Thanks for the intelligent responses, I've amended the inflation/deflation terminology.

Quote from: Nefario on February 10, 2011, 03:27:20 AM

Also investors would not just be using bitcoin for growth, but as a store of value. Yes there is hot money going into bitcoin in the heavy growth phase, and when growth is not so quick that money will leave for better opportunities.

However, in the meantime a number of investment opportunities that are only denominated in bitcoin should become available allowing those investors looking for growth to stay within the bitcoin ecosystem. So as long as the bitcoin economy evolves and develops (things like profit making companies etc.) it will continue to grow , and is not likely to be a bubble.

My worry is; just how far will this go? There will be a decrease in community influx, it is inevitable. When this will come, I can't tell, but when it comes the steady increase in bitcoin value would be at stake, and investors storing their 'value' would quickly move on to somewhere more profitable.

I'm not even talking big time investors, I mean everyone; you, me. Anyone could be an investor in this scenario, and I feel the only way someone would stay with bitcoin in this situation is if they needed it for its original purpose of a free currency with no taxes or restrictions and a P2P payment method. So I stand with what I said about encouraging investors, I think it's a bad idea.

Quote from: theymos on February 10, 2011, 03:13:04 AM

The block reward halves every four years, so hopefully it will become insignificant by the time growth "loses steam". Assuming Bitcoin is not replaced by something else, prices should continue to rise forever, since people will lose bitcoins even when the price would normally be totally stable. But that's not really the point: the point is that value won't decrease unpredictably.

I hope not, but I'm more sceptical. I feel that we will lose value dramatically if we have too many people investing because of the value and strength of bitcoin.