jb55 and Semisol are attempting to offer services priced in Bitcoin, and also keep the price in Bitcoin stable.

Further more, these services are somewhat "buy ahead", where you pay now and receive the service later, sometimes even a year later.

That's fair enough, like newspapers will give you a sometimes massive discount if you subscribe for a year ahead because having that money allows them to plan ahead, it's some financial security.

But recently the value of Bitcoin has been going up, and that's been creating the expectation that it'll go up even more. Nothing wrong with that either, if the economy of Bitcoin-priced services is growing against a largely constant money supply that's a fair expectation.

But now you have the deflation trap. jb55's customers were happy to subscribe last month for $5 equivalent but now it's $10 equivalent and they consider dropping.

Semisol would like customers to pay $50 equivalent in advance now for next year's service, but this amount of Bitcoin might be worth $100 or $500 next year, so why spend it now? Better to keep it and spend it next year and get so much more for it.

Small-time Bitcoiners are typically financially stable enough from fiat income that they can afford to just buy Bitcoin and keep it the same way that they could spend it on collecting Beanie Babies to put on a shelf if they wanted to. They don't need to spend it on food or other urgent stuff. So they don't spend.

You don't get an economy going like that.