Im not clear on why encouraging people to spend their bitcoin is a good idea.
wouldnt that mean you are encouraging them to use something that has x perceived value(btc), to purchase something with y perceived value(some product or service), instead of using something that has z perceived value(fiat), to purchase something with y perceived value(some product or service)?
if x is less than z, you would not need to encourage them to trade it for something of greater value. if x is greater than z, you are asking them to sacrifice value.
you are then asking them to sacrifice their own wealth in order to benefit others. i consider that to be charity, and generally not in the interest of the person spending their btc.
you could, however, argue that the sacrificed value is an investment in the btc economy, which will then pay dividends in the future.
however, you would then have to compare this scenario to the the alternatives, namely, 'what investment in the btc economy could you have made if you had used fiat to begin with?' and 'are there any other investments that would pay more dividends and/or pay dividends sooner?'
the logic used to justify the claims made in this post, seem to be identical to the logic used to justify the existence of the Federal Reserve, government spending, and inflation in general, i.e. 'Increase the velocity of money and increase the health of the economy.'
in my opinion, instead of encouraging people to spend their btc to improve the health of the btc economy, it would be more efficient and effective at improving the health of the btc economy if you were to encourage people to part with their btc (by trading it for products or services) because they perceived it to be an increase in personal wealth.
although, thats just my opinion, i could be wrong.
I think I get what you are saying. However, spending money of any variety, grows the economy using that money. Saving money in an appreciative manner is good for one's personal economy. Both have positive consequences. We have plenty of btc hoarding and not enough spending at the moment. Bitcoin has a finite reserve, so comparing it to say the Fed is impossible to do. Greater adoption = greater value. No one talked about charitable giving of btc that I can see.
I don't advocate blowing one's bitcoin load. Example: Product 'a' has value 'x' and can purchased with either btc or fiat (btc:fiat :: 1:1 value at time = 0). Consumer John plans on buying product 'a' for said value 'x'. Consumer John imagines that buying the product with btc will increase the rate of btc adoption and thus potentially increases the value of John's remaining btc hoard. John then uses fiat to buy btc equal to the value of product 'a', and subsequently purchases product 'a' with btc obtained with fiat.
When merchants can see that consumers are not just willing to spend bitcoins, but insist on spending them; they will line up looking for solutions that facilitate the transactions. This is a good thing.
