[relix]

I noticed Bitcoin's most fervent supporters are far removed from reality. They think the regular person in the street cares that "the man" can track his purchases in the supermarket, or the beer he bought in a bar. They don't want to pay taxes. They think Cypriotic people will surely flock from shaky banks to an even more shakier currency and put all their live savings in Bitcoin, because it'll be safe.

It's so hard to actually get bitcoins, that any "1 percent" discounts you get for paying with bitcoin in regular shops or sites just isn't worth it to me. Either enter your CC# and be done in 10 seconds, or go to mtgox and wait 2 weeks until you're verified (hyperboled, but the point stands). I'm assuming less techy people will be of the same mind on this.

The reason any non techy person would get bitcoins is as an investment, that's it. They don't care about any of the advantages of bitcoin because cash works just fine for them, and has most of the practical advantages anyway. If they're using it as an investment, they sure as hell won't use it to buy things.

[Hermel]

> It's so hard to actually get bitcoins

This is something that can change. The question is, would it be enough to make people use Bitcoin?

Also, if it is "only" used as an investment, that would still be a huge success.

[Murkin]

How can it being used only as an investemt be a huge success ?

Lets just redo the Tulip mania (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania)

[Hermel]

In uncertain times, there is big demand for storing value. Whereas tulips are a horrid store of value (they rot, anyone can grow them, are not divisible, etc), bitcoins are an excellent store of value. It is divisible, transferrable and easy to hide. Very similar properties have made gold a huge success as an investment vehicle. There are other goods similar to gold. For example, there are 20 billion CHF worth of 1000-CHF bills in circulation, most of them outside Switzerland. They are not used for purchases - they are used to preserve wealth. If bitcoin becomes one of those assets used to preserve wealth, its price can easily jump to 1'000 EUR per coin, giving it a similar capitalization as Swiss 1000 CHF bills.

[glomph]

Aren't the most fervent supporters of most things pretty removed from reality?