1 BTC = 20 USD

[tomcollins]

I have to agree with dissipate. For non-technical people there is only one way to convert their currency into bitcoins, and that is coinpal. If there were more points of exchange like this, people would not only be trading at mt-gox/bitcoin-otc/etc, but shops would start accepting it and it would get more widely adopted in general.

It's not the matter of acquiring - it's about the ability to exchange the currency you have to BTC

How many people do you know who trade Forex? That takes much more wherewithal that figuring out how to use Coinpal and a Bitcoin client. The point being, it need not cater to everyman in order to have significant economic impact. But all this will come in time, it is still a fledgling project compared with something like a Forex or a PayPal...

Even so, I can go to any bank or international airport and exchange foreign currency.  I may not get the best rate, but it's super easy.

[dissipate]

Can someone tell me how BTC is going to the moon when it is still relatively difficult to acquire in the first place? I imagine there are a lot of people who think Bitcoin is really cool but don't get involved much past playing around with the small amount of BTC from the Bitcoin Faucet. Given the difficulty of acquiring BTC, I think the fact that BTC made it to almost $2 is amazing in the first place.

Bitcoin is hard money and therefore it’s only natural that it is a bit difficult to acquire. In comparison with precious metals it is pretty easy to buy and secure Bitcoins, though.

What would help at this stage is reputable (non-Bitcoin) exchanges adding Bitcoin to their supply in my opinion.

With regard to the thread I think that 20 USD/BTC is probable this year.

It would be a lot easier to buy BTC if online exchanges started acceping GreenDot MoneyPak and Paysafecard. That would allow anyone to go to a Walmart etc. buy a cash card and then use that to get BTC. It's better than PayPal because there are no chargebacks.

As for gold, there are actually a significant number of localized gold dealers. BTC doesn't have anywhere near that kind of local access. If it did, I would be a lot more optimistic about 20 USD/BTC.

20 USD/BTC is extremely unlikely this year.

[Prze_koles]

$20 - nope. But $10 is quite possible.

[asdf]

Can someone tell me how BTC is going to the moon when it is still relatively difficult to acquire in the first place? I imagine there are a lot of people who think Bitcoin is really cool but don't get involved much past playing around with the small amount of BTC from the Bitcoin Faucet. Given the difficulty of acquiring BTC, I think the fact that BTC made it to almost $2 is amazing in the first place.

Bitcoin is getting easier to acquire every month. I imagine this trend will continue, accelerating adoption. The more bitcoin usage there is, the faster it grows, at least in these early stages. This is the definition of exponential growth.

[MoonShadow]

Can someone tell me how BTC is going to the moon when it is still relatively difficult to acquire in the first place? I imagine there are a lot of people who think Bitcoin is really cool but don't get involved much past playing around with the small amount of BTC from the Bitcoin Faucet. Given the difficulty of acquiring BTC, I think the fact that BTC made it to almost $2 is amazing in the first place.

Bitcoin is getting easier to acquire every month. I imagine this trend will continue, accelerating adoption. The more bitcoin usage there is, the faster it grows, at least in these early stages. This is the definition of exponential growth.

Yes, Bitcoin definately benefits from the 'network effect'.  The more who adopt it, the more the meme is spread.  The more the meme is spread, the more who adopt it.  And the more who adopt it, the higher the price tends to go.  The higher the price tends to go, the more secure the system becomes.  The more secure the system becomes, the more faith current users have in the system.  The more faith the users have in the system, the more that each is willing to risk in the system.  The more that each user is willing to risk in the system, the more valuable that bitcoins become.

I expect this to continue until Bitcoin reaches an equilibrium of new users versus users leaving, at which point it will either be mainstream and stable, or an epic failure.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Something that I think a lot of people don't realise is that if bitcoin were very easy to come by and acquire they would probably be worth a lot more than they are now.

There are only 6 mill. in circulation at present, if a larger proportion of the population could easily swap in and out of bitcoins, by the simple fact of the numbers involved, it would have to be for much lower denominations of bitcoins than are currently traded. A consequence of that is the average user who is now able to get his hands on BTC 250 for U$500 would probably only be able to get a tenth as much if 10 times more people are able to buy and sell them easily, for example.

There just aren't that many to go around and the more people that drop a few bucks into BTC the higher their value must go, as long as that nominal amount of $ going into BTC per person remains approximately constant.

[FreeMoney]

Something that I think a lot of people don't realise is that if bitcoin were very easy to come by and acquire they would probably be worth a lot more than they are now.

There are only 6 mill. in circulation at present, if a larger proportion of the population could easily swap in and out of bitcoins, by the simple fact of the numbers involved, it would have to be for much lower denominations of bitcoins than are currently traded. A consequence of that is the average user who is now able to get his hands on BTC 250 for U$500 would probably only be able to get a tenth as much if 10 times more people are able to buy and sell them easily, for example.

There just aren't that many to go around and the more people that drop a few bucks into BTC the higher their value must go, as long as that nominal amount of $ going into BTC per person remains approximately constant.

At least a few people realize

[VillageChump]

I don't think this year, but next year is a possibility.

[Zamicol]

Unless bitcoin gets destroyed somehow (government) or something better comes along,

And that's why I'm voting, in the USA for 2012, for the one candidate that understands sound money...

[Enky1974]

Prices are rising exponentially driven probably by difficulty, we should have 5$ for next july and 20$ for january 2012.

[no to the gold cult]

Can someone tell me how BTC is going to the moon when it is still relatively difficult to acquire in the first place? I imagine there are a lot of people who think Bitcoin is really cool but don't get involved much past playing around with the small amount of BTC from the Bitcoin Faucet. Given the difficulty of acquiring BTC, I think the fact that BTC made it to almost $2 is amazing in the first place.

How easy is it to acquire gold?

How easy is it to acquire a Credit Default Obligation?

How easy is it to acquire yellowcake uranium?

Do you mean Credit Default Swap, or Collateralized Debt Obligation?

Surprisingly easy actually if you mean the first.

[FreeMoney]

Can someone tell me how BTC is going to the moon when it is still relatively difficult to acquire in the first place? I imagine there are a lot of people who think Bitcoin is really cool but don't get involved much past playing around with the small amount of BTC from the Bitcoin Faucet. Given the difficulty of acquiring BTC, I think the fact that BTC made it to almost $2 is amazing in the first place.

How easy is it to acquire gold?

How easy is it to acquire a Credit Default Obligation?

How easy is it to acquire yellowcake uranium?

Do you mean Credit Default Swap, or Collateralized Debt Obligation?

Surprisingly easy actually if you mean the first.

Can I get some with $20 on PP?

[dust]

Prices are rising exponentially driven probably by difficulty, we should have 5$ for next july and 20$ for january 2012.

Difficulty does not drive price, price drives difficulty.

[stic.man]

as probably the most lay person reading these forums I found that yes, paypal to morpheus was my first step into the game.  But since I was impatient a simple email to Mark at mtgox gave me the information to wire him some money and I was able to do it online in a matter of minutes.  It was incredibly easy.  The difficulty to me lies in trying to get smaller amounts of USD out of mtgox since you have to go through LR and that is somewhat of a hassle.  Unless of course you are moving sums over $800 which is easy because you can get a direct wire from mtgox. 

[tomcollins]

as probably the most lay person reading these forums I found that yes, paypal to morpheus was my first step into the game.  But since I was impatient a simple email to Mark at mtgox gave me the information to wire him some money and I was able to do it online in a matter of minutes.  It was incredibly easy.  The difficulty to me lies in trying to get smaller amounts of USD out of mtgox since you have to go through LR and that is somewhat of a hassle.  Unless of course you are moving sums over $800 which is easy because you can get a direct wire from mtgox. 

Having a way to automatically set up ACH transfers would be so much more useful for medium transfers.  With neteller, I gave them my routing and bank account number, they would confirm my account, and I could send money in and out super easy.

However, you are going to need to do this through a US bank, and then have to worry about all those regulations.

mtgox allows for ACH pushes, but an ACH pull would be pretty damn good to have.  My banks don't support ACH pushes, so I'm opening a new account just for this.

[fabianhjr]

Support at 3 USD per Bitcoin  by the end of april/frist 2 days of May.(Chance 85%)
Support at 4 USD per Bitcoin by mid-May.(Chance 75%)
Support at 5 USD per Bitcoin by end of may.(Chance 70%)

So I don't know why doubt it will reach 20 USD by the end of the year.

[Alex Beckenham]

I've reset this poll, now that Mt Gox has shown a $6.99 trade.

Previous results were:

yes 49 (31.2%)
no 61 (38.9%)
maybe 47 (29.9%)

[mewantsbitcoins]

I think we all know what the answer to this question is 

[Ian Maxwell]

Yeah.... my vote has changed since last time.

How about a a poll on whether 1 BTC = 20 USD before the end of Spring?

[Alex Beckenham]

Yeah.... my vote has changed since last time.

How about a a poll on whether 1 BTC = 20 USD before the end of Spring?

Or the end of Saturday?