How would you increase the price of Bitcoin?

[FreeTrade]

Let's say that you're acting on behalf of a conglomerate of wealthy BTC owners. As you're such a smart chap, they've entrusted you with 10,000 USD to spend in whatever way will increase the BTC price the most (thus increasing the value of their holdings). How would you spend it?

[Etlase2]

buying 10,000 usd worth of btc

can i have that 10,000 usd now pls

[BitLex]

buying 10,000 usd worth of btc

that wouldn't move the price much, though.
look at mtgox orderbook, buying coins for $10000 you'd just push the price from current ~$4.95 to ~$5.15 and it'll probably drop below $5 quickly.

better spend your money on promotion or invest in bitcoin-startups that you've got some faith in.

[Elwar]

Going beyond your $10,000 idea...

How to increase the price of Bitcoin.

Get a conglomeration of several wealthy people with enough money to put into a pot which makes up several hundred thousand to a million dollars.

Have a contract written up where each person follows the strategy.

With the price currently at $4.97 I would have all people in the group buy to $5(which would not take much) and put up a true bid wall at $5.

I would then let the Bitcoin community know that the price will never go below $5 unless someone is able to break the million dollar wall.

Each member would drop and replace their bid periodically for verification that they are still in.

As people start to hit the $5 wall, the person who is being sold the Bitcoins will be allowed to sell the Bitcoins at some price higher than $5 (say, $5.50).

The price will fluctuate above $5 and the wall holders will be able to gain on higher values as the wall is attacked.

Then, periodically, the wall will be moved up. 50 cents at random times.

Each time doing the same thing. Holding the wall.

The price of Bitcoin would become fairly stable and it may rise faster with the confidence that it will never crash and will constantly gain value. Bringing in more investors.

[istar]

Brainstorm:

You could create a Bitcoin trade competition together with MTgox to get newcomers into Bitcoins.

Example.

To join, you need to buy bitcoins for say $100 to your bitcoin adress at say MTGox.

Send half a bitcoin to the competition adress.

Than you need to trade the ones you have.

Now the one who can trade these to the highest value will get $5000
The runner up will get $2000 and the thirdplace would be $1000 etc.

The winners also get to keep their Bitcoins.

The competition will only run once atleast 1000 persons have joined.
They must not have an account at MTgox previously.

This would mean that there will new people buying bitcoins for $100.000.

[malevolent]

How would you increase the price of Bitcoin?

Find and convince BIG companies (we could start with gambling and pornography industries at first) to start accepting and promote Bitcoins.

[CliffordM]

Requiring people buy artificial amounts to maintain the price at say $5 is exactly the problem with current capitalism.  Too much regulation (in this case the forced buying) is simply manipulation, and ultimately people don't want a manipulated price.

The problem is that for a new currency, this means more short term volatility, which people don't want either.  The long term goal has to be people trading, and keeping their money in bit coin.  This means more and more goods and services being available in bit coin.

Bit coin has come a long way in it's short life.  The next stage is a longer, maturing growth.  Let's not rush things by forcing prices, rather let the true value find itself.

The beauty of bit coin is it's lack of regulation and central control. The original fiat of its developers is something that is reduced more and more as more folk get their feet wet.  This is good.  It would be good if it wasn't ultimately controlled by the bit coin rich manipulating rates and prices, merely another form of fiat.

Enjoy the ride as it becomes more and more exo-fiat, and the ugly duckling, (which it is for now) turns into a beautiful swan to glide gracefully into field. 

[Elwar]

Even if we convince a retailer to accept Bitcoins, it will be even harder to convince people with Bitcoins to actually spend them.

[Minsc]

Even if we convince a retailer to accept Bitcoins, it will be even harder to convince people with Bitcoins to actually spend them.

Well some businesses only accept cash and sell products/services that are expensive.  And if you don't want to carry lots of cash that could get robbed, you can carry a smartphone with bitcoins.  A mugger may steal your phone but can't get into your wallet because they don't know the passwords.

[TiagoTiago]

Perhaps i could offer a 10 grand bounty to whoever proves they managed to make the price of Bitcoin increase and hold for at least an year?

[Minsc]

Perhaps i could offer a 10 grand bounty to whoever proves they managed to make the price of Bitcoin increase and hold for at least an year?

It takes more than 10K to manipulate the price over the course of a year.  You have to increase your bounty.

[Etlase2]

Brainstorm:

You could create a Bitcoin trade competition together with MTgox to get newcomers into Bitcoins.

Example.

To join, you need to buy bitcoins for say $100 to your bitcoin adress at say MTGox.

Send half a bitcoin to the competition adress.

Than you need to trade the ones you have.

Now the one who can trade these to the highest value will get $5000
The runner up will get $2000 and the thirdplace would be $1000 etc.

The winners also get to keep their Bitcoins.

The competition will only run once atleast 1000 persons have joined.
They must not have an account at MTgox previously.

This would mean that there will new people buying bitcoins for $100.000.

More speculation, that is precisely what bitcoin needs.

[Hunterbunter]

Even if we convince a retailer to accept Bitcoins, it will be even harder to convince people with Bitcoins to actually spend them.

This is true, because bitcoins are a store of value, and not a placeholder (IOU) for it. People will usually spend cash before trading gold bars, as an analogy.

As for the thread...I can see two options:

1) Subsidize (or create incentive) for manufacturers to produce and sell their products *only in bitcoins*. I don't think $10,000 is enough to do that, but maybe.

2) Create easier ways for businesses to trade with other businesses via bitcoins - this may exist already, but I don't know of it.

[Cluster2k]

Well some businesses only accept cash and sell products/services that are expensive.  And if you don't want to carry lots of cash that could get robbed, you can carry a smartphone with bitcoins.  A mugger may steal your phone but can't get into your wallet because they don't know the passwords.

That problem was solved long ago by thieves.  With debit and credit cards they attack the victim at an ATM, demanding all money must be withdrawn from the accounts or else.  Does the thief need to know the PIN?  Nope.

A mugger steals your phone and notices a wallet with lots of juicy bitcoins on it, but it's password protected.  Damn!  Plan foiled.  Or is it?  Just beat the victim until he or she coughs up the password.

[johnj]

Well some businesses only accept cash and sell products/services that are expensive.  And if you don't want to carry lots of cash that could get robbed, you can carry a smartphone with bitcoins.  A mugger may steal your phone but can't get into your wallet because they don't know the passwords.

That problem was solved long ago by thieves.  With debit and credit cards they attack the victim at an ATM, demanding all money must be withdrawn from the accounts or else.  Does the thief need to know the PIN?  Nope.

A mugger steals your phone and notices a wallet with lots of juicy bitcoins on it, but it's password protected.  Damn!  Plan foiled.  Or is it?  Just beat the victim until he or she coughs up the password.

During the time your mugger is going through your phone would be an excellent time to mount a counter attack.

For future reference, of course, when all would-be muggers are familiar will all smartphone navigation screens, as well as having their own bitcoin account into which he would send the ill-gained bitcoins he mugged.

[grod]

For future reference, of course, when all would-be muggers are familiar will all smartphone navigation screens, as well as having their own bitcoin account into which he would send the ill-gained bitcoins he mugged.

Good point.  It'd be far easier to just kidnap MagicTux and beat him till he gives you admin access to mtgox.  After having shorted a few million worth of bitcoins.  Which (luckily for us and him) remains an impossibility.

[Cluster2k]

For future reference, of course, when all would-be muggers are familiar will all smartphone navigation screens, as well as having their own bitcoin account into which he would send the ill-gained bitcoins he mugged.

Good point.  It'd be far easier to just kidnap MagicTux and beat him till he gives you admin access to mtgox.

No need to go after the exchange (which someone has already done, successfully).  Go after the users keeping wallets on their PCs.  That has been done successfully too (automated trojans).  Bitcoin allows your wallet to be plundered from the other side of the planet.  No need to mug someone on the street.

[gopher]

Brainstorm:

You could create a Bitcoin trade competition together with MTgox to get newcomers into Bitcoins.

Example.

To join, you need to buy bitcoins for say $100 to your bitcoin adress at say MTGox.

Send half a bitcoin to the competition adress.

Than you need to trade the ones you have.

Now the one who can trade these to the highest value will get $5000
The runner up will get $2000 and the thirdplace would be $1000 etc.

The winners also get to keep their Bitcoins.

The competition will only run once atleast 1000 persons have joined.
They must not have an account at MTgox previously.

This would mean that there will new people buying bitcoins for $100.000.

I think this can work.

The assumptions is that someone funds such competition with USD 10,000

No need of an exchange as a partner - independent competition will do - that way, people can use their preferred exchange, even OTC trading.

Also no need to pay .5 BTC to the competition - any smaller amount will do, used to (1) register a trading address with the competition and (2) build a small fund to pay for a script to be written.

Using the registration proceeds to pay a programmer to write block-chain explorer scripts that correlate the transactions times with the trading value - to determine the trading values and determine the winners - will leave more USD to be paid out as prize.

The rest as above - the prize levels are meaningful as they are and should attract many competitors.

The problems that could be anticipated:

Earn competitor's trust that the competition is real, prizes are real and the competitor organisers will not walk away with the registration proceeds - however small they are.

The period of competition - what if during the competition the market stagnates and there are not enough competitors to make it move? Automatic extension? How to determine that?

The original funder's intend - to drive the value to its highest level might not be achieved with this competition - sure, during the competition-trade the value will bounce up , but what will grantee that it will stay there after the competition?