Re: I sold everything at $158/159 this morning

No, it has a static supply of 21M BTC. It's irrelevant whether these have been issued or not.

I understand your point -- that the bitcoins already exist, but they just haven't been released yet. However, you can't value them fully because they are not actually part of the money supply. On the other hand, they do have a present value which is greater than 0.

His point *might* be that Bitcoin has a fixed supply that cannot be changed (unless there is a hard fork); thus the money supply is predictable and cannot be altered by third parties. That's one of the *fundamentals* that make Bitcoin very attractive, but that doesn't mean that BTC is currently deflationary: in fact it is the opposite.

I'm refuting the mantra some noobs repeat like its some versicle of the bible, implying that the BTC/USD exchange rate is growing "because BTC is a deflationary currency". That's simply false and a silly, oversimplified statement that shows little understanding on the matter: the BTC/USD exchange rate is growing because the demand is exceeding the supply for many reasons, among which the incredible fundamentals and revolutionary aspects of BTC - but that doesn't change the fact that we are currently in a heavily inflationary phase.

Plus, what "watchwoord" says is extremely wrong (the inflation rate being irrelevant). We are currently living an inflationary phase - when we reach the deflationary phase Bitcoin will face a huge and uncharted challenge: will the miners be able to cover their costs only by fees? In any case, the inflation rate has a DEEP impact on the economy, it's not irrelevant at all - I guess we all saw how the price skyorocketed after the last mining halving, the bubble started just there.

Technically we are in an inflationary phase. Whether it is heavy or light probably depends on how we choose to look at it.
What is interesting is that BTC, practically speaking is deflationary right now, as the demand is greater than the supply.
So the word "inflationary" to me, might be technically correct, but looking at he huge demand and rising price (if that continues) we will continue to see BTC as essentially deflationary.
And judging by the world economic situation continuing to darken, I don't see the deflationary "argument" changing.

IAS

Probably the fact that BTC is designed to be deflationary n the future it's a key factor on the demand being greater than the supply. It's more "the promise" of a deflationary currency that a deflationary currency itself (at the moment).

In fact, I think the inflation rate is tied with the volatility. In its current phase Bitcoin appreciates and depreciates very fast: in 2012 it lost 96% of its value, 75% in April 2013; that's not how a deflationary currency behaves, that's the kind of dynamics you see in a penny stock market.

In the next yeaes the inflation rate will go down, the market cap will grow and the distribution will even. At that point I'd expect much less volatility and a behavior in line with what Bitcoin is designed to be, a deflationary currency.