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I like this idea! Bitcoin is broken by design: people don't spend their coins, and you can't blame them, they would be silly to to that, because Bitcoin is a de

by sunseb 9y ago

I like this idea! Bitcoin is broken by design: people don't spend their coins, and you can't blame them, they would be silly to to that, because Bitcoin is a deflationary currency. But this universal basic income idea would actually make people spend their money and we would have a thriving economy. The big challenge is: how to prevent fake accounts?

zgcarvalho 9y ago
Maybe we don't need to prevent fake accounts at all. I think that could be possible to create a better distribution scheme through the analysis of the transactions network kept in the blockchain. The goal of this distribuition scheme could be maximize the flux of coins. Actually, I'm supposing that this is the intent of UBI, but I'm not am economist. So, the algorithm would put an amount of coins at nodes with higher probability of maximize the flux and therefore keeping the economy active.
gregknicholson 9y ago
It would be easy to create a Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency that is not deflationary. You could make it issue new coins at a fixed rate or at an increasing rate. (With cryptocurrencies, you can't change the rate new coins are issued, for example in response to the currency's buying power. Central banks do that with fiat currencies, to keep the currency's buying power reasonably constant, or to affect it as they see fit.) I don't think deflation is enough to stimulate an economy; you need demand, by which I mean taxes! You must pay taxes with a particular fiat currency, so everybody in your jurisdiction needs some of that fiat currency, which makes it valuable. If there was a jurisdiction where people could choose to pay their taxes in fiat or cryptocoin, both would be equally useful. The exchange rate would be governed by the tax prices. Basically, if Estonia decides that Estonians will be able to pay their taxes in estcoin for the foreseeable future, at a rate of 1 estcoin = 0.01 euro, then 1 estcoin quickly becomes worth 0.01 euro.

by sunseb 9y ago

zgcarvalho 9y ago

Maybe we don't need to prevent fake accounts at all. I think that could be possible to create a better distribution scheme through the analysis of the transactions network kept in the blockchain. The goal of this distribuition scheme could be maximize the flux of coins. Actually, I'm supposing that this is the intent of UBI, but I'm not am economist. So, the algorithm would put an amount of coins at nodes with higher probability of maximize the flux and therefore keeping the economy active.

gregknicholson 9y ago

It would be easy to create a Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency that is not deflationary. You could make it issue new coins at a fixed rate or at an increasing rate. (With cryptocurrencies, you can't change the rate new coins are issued, for example in response to the currency's buying power. Central banks do that with fiat currencies, to keep the currency's buying power reasonably constant, or to affect it as they see fit.) I don't think deflation is enough to stimulate an economy; you need demand, by which I mean taxes! You must pay taxes with a particular fiat currency, so everybody in your jurisdiction needs some of that fiat currency, which makes it valuable. If there was a jurisdiction where people could choose to pay their taxes in fiat or cryptocoin, both would be equally useful. The exchange rate would be governed by the tax prices. Basically, if Estonia decides that Estonians will be able to pay their taxes in estcoin for the foreseeable future, at a rate of 1 estcoin = 0.01 euro, then 1 estcoin quickly becomes worth 0.01 euro.