Quote from: adamselene on May 15, 2018, 09:23:55 PM

No, that's a silly statement that's been put forward by different groups over time. Altcoiners use it as a knock against BTC during times of high volume / fees. People who look down on price discussion and traders use it as a 'holier than thou' device while secretly praying for the moon.

The fact of the matter is, just like any tech, the use case will reveal itself in surprising ways. If during this era of price discovery, people consider hodling (digital gold) to be a more valuable use for BTC than as a currency, then who are we to force our POV on the market? But I suspect that as second-layer stuff gets more robust and easier to use, and the price finds some stability, we'll see the return of bitcoin as a medium of exchange.

It's not too silly. Hoarding could hurt Bitcoin depending on how you look at it. Is it a currency or store of value? If you look at it as a currency, as Satoshi intended it to be, then Bitcoin is a deflationary currency. A deflationary currency with a fixed supply does definitely encourage hoarding. I mean, why buy something today when you can buy more of it later if you hold and wait? So for bitcoin to be a currency, it would be bad as hoarding does take place and trade would slow significantly. The cash wouldn't be changing hands frequently. That is why hoarding would be bad for Bitcoin as a currency, but as a store of value, no problem. That is how I view Bitcoin, more so as a store of value. I see it as an alternative to gold, and something that you can transact with (a lot easier than gold) if you choose to do so.