Well, yes. That's why currencies increase in value, because they're in demand. That's why the value of the pound or dollar or whatever goes up and down.
> If I go to the store where I used to buy a melon for 1 unit and tell them now that I think I deserve 4 melons for a unit, what will they say?
Who knows? They might refuse to sell at that price. They might see that if they don't sell to you, you're likely to import melons more cheaply than you can buy them locally.
The storeowner should react by buying melons in bulk using his units and then selling them to you more cheaply than you can import them yourself. Bitcoin is not unlike this. It's the same. Things are worth what people are willing to pay for them.
But really even if they accept Bitcoin for 4 melons that doesn't mean they have embraced Bitcoin. It is just a credit to the power of Bitcoin's infrastructure that the trading network is there to accept the coins, no?
That's my biggest worry. Bitcoin culture seems to believe that at a certain point all individuals will give up resistance and embrace/adopt Bitcoin, whereas there are many many barriers standing before that and I believe it is only the trading network that is strong. However, I do not believe Bitcoin is a stock, so I'm not sure what it is.
What do you think, sir/madam phaemon?
Well, of course they don't. Things have just got worse for them. But that's exactly what happened to many local retailers when their customers realised they could get stuff cheaper by ordering over the Internet than they could buying locally. It's just how things go.
> However, I do not believe Bitcoin is a stock, so I'm not sure what it is.
It's an infrastructure. It happens to have a currency built in on top of it, but at heart it's an infrastructure. Its worth depends entirely on what people do with it, like the Internet itself.
So, it's a little meta to consider what a currency that's an infrastructure is worth in it's own terms, but no-one has to decide that....just let people pay what they want for their share.
I definitely understand the value as an infrastructure, but this is the web. Better solutions will emerge and could just co-opt the Bitcoin infrastructure. Like the way ISPs came in and bought access to the data lines of phone companies, same idea.
Uh, no he doesn't. He only takes Units. We're talking about your hypothetical melon salesman, remember?
> Better solutions will emerge and could just co-opt the Bitcoin infrastructure.
Probably. I would certainly hope so! That doesn't stop Bitcoin being valuable right now and new solutions being more valuable in the future. There's no reason not to have several competing digital currencies on the go.
If we had a bunch of "units" of something we have 1 each and there are 10 total. We use them to buy melons and each 1 is roughly valued as 1 melon. Then people see the success our new system is having and want to use our units to buy melons as well. So, one of the 10 friends decides its a smart idea to sell his unit for 2 melons to someone who really wants to be a part of our cool club. The next day someone else sells their unit for 4 melons because even more people want in.
Is every unit now worth 4 melons now just because someone sold one for 4 melons to an outside trader? If I go to the store where I used to buy a melon for 1 unit and tell them now that I think I deserve 4 melons for a unit, what will they say?
Explain to me how you think storeowners should react or how Bitcoin is unlike this. Sincerely, I will listen as best I can.