I would speculate that most geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people will not be able to resist temptations and will not be able to run the marathon, most will be sprinters and will sell out most or all BTC holdings way under 1000$ per BTC to the banksters.

A fool and his money are soon parted.  Many of us who "would have been" wealthy would have lost it to money smart people and there will be a lot of people saying dam they wish they kept their bitcoins.

Nikola Tesla was very smart when it came to physics and electronics, however he was less than proficient when it came to understanding human relations and their wealth.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist that if I make something that gives people free energy your not going to get someone to fund it. The fact he could not figure that out and trick the fools that funded him is why he died poor and broken.  

The bottom line we all can't be smart at everything and common sense is not common.

Davinci
BTW: Just because I understand this does not make me an exception.

Had to quote you so I could read the text... Thats small!

For Bitcoin to go mainstream, there must be incentive for merchants to take Bitcoin over fiat. Better yet, incentive for merchants to decline payments in fiat, and only accept Bitcoin. Unfortunately only illicit markets serve this functionality at the moment..

This is only partly true. I personally would enjoy taking USD out of the equation.

I would accept only bitcoin, period.


All money is based on trust in a system, ability to be recognized, and usability. In this era of transition, digital money is an easy choice to make. Just make it.


I suggest seeing this → ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LaSrxtWfgc ) and making a final decision.

But you can't. Price something in bitcoin without looking at the exchange rate to dollars. (You can do it off the top of your head but lets say in 18 months)

Bitcoin just started the wrong way. If it were used for example trading pictures you made, or something else easily produced by everybody instead of buying somebody a pizza it would have turned out very differently. This is a social issue not a economical or technical one.

Ever played any online game with ingame currency? There are no pricetags in dollars. Well at least used to in Diablo III that is possible too. The difference here is item prices in dollar follow their ingame gold value not verse visa.
That's the point I'm trying to make if bitcoin started as a trading tool for something valuable but not necessarily costly (for example game items or pictures) it would have evolved very differently. It's already too late for that since we have almost half of all bitcoins valued in dollar instead of something fundamental.

I wouldn't say it's too late to change that…

depends on whether or not there are other things you can exchange for (of value) at that price.

if we're where we are now, with little to buy and mostly the whole thing just being a medium of speculation, then yeah you're right.