[thorax]

> Why purchase Bitcoins in the long run unless you're laundering money or hiding from the government?

That's kind of odd to say-- couldn't you say the same thing about doing cash-only transactions?

There's also the hope that you can "hide" from corporations/bad-people and make transactions that don't require you to provide information that can be used for identity theft, marketing, etc. Just typing in a unique 1-time deposit number has a lot of appeal for stream-lining transactions and making people feel more comfortable performing electronic purchases. I'd love people to get addicted to that kind of high-privacy transaction and push more innovation for traditional currencies/startups to help with that.

In the modern world, every purchase of anything not bought at a yard sale is a privacy and identity concern-- I'm eager to see alternatives that find new ways to avoid that.

[achompas]

That's kind of odd to say-- couldn't you say the same thing about doing cash-only transactions?

Yeah, I added that modifier after thinking some more. People are really interested in bitcoins as a "private" currency, and cash would accomplish the same thing. Large cash transactions raise flags, though.

Still, bitcoins are a bad alternative to popular currency for a number of reasons Adam mentions. An e-currency without a finite supply would be an interesting exercise.

[hazlitt]

Money supply need not be infinite. Prices will adjust as demand for the unit arises. Essentially, you are doing the same as "creating" more units, without eroding peoples real savings.

The entire system could thrive on one bitcoin.

[achompas]

Money supply needs to be a flow, instead of a stock, so that it can adapt efficiently to supply and demand and change with population and economic output.

The entire system could thrive on one bitcoin.

No, it couldn't. One bitcoin could not sustain a currency market, and a one-bitcoin market would value that bitcoin at highly variable prices.

[derefr]

But you can have half of a bitcoin. In fact, they're divisible to 8 decimal places—so, in reality, when you have "1 bitcoin", you actually have ~10 million atomic units of tradable currency. It just comes "pre-redenominated," because it currently lacks value, and may be redenominated downward (making the unit "bitcents" or somesuch) as the exchange rate increases.

[WReckus]

1 Bitcoin can be divided into .00000001-sized pieces and traded separately. You couldn't run out if you wanted.