Is the real goal of these attacks perhaps to drive down the price temporarily, so that the attackers can purchase at a discount, and then sell shortly afterwards when the price goes back up?
That's a very quotable statement, and it is indeed true -- some people are intelligent and sociopathic enough that they care about their own amusement more than anything else.
But sadism is very rare, in reality. Most robbers don't give the rubies they steal to the village children. Most galloping animals with four hooves are horses, not zebras.
But the power of the internet can magnify the effect of a single sadist to the point that it affects a million people (up to the limited extent that such opportunities exist).
If BTC drops, below 500 or less, why exactly 500? Why not wait for 400?
I'm new to this but maybe we need to make it easier to move money from wallet to wallet, from wallet to "hard" currencies and back, etc. Right now it's practically impossible to get verified on an exchange, get money out, paying anywhere with it, etc. You are lucky if you have a bitcoin ATM where the rate is probably not that good but at least you can get some coins without sending your passport to an unknown exchange half across the world.
Without Bitcoin reaching in the real world faster, I'm not sure what strategy to employ to give it any value in the long run, making it more volatile too...
Though I profited strangely last Saturday when ponzi.io screwed up and gave me a ~96x payback, Ponzi/Casino/etc schemes which may in a way help market BTC through ensuing media frenzy, are still mostly detrimental while they are the majority of the currency's activity.
So, maybe we need to simplify software and make them all more compatible, through exported private-keys, etc. Why do I have to pay a fee by paying myself to move my money from my computer to my cell phone, for example...
How can any store expect to be paid in Bitcoin?
Does he have to wait 6 verifications before letting the client go?
Should we pay when we arrive and trust the store for the change?
Maybe then we can have an Escrow service, 3 key involved, to vouch for those short term transaction but then aren't we back to the banking problem?
Is anyone working on a wallet that is compatible with import/export and that grandma can use? :)
Mycelium (Android wallet) lets you import and export private keys. I wouldn't know if it's grandma compatible (mine doesn't even use computers), but seems fairly simple to me if you understand the basic concepts.
To build something easier, you'd probably need to "hide" Bitcoin and just present a balance and a simple way of associating "contacts" (with enclosed addresses).
You can still instantly verify a transaction as valid, which works for the retail store. You don't have to wait for 6 verifications, the money will arrive in your wallet once you have a copy of the verified transaction and you send that to the network. It might have a different transaction id or more 0000's prepended to the number, but you will get the money.
