The lower the price the worse for Bitcoin?

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

Is this true? The cheaper these things are the worse the distribution will be. It will be easier for one or a few entities to own a majority of the coins at 10 bucks or a hundred. So doesn't this mean that as the price falls we are sort of becoming..like..less good

[xDan]

You could argue though that as the prices rise it causes these already existing entities to increase in power, so that is "bad" too. (Unless you think the distribution was already "fair", but in that case, why would the second time around be any different?)

Really, the best thing is the rollercoaster, where people are being shaken around all the time and coins are getting flung everywhere

[inca]

You could argue though that as the prices rise it causes these already existing entities to increase in power, so that is "bad" too. (Unless you think the distribution was already "fair", but in that case, why would the second time around be any different?)

Really, the best thing is the rollercoaster, where people are being shaken around all the time and coins are getting flung everywhere

Top 500 addresses are increasing in coins not decreasing. I agree distribution is a problem, but the major coin holders probably control the price to a greater degree than anyone knows.

[medUSA]

I would say "The lower the price the worse for Bitcoin holders" and "The lower the price the better for potential Bitcoin users". Fall in prices could help bitcoin adoption which is what I think is needed for bitcoin to succeed.

[CoinCidental]

it could go the opposite way
10 dollar coins could get a new load of people involved that couldnt afford to buy in before
when a coin costed around 600usd


i doubt this matters to the 500 richest guys anyway ,they are probably filthy rich anyway
and bought btc as some sort of hedge investment

[NotLambchop]

Is this true? ... as the price falls we are sort of becoming..like..less good

As the price continues to fall, Bitcoin millionaires who didn't already sell off their coin will have to get real jerbs.  Great for economy, and (this is purely incidental, of course) for great lols.

[hacknoid]

I would say "The lower the price the worse for Bitcoin holders" and "The lower the price the better for potential Bitcoin users". Fall in prices could help bitcoin adoption which is what I think is needed for bitcoin to succeed.

People have been complaining for ages that the price was too high to enter into, and now that it has dropped, they have a golden opportunity - yet many still won't.  So lower price = better opportunity for people who want to to buy in, with a lower monetary commitment.

it could go the opposite way
10 dollar coins could get a new load of people involved that couldnt afford to buy in before
when a coin costed around 600usd 

Unfortunately a lot of people had the opinion that they "couldn't afford to buy in" at higher prices, even though that argument is meaningless.  You have ALWAYS been able to buy $x worth of BTC; it's just the amount of BTC that the $x buys that varies.

However, with lower prices its harder for people to make the argument.  And for everyone who is so concerned about the concentration of coins with the top holders - now is your time to help level the field if you are really concerned.  There is a reason the top holders keep increasing their stash - they believe in the future.  So while lower prices mean it's easier for them to accumulate more, it also means it's easier for EVERYONE to accumulate more.

[okthen]

Throughout the years we've seen 'low' and 'high' prices. Don't think they're either good nor bad for bitcoin, different phases atttact different investors, it's all part of the 'mainstreaming' process.

[1Referee]

In current state price and Bitcoin as technology are well connected to a certain extent. And that's how it should be.

A decent price gives new and current miners more confidence in buying (more) equipment to start/continue mining when they think they are able to get something back.

Bitcoin as technology is solid, and that won't change because the price keeps going down.

For investors price is very important, but that's their problem.

[elephantas1]

In current state price and Bitcoin as technology are well connected to a certain extent. And that's how it should be.

A decent price gives new and current miners more confidence in buying (more) equipment to start/continue mining when they think they are able to get something back.

Bitcoin as technology is solid, and that won't change because the price keeps going down.

For investors price is very important, but that's their problem.

decent price gives more confidence in buying miners? i think if the price would be 2x there would me much more confidence than there is now

[NotLambchop]

...
For investors price is very important...

Because miners do it for the lols.

[dinofelis]

You could argue though that as the prices rise it causes these already existing entities to increase in power, so that is "bad" too. (Unless you think the distribution was already "fair", but in that case, why would the second time around be any different?)

Really, the best thing is the rollercoaster, where people are being shaken around all the time and coins are getting flung everywhere

Indeed.  It should be a long, painful and doubtful road to main adoption, so that the seigniorage is as randomly distributed as can be (as well as the coins themselves) before general adoption. 

When bitcoin will fall now to $10,- the big players will not be interested in it (they will think it is dead - maybe they are right !).  Smaller players who believe in bitcoin can get a much larger part of the coins.

The problem with early adopters was that not many people KNEW about bitcoin.
The problem last year was that coins were too expensive: with a relatively modest budget of say, $30 000,-, you could only buy less than 100 coins which represents less than 1/200 000 of all the coins.

If bitcoin falls back to $10, with the same amount of money you can buy 3000 coins, which represents 1/7000 of all coins.

However, you should be crazy to buy a dead coin, right ? :-)

If bitcoin falls to $1.- you can even buy more than one promille of all coins !

So at that point, most people have the financial means to buy a certain stash of coins without "selling their house".  Most people will have heard of bitcoin.  At that point, the distribution will be much more random and fair.  Everybody will have his/her chance to get some coins.

If ever bitcoin gets adopted generally a decade later, there is probably no relationship anymore to any first adopter, or to any big player right now having poored millions of $ into it (and lost it).

Do this rollercoaster 2 or 3 times, and the coins, and the seigniorage, are well-mixed !

(or bitcoin is dead, of course: that fear must be part of it to be fair).

[piramida]

(or bitcoin is dead, of course: that fear must be part of it to be fair).

Yep good text. The problem is that there are many people who really believe in bitcoin and they don't stop to sell, only increase their position no matter which price

[kwukduck]

(or bitcoin is dead, of course: that fear must be part of it to be fair).

Yep good text. The problem is that there are many people who really believe in bitcoin and they don't stop to sell, only increase their position no matter which price

If there were so many people who believed im bitcoin it wouldn't have dropped almost 80% over a year.
Its just a small hand full that are talking positive about it, just read the forum, everyone knows bitcoin is done and it shows, of course there's the occasional troll post promising big profits but i don't think anyone takes those serious anymore.

Time to move to the NXT revolution in crypto.

[sethminer14]

Bitcoin has a hard road ahead. We will see what happens. I wouldn't be surprised if bitcoin continued this downtrend...

[dinofelis]

(or bitcoin is dead, of course: that fear must be part of it to be fair).

Yep good text. The problem is that there are many people who really believe in bitcoin and they don't stop to sell, only increase their position no matter which price

If there were so many people who believed im bitcoin it wouldn't have dropped almost 80% over a year.
Its just a small hand full that are talking positive about it, just read the forum, everyone knows bitcoin is done and it shows, of course there's the occasional troll post promising big profits but i don't think anyone takes those serious anymore.

Time to move to the NXT revolution in crypto.

No.  In my opinion, bitcoin is still way too expensive at this point.

Many people who believed in bitcoin, thought that there would be rallies to $10 000,- or so in the last few months.  They didn't do the calculations or looked at fundamentals, but just extrapolated the past, or did technical analysis (which is a way of curve extrapolation).

When it became clear that the "december rally" was not going to come, those people stopped buying, or sold their holdings.
Many people are not willing to wait for 15 years or so to see bitcoin adopted.  They thought it was going to be a facebook style adoption.

Bitcoin didn't "drop 80% over a year" because the rally to $1200,- was market manipulation, that got in some gullible by a self-fullfilling prophecy, but for which no fundamentals were ready, and was hence not sustainable.  The real price was much lower, of the order of $100,-, which was also by itself mainly over-valued speculation as compared to its fundamental as a currency.
The only thing that makes a bitcoin price fundamentally sustainable is merchant adoption, and the use (and demand for it) of it as a currency.  That will take A VERY LONG TIME.  The fastest adoption was on the black market, but now that law enforcement gets in there, I'm not even sure that that merchant adoption is rising.

I think most people have a wrong idea of the time scales involved.

[Professor Plums]

Is this true? The cheaper these things are the worse the distribution will be. It will be easier for one or a few entities to own a majority of the coins at 10 bucks or a hundred. So doesn't this mean that as the price falls we are sort of becoming..like..less good

Nobody is ever going to amass a dangerous enough amount to do this even if it did get to a ridiculously low price. If someone did buy a great amount of coins all it would do is push up the value of the remaining coins.

[HarmonLi]

I believe the rate of the price going up is what is most important for Bitcoin and its investors. The absolute price is quite irrelevant when it comes to this, it's more the relative price, or the relative change in price that's most important here.

[xDan]

No.  In my opinion, bitcoin is still way too expensive at this point.

Many people who believed in bitcoin, thought that there would be rallies to $10 000,- or so in the last few months.  They didn't do the calculations or looked at fundamentals, but just extrapolated the past, or did technical analysis (which is a way of curve extrapolation).

When it became clear that the "december rally" was not going to come, those people stopped buying, or sold their holdings.
Many people are not willing to wait for 15 years or so to see bitcoin adopted.  They thought it was going to be a facebook style adoption.

That's a very good point. A lot of people were talking of the inevitable summer rally. Then the November rally... Maybe they finally gave up?

[mmortal03]

Unfortunately a lot of people had the opinion that they "couldn't afford to buy in" at higher prices, even though that argument is meaningless.  You have ALWAYS been able to buy $x worth of BTC; it's just the amount of BTC that the $x buys that varies.

However, with lower prices its harder for people to make the argument.  And for everyone who is so concerned about the concentration of coins with the top holders - now is your time to help level the field if you are really concerned.  There is a reason the top holders keep increasing their stash - they believe in the future.  So while lower prices mean it's easier for them to accumulate more, it also means it's easier for EVERYONE to accumulate more.

Exactly. Furthermore, the lower the price, the larger the share of the total supply that can be bought for a fixed dollar amount. If these whales have a determined, fixed amount of cash that they are going to invest, then they will be able to buy up more of the total supply at a given time.