HODL, HOARD your cypto GOLD! All Hail the Hoarders!

[rax]

Holding/hoarding would then antagonize bitoin's idea as an actual currency. I agree with some of the posts here: if you only hold bitcoin and spend USD in the mean time, you're only helping to stimulate fiat currency; if you actually use bitcoin and apply it's use in everyday life, you're actually helping to stimulate bitcoin. Sure, holding could cause scarcity to bring bitcoin's price to the moon, but then it wouldn't hold much value as a trading commodity or currency.

How so? You can contribute to hoarding and still buy goods and services with bitcoin. As long as the seller acknowledges bitcoin as good a currency as any other and doesn't rush to exchange it at market price for a fiat currency then the coins are effectively hoarded (by him), even though you just spent them.
In other words, hoarding does not mean "I'm gonna buy as many bitcoins as I can, move them to cold storage and never touch them again" but rather "Why on Earth would I ever want to exchange my bitcoins for shitty USD?".

Regarding currency "stimulation" I don't believe it is that important in this case. It certainly is in the case of fiat money (to the governments, that is) because the higher the money velocity the more they collect through coercive taxation. No such thing applies to bitcoin.


Hoarding explained in 3 easy rules
1. Do exchange your USD for BTC.
2. Do NOT exchange your BTC for USD.
3. Only spend your BTC on sellers you believe follow rule 2.




Further reading: http://themisescircle.org/blog/2013/02/19/end-the-fed-hoard-bitcoins/

[Q7]

The only way I see that brings value to bitcoin is you exchange the coin within the community itself that is if your spend your bitcoin to pay to another person that will pass on to another without that going back to exchangers to leave it in the open market for sale to fiat. That will certainly bring up the price due  to scarcity because there will be less supply in the open market

[Kazimir]

Hoarding explained in 3 easy rules
1. Do exchange your USD for BTC.
2. Do NOT exchange your BTC for USD.
3. Only spend your BTC on sellers you believe follow rule 2.

Disagree with number 3. It's better to just ALWAYS pay with Bitcoin wherever you can, as it helps stimulating the Bitcoin economy and usability. Even if the merchant happens to convert it to EUR or USD. However, whenever you spend bitcoins, immediately buy back the same amount of bitcoins through an exchange. This way, you: 1. effectively keep your stash of bitcoins, and 2. you compensate the market supply/demand in case the merchant happens to convert his bitcoins to fiat.

Remember, Bitcoin is still in its infancy. We can't expect mainstream merchants to keep bitcoins, since they typically cannot pay their expenses and staff in bitcoins either. By ignoring merchants who don't keep bitcoins, you're sticking your head in the sand. By paying them in bitcoins, even if they convert it to EUR or USD, we help them getting into the migration phase. Once they notice how they can spend bitcoins everywhere, their urge to convert to fiat will diminish, and we'll grow towards a 100% Bitcoin situation.

It has been mentioned before: hoarding / hodling and spending bitcoins go hand in hand very well.