network effect assumes usage for something other than trading/buying more mining equipment. has there really been enough of an increase in non-mining/trading related transactions to justify the 10x price move?
There's been trading and buying more equipment going on since the first dedicated SHA256 hardware came out and the first big exchanges came out. Yet not until this year did price skyrocket.
Furthermore, there are lots of people who've been holding since acquiring at a much much lower price who have now redeemed for profit.
Yet the price continues to climb.
I'm guessing there are very large economical factors going on in the world that for some reason is causing people to buy BTC.
M
I have seen some commercials for IRA's in Bitcoin. So it seems that probably also increases the value of BTC and it's growth into mainstream.