Quote from: Oldminer on January 10, 2014, 03:12:47 PM

Why take on a slow ass coin like BTC when theres better coins around Huh

Because it ISN'T slow. Like many have said to people pumping alt-coins, "There are hardly any problems an alt-coin could solve that the bitcoin community can't solve as well." It isn't about the base protocol, it is about the applications built on top of the protocol. Overstock works through Coinbase. The exact instant I initiated my bitcoin payment through Coinbase to Overstock, the payment was successful.

Quote from: Raghnar on January 10, 2014, 10:59:12 AM

Quote from: Michael Robinson on January 10, 2014, 05:50:56 AM

I think it's because this wasn't "news". Overstock announced it would be accepting bitcoin payments weeks ago, and at that point it DID boost the price.e

They didn't announce that they would be accepting bitcoin payments, they announced that they PLANNED to accept bitcoin payments in about five months.

My point was that this doesn't matter. If Amazon announces they will be accepting bitcoin payments and the price goes up $1,000 overnight, but then only goes up $1 the day they actually start accepting payments, you can't turn around and say "Amazon's news on accepting bitcoins was underwhelming".

Quote from: Romyen on January 10, 2014, 04:31:53 PM

Quote from: Michael Robinson on January 10, 2014, 05:50:56 AM

If you have bitcoin and you aren't spending any of it, you are not helping the cause whatsoever, and ultimately just hurting yourself.

Not quite. Individual self-interest conflicts with group self-interest. As long as people expect the price to dramatically increase, they won't spend. Virtually no one will spend coins out of altruism to the group of all bitcoin holders.

I disagree. Individual self-interest is the same as group self-interest in this case. If people don't spend their bitcoins, major retailers will announce they are no longer accepting them. This would have a devastating effect on the value of bitcoin, period. Therefore, bitcoins must be spent. If everyone holds onto theirs expecting someone else to do the spending, it's over. If you are worried about losing future value, simply immediately replace the bitcoins you spend, problem solved. In the meantime, for your self interest AND the group's self interest, spend bitcoin.