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You can really only speculate, but I think it's safe to say that the strong majority of trading is for speculation. The darknet markets certainly bring some de
by Obi_Juan_Kenobi 10y ago
You can really only speculate, but I think it's safe to say that the strong majority of trading is for speculation.
The darknet markets certainly bring some demand, but it's high-velocity. You don't need to hold BTC, only transact in it.
The remittance market does seem to be there, but it's still in its infancy. Maybe only a small fraction from this.
Similarly, actual e-commerce is quite limited. Bitcoin offers few advantages over PayPal and credit cards for the large majority of consumers. There's only a subset of international transactions and other fringe situations where it makes sense.
I think the other significant market, after the speculators, are those that are ideologically motivated to hold Bitcoin.
- gozur88 10y ago>The darknet markets certainly bring some demand, but it's high-velocity. You don't need to hold BTC, only transact in it. Except that if you're doing something illegal you pretty much do need to hold onto it unless you have a way of laundering it to a national currency.
- wmf 10y agoIt seems kind of pointless to engage in crime if you can never spend the profits.
- gozur88 10y agoYou can, but you have to spend them in bitcoins. There might even be enough of a legitimate bitcoin economy you could mostly do it, assuming you weren't a really big time criminal. Those guys have ways to launder the profits anyway.