Bitcoin Hoarding is a Good Thing

[BittBurger]

Bitcoin grows in stages.  

And right now, the foundations for the Bitcoin economy are being laid.  

Merchant Adoption
Right now, the incentive is for Merchants.  Merchants are the most important backbone to the Bitcoin economy.  They will provide the products and services which can be bought with Bitcoin.  As expected, right now, Merchants have immense incentive to accept Bitcoin:  Avoiding Visa and Mastercard processing fees.  The ability to avoid Chargebacks and take control of the refund process.  These two incentives are causing merchants all over the place to add Bitcoin to their stores. The first steps in the "Bitcoin Commerce Life Cycle" therefore, is merchant incentive.  And this is completely by design.

Consumer Hoarding (acquiring / saving)
The other thing happening at this stage of the "Bitcoin Commerce Life Cycle" is the incentive for consumers to acquire, and save.  This is an *extremely* important part of a healthy process.  How else will the currency propagate around the world?   Again.  This seems to be by design.  While merchants are building the infrastructure to provide products and services, consumers are being rewarded for acquiring and propagating the currency itself.  Nobody invests only to "never spend".  Everybody invests to ultimately cash out.  And when they do?  Merchants will be ready.  Products and services will be available.  And again.  This is by design. So "hoarding" is a natural part of the process of building the economy.  Sure, some cash out for USD, but doing so means others are buying their Bitcoins.  It's still going viral. What happens when millions of merchants accept Bitcoin, and Bitcoin has finally propagated to tens of millions of consumers after a long period of acquiring?

Commerce.

Let the process take its appropriate steps.  Give Bitcoin time to do what its going to do.  Everyone who trash talks Bitcoin at this stage, is criticizing something that hasn't had much time to develop yet.  Consumer hoarding should be viewed as propagation of the currency.  Its getting the currency into people's pockets.  It's going viral. Early adopters are being rewarded, so they will eventually go shopping with it.  When you think about it this way ... it all makes perfect sense.

[niothor]

If people only hoard it won't propagate.
If nobody sells nobody buys.

And merchants won't implement a payment solution and wait for people to stop hoarding somewhere in the future.
Bitcoin exists because people use it .
If we all hoard it it would be the end of it.

Ps.
Buying bitcoins spending them and buying back doesn't mean hoarding , it means using it.

[eternalgloom]

I have most of my Bitcoins in cold storage anyway plus a couple of active wallets to spend some on food, hardware, etc.
Might be tempted to sell when it hits $1000.

[BittBurger]

If people only hoard it won't propagate.
If nobody sells nobody buys.

And merchants won't implement a payment solution and wait for people to stop hoarding somewhere in the future.

Hoarding *is* the process of propagation.  If 5 million people buy bitcoin and hold it, then 5 million people now have Bitcoin.

Who was buying Bitcoin when it wasn't going up in value?  Nobody.   No propagation.

These are stages.  This is not the end of the story.  

The increase in value encourages people to buy in.  

While they "hold" ... the infrastructure is being built.

In the meantime, Merchants are incentivized to accept Bitcoin.  This increases infrastructure.  It works perfectly.

And yes, merchants will wait. Why wouldn't they?  Its no skin off their back to allow it as an additional payment option, while still accepting Visa & MasterCard.

This is all part of the process of:

(1) Encouraging infrastructure to be built and
(2) Encourage consumers to acquire the currency for future spending.

Everyone is looking at the *current* situation as the *final* stage. 

Its only the beginning of what is to come.  Stop looking at Bitcoin as a completed product.   Its nowhere near that yet.

[niothor]

If people only hoard it won't propagate.
If nobody sells nobody buys.

And merchants won't implement a payment solution and wait for people to stop hoarding somewhere in the future.

Hoarding *is* the process of propagation.  If 5 million people buy bitcoin and hold it, then 5 million people now have Bitcoin.

Who was buying Bitcoin when it wasn't going up in value?  Nobody.   No propagation.

These are stages.  This is not the end of the story.  

The increase in value encourages people to buy in.  

While they "hold" ... the infrastructure is being built.

In the meantime, Merchants are incentivized to accept Bitcoin.   And they will wait.  WHy wouldn't they?  Its no skin off their back to allow it as an additional payment option.

They still accept visa and mastercard in the meantime.

This is all part of the process of

(1) Encouraging infrastructure to be built and
(2) Encourage consumers to acquire the currency for future spending.

From who will they buy those if everybody is hoarding?
You need sellers
Otherwise the whole thing collapses.

If the 10kbtc guy didn't spend those on a pizza , maybe we wouldn't have any bitcoin merchant or user right now.

[BittBurger]

Hoarding *is* the process of propagation.  If 5 million people buy bitcoin and hold it, then 5 million people now have Bitcoin.

From who will they buy those if everybody is hoarding?

LOL ... ugh.  Nevermind dude.  Its like you read one sentence, then ignore the one right after it, which answers your question already.

[karma9]

you take exchange rate out of equation.
if going rate in USD drops, people optimism would fade and they will be purchasing products or exchanging BTC for fiat.
then, cycle repeats.