Quote from: ptmhd on February 28, 2011, 02:05:33 PM

Quote from: So_Cynical on February 27, 2011, 01:19:44 PM

Quote from: jgarzik on February 22, 2011, 08:24:56 AM

Quote from: Raulo on February 22, 2011, 08:09:24 AM

I'm sorry but bitcoin has zero intrinsic value. Just like fiat. The only thing that makes it valuable is the supporting economy of goods and services that can be traded for bitcoin. Growing a bubble is not going to strengthen it. And there is a lot of bubble mentality on this forum. Like this post:
http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3713.msg52668#msg52668

If bitcoin continues to go up in value without the bitcoin economy following, it will finally crash. And if the mass market learns that bitcoin is another "beanie babies", it will never become a global medium of exchange. It will remain a toy for geeks.

Agreed. And that's almost become one of my mantras: it's not about mining.

This most recent wave of slashdotting (and Security Now'ing) has brought a lot of mining activity and interest in mining, but I've been disappointed that forum posts about interesting new bitcoin businesses were notably absent. In the past, we would see a flurry of new posts to the We Accept Bitcoins thread (now en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade) and the Marketplace forum. Not as much activity.

If bitcoin is to survive, it needs a wealth of goods and services available, in multiple countries. Bitcoin cannot exist without the bitcoin economy.

As a new bitcoiner today one of the first mystery's for me was...why is a bitcoin worth so much when there is very little commerce to back it up?, where is the demand coming from? and how is that demand sustainable when the bitcoin economy has so very little need of bitcoins to function...as a fundamental investor and keen chart watcher i just cant see the current exchange rate as being sustainable, the bitcoin economy needs some substance..needs some fundamental drivers.

i'm asking this question since i came here
it's not about expectations, it's plain speculation.
inviting new "miners" just like low credit rates fuelled the real estate market
something went wrong a month ago.

I think that since QE2, many people are trying to protect their wealth by selling dollars. Maybe that's why bitcoins have increased its price so much.