Doesn't make sense to me that wealthy people would be buying up and driving up B, just because the community desires that. Right now, it really does look like a great speculative investment, and new buyers are arriving in the market...
I didn't say wealthy people are buying because the community desires it? I'm just saying that those big jumps in value in a matter of minutes were created by single actors.
Also why do you say it doesn't look like a good investment? People who bought bitcoins at the start of this thread have had over 1000% return on investment. I'm think most would agree that bitcoin growth will be outpacing any other commodity/currency for a long time.
Plus, the B community is relatively more diverse than that of almost any other currency. So, i doubt they are psychologically oriented specifically toward USD parity.
It's an important milestone. However, imho, B is going to continue chasing down other currencies to parity - the euro, the pound, the dinar. To me, the holy-grail parity seems to be gAu. Then, B will really be "in business"...
I said there's a strong desire to reach usd parity, not to stay there forever. Yeah, I know we are from all over the world but reaching usd parity is just very news friendly, I'm pretty sure we won't be making any headlines when we reach the kuwaiti dinar. Also it sends the message to people on the fence that "bitcoin is serious business".