21M BTC might be enough for everyone

[wobber]

I don't know if this was discussed but I am not joking. With the current 10 minutes or so waiting time, blockchain size increasing, there's no way bitcoin will be use for microtransactions (although the crowd decided how much money sends and for what purpose).

What if bitcoin will be a niche, serving cryptogeeks, nerds, libertarians and maybe some "speculators". We could see a critical mass achieved soon, maybe even this year with all the media hype, US senate debate etc. Once critical mass is there, price will flat-line. Won't matter who gets in and out, it will be some kind of equilibrium. Not all people would want bitcoin or know what to do with it.

[N12]

You're using the term critical mass wrong, but it's an interesting notion that I too am thinking about, that there just aren't that many more people who are going to use Bitcoin. I mean, how many people hold gold?

[wobber]

You're using the term critical mass wrong, but it's an interesting notion that I too am thinking about, that there just aren't that many more people who are going to use Bitcoin. I mean, how many people hold gold?

Exactly. How many do hold gold? Or silver.
PS: Why am i using critical mass wrong?

[N12]

Critical mass would be the point in an s-curve where things go parabolic, no? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_mass_%28sociodynamics%29

[msc]

I mean, how many people hold gold?

Enough that if 1 to 5% of that money moved to BTC, we'd be very happy.  I believe the numbers have been posted here somewhere.

[N12]

Yes, this hasn't much to do with price. Wealth is very concentrated.

[revans]

I don't know if this was discussed but I am not joking. With the current 10 minutes or so waiting time, blockchain size increasing, there's no way bitcoin will be use for microtransactions (although the crowd decided how much money sends and for what purpose).

What if bitcoin will be a niche, serving cryptogeeks, nerds, libertarians and maybe some "speculators". We could see a critical mass achieved soon, maybe even this year with all the media hype, US senate debate etc. Once critical mass is there, price will flat-line. Won't matter who gets in and out, it will be some kind of equilibrium. Not all people would want bitcoin or know what to do with it.

Were you ever daft enough to think otherwise? Seriously, what exactly is the Bitcoin proposition to the wider public?

'Please use this currency which we created a few years ago and exchange goods and services with us based on the valuation our small community of libertarian zealots have attributed to it.'

[porcupine87]

You're using the term critical mass wrong, but it's an interesting notion that I too am thinking about, that there just aren't that many more people who are going to use Bitcoin. I mean, how many people hold gold?

Exactly. How many do hold gold? Or silver.
PS: Why am i using critical mass wrong?

The question rather might be: who isn't holding gold or silver? I mean, who has no coin at home which consists of gold?
"Indian households hold over $950 billion of gold"
-> a 950 trillion market would be 50 000$ per Bitcoin.
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-12-05/news/30474783_1_gold-imports-tonnage-terms-gold-demand

[BittBurger]

I mean, how many people hold gold?

Enough that if 1 to 5% of that money moved to BTC, we'd be very happy.  I believe the numbers have been posted here somewhere.

Winklevoss said something like if BTC matched Gold's market cap each coin would be worth $400,000

[laowai80]

I don't know if this was discussed but I am not joking. With the current 10 minutes or so waiting time, blockchain size increasing, there's no way bitcoin will be use for microtransactions (although the crowd decided how much money sends and for what purpose).

What if bitcoin will be a niche, serving cryptogeeks, nerds, libertarians and maybe some "speculators". We could see a critical mass achieved soon, maybe even this year with all the media hype, US senate debate etc. Once critical mass is there, price will flat-line. Won't matter who gets in and out, it will be some kind of equilibrium. Not all people would want bitcoin or know what to do with it.

Bitcoin for larger payments where you don't need it to be instant or even quick.

Alt-coins for faster payments.

If bitcoin gets real big, and goes 1 or 2 orders of magnitude higher, there'll be enough room for many alt-coins too, a lot of the capital will pour into them (of course not as much as into bitcoin but still enough), so micro-payments won't be an issue.

[beetcoin]

I don't know if this was discussed but I am not joking. With the current 10 minutes or so waiting time, blockchain size increasing, there's no way bitcoin will be use for microtransactions (although the crowd decided how much money sends and for what purpose).

What if bitcoin will be a niche, serving cryptogeeks, nerds, libertarians and maybe some "speculators". We could see a critical mass achieved soon, maybe even this year with all the media hype, US senate debate etc. Once critical mass is there, price will flat-line. Won't matter who gets in and out, it will be some kind of equilibrium. Not all people would want bitcoin or know what to do with it.

Bitcoin for larger payments where you don't need it to be instant or even quick.

Alt-coins for faster payments.

If bitcoin gets real big, and goes 1 or 2 orders of magnitude higher, there'll be enough room for many alt-coins too, a lot of the capital will pour into them (of course not as much as into bitcoin but still enough), so micro-payments won't be an issue.

good point. it would  catapult LTC most likely.  i am smacking myself on the head for not buying $100 worth of LTC for 6 cents each.

[Miz4r]

I don't know if this was discussed but I am not joking. With the current 10 minutes or so waiting time, blockchain size increasing, there's no way bitcoin will be use for microtransactions (although the crowd decided how much money sends and for what purpose).

What's wrong with using off-chain transactions for those microtransactions? And there are other solutions as well to handle microtransactions, so I really don't think this will stop bitcoin from becoming more than a niche thing for nerds.

[laowai80]

good point. it would  catapult LTC most likely.  i am smacking myself on the head for not buying $100 worth of LTC for 6 cents each.

You're not late to buy, it's all relative. My expectation is LTC can go to 1/10th of BTC some day, with that in mind, LTC is still dirt cheap relative to BTC. Now, of course BTC could go to $0.10 and LTC to $0.01 and that would hit the expected price target, but I hope for higher levels of estimation of course

[d'aniel]

I don't know if this was discussed but I am not joking. With the current 10 minutes or so waiting time, blockchain size increasing, there's no way bitcoin will be use for microtransactions (although the crowd decided how much money sends and for what purpose).

What if bitcoin will be a niche, serving cryptogeeks, nerds, libertarians and maybe some "speculators". We could see a critical mass achieved soon, maybe even this year with all the media hype, US senate debate etc. Once critical mass is there, price will flat-line. Won't matter who gets in and out, it will be some kind of equilibrium. Not all people would want bitcoin or know what to do with it.

Bitcoin micropayment channels: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=244656.0

[disclaimer201]

good point. it would  catapult LTC most likely.  i am smacking myself on the head for not buying $100 worth of LTC for 6 cents each.

You're not late to buy, it's all relative. My expectation is LTC can go to 1/10th of BTC some day, with that in mind, LTC is still dirt cheap relative to BTC. Now, of course BTC could go to $0.10 and LTC to $0.01 and that would hit the expected price target, but I hope for higher levels of estimation of course

BTC will never even see under 100$ again. If it ever does, it really means it failed.

[emanymton]

I don't know if this was discussed but I am not joking. With the current 10 minutes or so waiting time, blockchain size increasing, there's no way bitcoin will be use for microtransactions (although the crowd decided how much money sends and for what purpose).

What if bitcoin will be a niche, serving cryptogeeks, nerds, libertarians and maybe some "speculators". We could see a critical mass achieved soon, maybe even this year with all the media hype, US senate debate etc. Once critical mass is there, price will flat-line. Won't matter who gets in and out, it will be some kind of equilibrium. Not all people would want bitcoin or know what to do with it.

Bitcoin for larger payments where you don't need it to be instant or even quick.

Alt-coins for faster payments.

If bitcoin gets real big, and goes 1 or 2 orders of magnitude higher, there'll be enough room for many alt-coins too, a lot of the capital will pour into them (of course not as much as into bitcoin but still enough), so micro-payments won't be an issue.

good point. it would  catapult LTC most likely.  i am smacking myself on the head for not buying $100 worth of LTC for 6 cents each.

I think everybody who ignored smoothies litecoin ranting back in the day is doing the same thing.

[laowai80]

BTC will never even see under 100$ again. If it ever does, it really means it failed.

I'll have to agree with this.
If BTC ever sees its price at $100, that'll be on its way to zero.
I just had to include that possibility to stay unbiased on my LTC-would-be-1/10th-of-BTC price target, no matter what the USD price is.

[oda.krell]

I don't know if this was discussed but I am not joking. With the current 10 minutes or so waiting time, blockchain size increasing, there's no way bitcoin will be use for microtransactions (although the crowd decided how much money sends and for what purpose).

What if bitcoin will be a niche, serving cryptogeeks, nerds, libertarians and maybe some "speculators". We could see a critical mass achieved soon, maybe even this year with all the media hype, US senate debate etc. Once critical mass is there, price will flat-line. Won't matter who gets in and out, it will be some kind of equilibrium. Not all people would want bitcoin or know what to do with it.

Were you ever daft enough to think otherwise? Seriously, what exactly is the Bitcoin proposition to the wider public?

'Please use this currency which we created a few years ago and exchange goods and services with us based on the valuation our small community of libertarian zealots have attributed to it.'

Did you buy back yet? Please do so, quickly, because your constant bitching about the impeding failure of all things bitcoin is getting grating, you know.