I stand corrected, you're right about Ponzi/pyramid. The key dynamic is that you need more buyers today than you had yesterday. Once you run out of new buyers, the whole thing goes belly up.
> The key dynamic is that you need more buyers today than you had yesterday.
Surely that's only true if you're trying to use BTC as an investment to make capital gains in USD with? If your BTC stays within the BTC community and is traded directly for goods/services without conversion to USD then there's no such requirement.
Now, as it stands the vast majority of transactions are actually basing BTC's value on USD. I think this is a misstep, but perhaps a necessary one.
What I'm saying is: you're right as long as people see BTC as a vehicle for USD gains. But the grand idea is to replace USD entirely. When we start seeing people routinely selling things for fixed BTC amounts, regardless of the 'exchange rate', then bitcoin will have succeeded.
At present it's largely just a proxy for USD, as Warren Buffet has noted. But this is just the first stage.
Surely that's only true if you're trying to use BTC as an investment to make capital gains in USD with? If your BTC stays within the BTC community and is traded directly for goods/services without conversion to USD then there's no such requirement.
Now, as it stands the vast majority of transactions are actually basing BTC's value on USD. I think this is a misstep, but perhaps a necessary one.
What I'm saying is: you're right as long as people see BTC as a vehicle for USD gains. But the grand idea is to replace USD entirely. When we start seeing people routinely selling things for fixed BTC amounts, regardless of the 'exchange rate', then bitcoin will have succeeded.
At present it's largely just a proxy for USD, as Warren Buffet has noted. But this is just the first stage.