it will recover when there are more buyers than sellers.  Supply and demand, my friend.   Unfortunately at this time, supply is outpacing demand.   I'm glad I didn't invest in mining equipment back in June around $30/BTC.

It's possible my power will be paid for pretty soon - if that happens, I'll be mining a lot more.

Supply is constant so I guess the big question I have is how do we get demand to go higher?

A year ago, none of us could have imagined Bitcoin to become so popular in so little time. There were some services built around Bitcoin, but they were more like volunteer work than serious businesses. People were toying with new ideas, it was mostly about fun and passion than substantial monetary gain. Everyone was caught off-guard when exchange rates went off the scale, DDOS attacks, then serious cracking attempts, scams and theft begun. It was too early. If you asked, my most optimistic bet would be $2 per BTC around this time.

I think the community will continue building the structure as always, and Bitcoin will become more and more appealing to users. We need to concentrate on real life uses of the currency. That's what "backs" Bitcoin. There is no other "easy" way to get demand to go higher.

I also don't think Bitcoin commerce will diminish with low exchange rates, but time will tell of course. It would be nice if we had a tool to measure the trend.

I guess putting a line from Dec 2010 to April 2011 and extending it will give a good answer where the rate should be. So there was a bubble. Now we're back to normal.

You must be extremely libertarian if you believe that issuing options goes against the free market.

I am not against options at all,  I was referring to the following:

It sounds like an option to me. Bad thing is: My limited funding does not allow me to issue such a blanket option because this would not work as a bluff. We'd have to cough up the money until the market is saturated. Better ask Bill, Warren & George. But even they might run out of cash.

They smell like dust and slightly singed electronics. Plus are not traceable to exchanges.

get the heck down to #OccupyWhereever and hand out some paper wallets!

Good grief!