I think if Amazon accepted Bitcoin, the price would deflate rapidly as some of the big guns unload hundreds of BTC into Amazon.
these things aren't an immediate threat though. The open market exchange for BTC is what keeps the speculators interested, if and when it becomes a true consumer spending tool it will not be bound to another service. Don't get me wrong, for the masses, I.e., people that only think of money as a "spending" device, it could be a threat; but right now what makes BTC attractive is the prospect of value trading against other currencies, FB and AMZN will never go there.
I got into BTC because I ran out of ideas in the stock market. I've been investing for 15 years and simply ran out of ideas where to put new money. My positions are doing great (easy market, loaded up when DJIA was 7k) but I don't want to get over-consolidated adding money to those positions now. Like every bull market the bears will come eventually, and my best holdings are all over-bought now. Currency trading looked attractive for a long time, but I never jumped in beyond practice accounts; primary appeal is the exchanges don't close so there's always action. I watched BTC from a distance when I should have been mining, but I decided to mine instead of buy because I don't want the psychological burden of staring at a cost-basis all the time. Anyways, I wonder how many econ-nerds will turn to BTC simply because it's interesting as hell and picking stocks right now is very tricky. "What is Bitcoin" was the #10 most-searched term on Google this past year, which means lots of people have a growing curiosity, and it's got to start somewhere. I don't think PayPal, Dwolla, FB or AMZN bucks can ever capture the excitement of BTC- as an investor the volatility and upwards potential are what brought me here.
My main rule is I only work on one idea at a time, full-time job prevents me from multitasking investment research. When I was young I made the mistake more than once of not doing my research, every time it cost me. Ever since I started focusing on one idea at a time things have been much better. However, this is probably my 'craziest' venture yet, but I'm very comfortable with risk. Even my best recent equity positions are only up 120-150%, I say "only" because even at $550 BTC is still more than double from when I started mining not long ago, and the trend over time looks great. This China thing will pass, government regulation is expected to have this effect. I feel confident with other emerging markets catching on it will steadily climb towards $1,000 again and get hot, and if it doesn't the bottom is 0, keep those eyes on the sky fellas.
