I don't get the day-trader hate.
Should they not be allowed to buy and sell Bitcoin at any rate they choose?
They buy and sell
BTC to just buy and sell
BTC.
They simply detract from the goal of
BTC to be a currency.
They don't contribute to
BTC in general.
Day traders most certainly do help bitcoin in general by reducing volatility and aiding price discovery. They do this by trading arbitrage opportunities (arbitrage being any case in which a price is out of sync with its true value) and help drive the price closer to its correct value.
Funny thing is...
Hate to break it to you, but we're all gambling on the future of bitcoin. It could crash to $1 tomorrow on some type of devastating news, and a lot of people would lose a lot of money.
Not true, I have mined/earned all my
BTC.
I lose nothing if
BTC plummets.
I use the electricity that comes free with my rent.
I hope
BTC flourishes into a useable currency,
but if it doesn't I will not lose anything.
You're doing exactly the same thing. You're arbitraging your electricity costs (i.e. it's under its true value in your situation). This probably won't have any affect because the rent market is inefficient in this case, but if enough people did this, your rent would rise to its 'true' cost.