Quote from: freebud on October 06, 2014, 06:56:12 PM

Quote from: smooth on October 06, 2014, 06:36:21 PM

Quote from: freebud on October 06, 2014, 06:31:17 PM

Quote from: smooth on October 06, 2014, 06:19:03 PM

Quote from: freebud on October 06, 2014, 06:03:46 PM

Quote from: rpietila on October 06, 2014, 05:40:28 PM

Quote from: rangedriver on October 06, 2014, 05:30:13 PM

Unlikely to go down now. There would need to be a good reason for it to do so.

The mechanism for going down requires everybody to simultaneously decide that the current level is too high. If there is even one who thinks otherwise, it does not go down.

Going up is much different. A few, even just one, people deciding to buy, make it go up.

I can't believe you really think that..
I perceive most of real XMR supporters as quite intelligent, and you being the executive of MEW should think a bit longer before writing nonsense.

There is some truth to it given that the mechanism for mining set up something like a continuous auction where everyone (including the original miner) bids for each block. In that sense I would slightly disagree with the original comment. There need to be two people who agree with a price in order to sustain it, not just one, because otherwise the high bidder can bid less and still win.

Most of the coins are not in the hands of miners, and I think the market mechanics are quite detached from what you are suggesting. Risto can decide alone that he doesn't like Monero anymore, and cash out. Good luck to all of us thinking the current price is fair..

I disagree for this reason. As long as the continuous auction is going on, it is a price setting process and other trading must agree with it, since you can't have more than one market price in the same market at the same time. What may happen is if that Risto decides he doesn't like Monero, that decision and actions he may subsequently take based on that decision may in turn convince everyone (or all but one person) that a lower price is more appropriate. But as long as two people steadfastly believe the price should be X, then the price will be at least X.

The two "believers" should also have enough funds to absorb all the sold coins, which is (almost) not different from the "going up" case where someone decides to sell all available coins above a certain price. The only difference I see is that the number of coins available in the world is much smaller than the amount of fiat.
But, is this a theoretical discussion, or a discussion about the real world? Do you think that Risto's comment is true for the XMR market?

"Believe" was a bad choice of words on my part. After all you can believe any number of things and not act on it for whatever reason (such as lack of funds). "Bid" would be a better word. As in: as long as two market participants are willing to bid X then the price will be at least X. I think you can infer that from Risto's statement at all. He said "everyone" but really it can only matter what market participants do, not "everyone."

But again, market participants may change what they do in response to the actions of others. If enough coins are being dumped, people who were willing to bid X might relent and stop bidding. What was correct about Risto's statement is that it only takes two participants being willing to bid at a given level to keep the price at a given level, but that says nothing about whether such people exist at any given time. I also don't agree with him about the asymmetry. The same thing could be said about sellers, except in that sellers are never required (due to mining) but buyers are always required.