Quote from: BTC_Junkie on August 16, 2011, 07:01:34 PM

Quote from: Trader Steve on August 16, 2011, 06:55:58 PM

Quote from: BTC_Junkie on August 16, 2011, 06:52:25 PM

Its not the same, because one affects the market price and one doesn't.

If I hypothetically mined 1,000,000 BTC today, the market cap would increase by ~$11,000,000 but that does not mean $11,000,000 was absorbed. If I tried to sell it on MtGox I would destroy the market.

See my clarification at post #9 above. You can't "hypothetically mine" bitcoin. It takes real resources that cost time, money and effort. When you invest these resources you are buying the product when you choose not to sell it.

I was using that as an example because its harder to see the effect of not selling when its 1 btc vs a much larger number.

If you had not "invested the resources" it would still have come into existence, simply for someone else. That is different than actively buying and selling on the open market.

That "someone else" also has to invest the resources, time, money and effort in the mining process. You can't get something for nothing. If you stop mining it is because you don't value the expected return on investment. Again, when you mine and hold you are buying the bitcoin because you value it more than the prevailing exchange rate. If you didn't think the current or projected exchange rate would be profitable then you would simply stop mining.