Theres 7.5 billion people in the world. That number will grow. There's only 21 million BTC. Sure it can be broken down to infinite numbers of decimal points and yada yada but with 17 million already mined and accounted for, is it reasonable to expect the 7.425 billion people who haven't adopted bitcoin yet to accept the current inflation of the coin??
$2 per coin in 2012
$15000 per coin in 2017
That's 7500% increase based on what exactly? Theres mining costs of course. But is that a storage of value? Or a loss of value? Think about what is really happening as coins are mined. Fiat currency is exchanged for equipment to create digital currency. The digital currency is then sold for fiat currency. The equipment expires and the digital currency becomes, theoretically, more and more difficult as well as expensive to create.
Approximately 1% of the world has adopted bitcoin. This has artificially skyrocketed prices to an unsustainable rate of 7500% in 5 years. If the 7.425 billion people who still use fiat currency agree to use bitcoin, there's no way they will agree to deflate their own purchasing power by 7500%. I think the current price of bitcoin is impractical for mainstream adoption.
I think a niche group (first 1% of population) who see the vision and the future of crypto have artificially driven this price up so high that it isn't likely the remaining population of the world will buy into it (at the current levels). Sure crypto could be the future of our money system. But the current prices do not seem realistic if we are trying to get the entire world in on it. I don't think crypto needs universal adoption to be successful, but it certainly needs more users and use in general than it has now. As it stands now, bitcoin and altcoins are more of an investment tool and less of an actual currency.
Do you think the current price of bitcoin is practical?
Your reasoning doesn't seem to make sense. You talk about artificially skyrocketing the price and asking what 7500% increase is based on. It's based on pure supply and demand. Nothing more nothing less. How does that make it artificial? It's impossible for it to be artificial because the price is based purely on market demand, which means the price is always exactly where it should be because there are no artificial influences that can affect it.
And how exactly are you getting the idea that buying bitcoin deflates your purchasing power? Purchasing power is deflated by inflationary currencies. Bitcoin is deflationary which means the opposite of what you are saying - as more people buy they will get more purchasing power. People will buy it at these prices and at ten times these prices precisely because unlike fiat currency, Bitcoin doesn't deflate your purchasing power, in fact it increases your purchasing power.
I think the OP is speaking in market terms here. The word "artificial" is referring to how there are little or no underlying fundamental reasons why the price has increased so fast. There is little or no news that drives prices...and what little news that may or may not drive prices...people only speculate or correlate the volatility that may or may not follow it. It's like Jamie Dimon condemning BTC and the price goes down...but then the grand poobah of Vanguard (much more influential and credible) does the same and the result is ATH. So the news probably isn't the driver here. Also what drives the price is greed and the same things that drove crazes in the past. These are considered "artificial" motivators by markets since they are unpredictable.
As far as reduced purchasing power it's all about fees, transaction times, and places where BTC is accepted. The fees alone make purchases impractical for most users...so they just HODL and cling to hope of a miracle in the future. If no one is spending their coins, that is a net decrease in economic purchasing power with respect to volume and the amount of tangible goods trading hands.
