Quote from: the joint on September 08, 2011, 10:18:50 PM

I think Bitcoin is exactly where it should be and needs to be.

Everything that has happened so far can be expected.

Scams, hacks, shady personalities, wildly fluctuating values...this is all normal behavior. In fact, if Bitcoin were any less unstable I would begin to think something is wrong.

The Bitcoin phenomenon is systemic, and it is new and small. Small systems are prone to enormous shifts in balance when there is a lot of input/output from and into larger systems outside Bitcoin-land. It will take a long time for Bitcoin to find its niche among larger systems and to achieve balance between input and output.

Everything that is happening to Bitcoin is good and natural. Relax; let it run its appropriate course.

^ Best advice possible. Couldn't have been said any other way.

To add my own thought too -- with only 21 million BTC ever existing, we have to also consider that in the long term, some BTC will be lost from accidentally deleted wallets etc, thus the black-hole will be a naturally occurring phenomenon. To speed up the process now, might have adverse consequences further forward in time.