a store of value.  Maybe Bitcoin will retain some collectors item appeal for being the first big crypto, but likely not more than that because, there is just no point to stick with one, super expensive crypto when they all do the same thing and some can and will do it better than Bitcoin. 

[windjc]

OP, you're right on point with your thinking.  I agree, people will not buy fractions of Bitcoins in mass and yes, there is likely a cap on the price of Bitcoins or any crypto.  However, the "gold rush" mentality will still live on and that's when people will look to alt-currencies.  What's the "next big money maker?"  99% of people purchasing crypto are doing so for pure speculation, not for actual use.  It's about "getting rich", not changing the world.  

Now, as more people get more educated about what crypto is and assuming they want to actually use it to transact, they will realize there is no reason to pay a premium for a brand name like "Bitcoin", because it offers no advantages over the next crypto or even an exact copy of Bitcoin.  (It is open source after all)  Crypto will likely reach an equalization point where it won't matter that there are only 21 million Bitcoins because the only thing that matters, is its ability to store value.  That can be accomplished with any crypto.  Bitcoin isn't special, it's just first.  So why deal in fractions of crypto when you can deal in whole numbers of another, equally effective crypto?  Not to mention, Bitcoin doesn't scale so there is obviously going to be a limit to what's realistic.  Notice I said realistic, not delusional.  

What I say is, get rich while people are still ignorant.  Because the time will come when crypto is as common as fiat and equally as inexpensive to own and utilize as a store of value.  Maybe Bitcoin will retain some collectors item appeal for being the first big crypto, but likely not more than that because, there is just no point to stick with one, super expensive crypto when they all do the same thing and some can and will do it better than Bitcoin. 

Right. Because the man power, computing power, security , community and business and application Eco-system don't matter at all. Any crypto can just support major integration into he world economy and asset class. 

Of course, first response has never shown to play much importance in adoption in any economic sector.

I mean lets just look at all the venture capital being poured into Litecoin and every other coin.

I mean they all just do what Bitcoin does, only better. Glad the rest of the world doesn't know that yet.

[BittBurger]

Agree with immediately above.

Your post (Coinseeker) ignores the fact that entire infrastructures are being built around Bitcion.  Not alt currencies.

If you believe that all that infrastructure is easily reusable with other cryptocurrencies, then your point may be right, but I have a feeling a lot of it is custom to Bitcoin.

As it stands though, its going to be several years in my opinion before other crypto's are entertained.  Bitcoin needs to establish itself first.

Anyways I am still not 100% clear on why the buying spree (and therefore price increases) will continue once a bitcoin gets high enough.  

Its value must somehow be affected by its "use" as a medium of exchange eventually because right now its value is being pushed only by buying and selling.  And that isn't going to last.

I suppose it was a bad example to compare to Google stock because you can't buy partial stocks like you can buy a partial bitcoin. 

[windjc]

Agree with immediately above.

Your post (Coinseeker) ignores the fact that entire infrastructures are being built around Bitcion.  Not alt currencies.

If you believe that all that infrastructure is easily reusable with other cryptocurrencies, then your point may be right, but I have a feeling a lot of it is custom to Bitcoin.

As it stands though, its going to be several years in my opinion before other crypto's are entertained.  Bitcoin needs to establish itself first.

Anyways I am still not 100% clear on why the buying spree (and therefore price increases) will continue once a bitcoin gets high enough. 

There must be some play in its worldwide use that increases its value.  As of right now only buying and selling does that.  And that isn't going to last.

The higher the price goes, the less it will increase. 

Coinseeker is a Ripple fanboy. And his comments are typical of Ripple fanboys.

As far as your OP, btc exchanges need to switch to mBTC at some point. It will probably be later than it should because their are a lot of techie purists that will slow that decision down.

[Luzio]

I agree with Coinseeker. The higher the price of Bitcoin, the more people will look for alternatives. I wouldn't have a problem switching to something really better. You can not make a better gold, it is unique, but you can make a better crypto. I am sure these high prices and popularity of Bitcoin are really good incentives for people to improve the crypto tech. The infrastructure will naturally follow.

[Coinseeker]

Right. Because the man power, computing power, security , community and business and application Eco-system don't matter at all. Any crypto can just support major integration into he world economy and asset class.  

Of course, first response has never shown to play much importance in adoption in any economic sector.

I mean lets just look at all the venture capital being poured into Litecoin and every other coin.

I mean they all just do what Bitcoin does, only better. Glad the rest of the world doesn't know that yet.

They (VC's) are operating on ignorance and brand name recognition.  They're looking to make a buck. Simple as that. They don't care about Bitcoin. If Litecoin becomes the popular name, they'll ditch BTC in a hurry and go with the money. Plus, miners are going to mine whatever is profitable.  Mining BTC isn't going to remain profitable for anyone not already rich and owning massive farms of mining equipment.  Yet, the desire to "print money" will never die and this will allow ANY crypto to have plenty of computational power, security, etc.  

You can tell yourself whatever you want, crypto is not exclusive to Bitcoin.  It's just one brand name out of many to come, though I wish you success on convincing the masses to buy 0.0000001 Bitcoins, when they can just buy 1 of something equally as effective.

I'm not knocking Bitcoin, it is showing us the way.  I'm just not blinded into the "one world currency" thinking and we'll just fraction out Bitcoin to infinity when new crypto is a whole lot easier to deal with.