[2013-12-15] TheAtlantic - Why Bitcoin will never be a Currency - in 2 Charts

[laowai80]

Oh no. Not that "we need more bitcoins" stuff again. They are divisible, down to 8 decimal points. Which could be increased in the future. What's so difficult to grasp here?

I didn't say we need more of something. I said that's the way things work in the world. People copy inventions, because they don't want to pay hefty sums for the original invention, since it's too rare. What's so difficult to grasp here?

Many people can shell out a hundred bucks to try it out, but what would that buy them? 0.11 bitcoin? Not even 1 whole bitcoin. That's why they spend it on alt-coins. Why do you think alt-coins have been rising fast recently? People don't care that bitcoin is divisible. It's psychology, they want to own something whole, not part of it. And if they can own a whole coin, but just a different brand, they go for that brand. Not all of them, but still enough of them, for the value of the original invention to dilute. Human psychology is both simple and hard to understand.

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[empoweoqwj]

Oh no. Not that "we need more bitcoins" stuff again. They are divisible, down to 8 decimal points. Which could be increased in the future. What's so difficult to grasp here?

I didn't say we need more of something. I said that's the way things work in the world. People copy inventions, because they don't want to pay hefty sums for the original invention, since it's too rare. What's so difficult to grasp here?

Many people can shell out a hundred bucks to try it out, but what would that buy them? 0.11 bitcoin? Not even 1 whole bitcoin. That's why they spend it on alt-coins. Why do you think alt-coins have been rising fast recently? People don't care that bitcoin is divisible. It's psychology, they want to own something whole, not part of it. And if they can own a whole coin, but just a different brand, they go for that brand. Not all of them, but still enough of them, for the value of the original invention to dilute. Human psychology is both simple and hard to understand.

Really? You can prove the recent rise in altcoins is attributable to us not converting to mBTC? Got any evidence? Ever thought there may be other reasons. Diversifying risk? Supremely skilled pump and dump artists?

[laowai80]

Really? You can prove the recent rise in altcoins is attributable to us not converting to mBTC? Got any evidence? Ever thought there may be other reasons. Diversifying risk? Supremely skilled pump and dump artists?

What does converting to mBTC have to do with anything? People aren't that stupid not to understand that 110 mBTC is still = 0.11 BTC, it's not a whole BTC They want to own a whole BTC, but many only got a hundred bucks to spend. So what do they do? Go for an alt-coin, you still can buy 3 full litecoins for example with that money, and feel good about yourself that you own something as a whole. That's one of the reasons.

Diversifying risk too of course, but that's when you're already into bitcoins. For newcomers they'd first consider bitcoins as it's the first one they hear about. And when bitcoin becomes absolutely unaffordable for most (somewhere past $5k), that's when alt-coins really take off, although they've already been taking off in the past 1-2 months relative to bitcoin.

Pump and dump is not unique to alt-coins, it happens in bitcoin too, just with less volatility, since it takes more efforts to move the bitcoin price.

[empoweoqwj]

Really? You can prove the recent rise in altcoins is attributable to us not converting to mBTC? Got any evidence? Ever thought there may be other reasons. Diversifying risk? Supremely skilled pump and dump artists?

What does converting to mBTC have to do with anything? People aren't that stupid not to understand that 110 mBTC is still = 0.11 BTC, it's not a whole BTC They want to own a whole BTC, but many only got a hundred bucks to spend. So what do they do? Go for an alt-coin, you still can buy 3 full litecoins for example with that money, and feel good about yourself that you own something as a whole. That's one of the reasons.

Diversifying risk too of course, but that's when you're already into bitcoins. For newcomers they'd first consider bitcoins as it's the first one they hear about. And when bitcoin becomes absolutely unaffordable for most (somewhere past $5k), that's when alt-coins really take off, although they've already been taking off in the past 1-2 months relative to bitcoin.

Pump and dump is not unique to alt-coins, it happens in bitcoin too, just with less volatility, since it takes more efforts to move the bitcoin price.

Anyone who has spent any time at btc-e will know that pump and dump is what most of them are attempting to do 24-7 for the last two years ....... they don't even attempt to hide it.

[laowai80]

Anyone who has spent any time at btc-e will know that pump and dump is what most of them are attempting to do 24-7 for the last two years ....... they don't even attempt to hide it.

Many many coins aren't even on btc-e, but still violent volatility.

As far as I understand my argument on the beauty of owning something whole vs owning a fraction of that is a little above your understanding. I'll leave it at that then, not much else to add here.

[empoweoqwj]

Anyone who has spent any time at btc-e will know that pump and dump is what most of them are attempting to do 24-7 for the last two years ....... they don't even attempt to hide it.

Many many coins aren't even on btc-e, but still violent volatility.

As far as I understand my argument on the beauty of owning something whole vs owning a fraction of that is a little above your understanding. I'll leave it at that then, not much else to add here.

Your attempts at condescension are pathetic. I get your "argument". I just don't agree with it. Get over it.