I wonder when people say that they wait for the price to go up before spending, why not just buy more BTC at the current price and spend it. That way you'll still have the old stash intact, right?
Savings (a more appropriate word then "hoarding") are important for a healthy economy. The demand to hold money (save it) affects the supply available for lending, and thus the risk-free interest rate.
In the fiat world, the interest rate is reduced by the central bank below its market value to "stimulate the economy." They achieve this interest-rate reduction by increasing the supply of money available for lending (out of thin air). This punishes savers (the savers would have lent their money if the interest rate had been higher) and rewards inefficient businesses (inefficient businesses may have gone out of business with higher funding costs, making room for new innovative companies).
When you look at it like this, it becomes clear that any increase in the money supply by the central bank (e.g., to reduce interest rates) is a transfer of wealth from savers to inefficient businesses (and individuals with high debt levels).
Savings makes the economy more efficient.
I was talking more about the ratio of spending vs saving (very low for BTC, hence hoarding) and how it competes with fiat currencies, especially from the merchant perspective.. if there is no spending there is very little incentive for a merchant to bother about accepting BTC payments. Of course that saving is also positive, but excessive saving stifles the economy.
Use? It's a store of value, not something you use.
Yes, it is a good store of value but so is gold, the advantage of BTC is that it can quickly move around unlike gold. On the other hand, its security is not as well established as that of gold (Bitcoin protocol is very new compared to how long gold has been around, some disastrous bug might surface any day and so on). So if Bitcoin is to be used only as a store of value it doesn't have a significant advantage over gold, that's why I think it's important that BTC is used actually as much as possible on the day to day basis.
Any time I see a store I definitely want to use Bitcoin, the problem is there just isn't any stores right now that supply the things I need, the only ones so far that have come close are games and computer components, I'll definitely be buying those with Bitcoin when I can. We're not there yet, but with companies like Overstock.com going for it, we're getting close, when I see my Jewellery supplier accepting Bitcoin etc. or Morrisons I'll be giddy because those are really the main places I spend my money.
Most things I want are just expensive one-off payments, e.g. Cintiq or Jewellery tools that will last for years, I have bought a game with Bitcoin and would have no problem doing so later.
There are not enough options by using BTC right now..
I hope it will improve someday.
Could you search for something that you need here
http://www.bspend.com/ and let me know if you found it, I'm curious. Under links there are services such as accommodation booking, flights, tours etc. So there's so much that can be bought with BTC already
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