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Some libertarian crank (I forget who) said that the best charity a person could do is to cash out their fortune and burn the paper dollars. This is a deflation

Some libertarian crank (I forget who) said that the best charity a person could do is to cash out their fortune and burn the paper dollars. This is a deflationary event and does just what you mention--gives everybody a little gift. Somehow a cynical suggestion like that is considered serious now. Because it is high-tech I guess.

anonporridge 5y ago
Na, that's stupid with cash because we can arbitrarily print more of it. Any cash burning event would be of marginal collective contribution. It actually matters with bitcoin because of the hard supply cap. Every lost coin shrinks the pie.
- bradleyjg 5y ago
  “We” can arbitrarily print more Bitcoin or dollars. In either case you just need consensus among the correct group of people.
  - cyanydeez 5y ago
    infact "we" can just seitch to any other infinite coins cause again, theres barely anything but grandfsther clauses tying bitcoin to any realworld value
  - anonporridge 5y ago
    Technically true, but the big difference is that if someone hard forks bitcoin to start printing more, holders will see their coins fork with the chains. You'll have both the old, hard money and the new diluted money, and the market will decide which one is more valuable. This doesn't happen with fiat. Which one would you choose?
- jayd16 5y ago
  It doesn't matter with any currency. You don't price things by how many dollars exist. You price things at what people will pay. If the billions weren't being spent, its about the same as if they're never spent. Printing money and giving it away causes inflation because people can use it to buy things but having money printed but locked away does nothing. If this money was locked up then its not much of a change.
paxys 5y ago
It does not give "everybody" a little gift, only people who already have money (since their existing money is now worth X% more). People with 0 still have 0, and people in debt have to work even harder to pay it off. Something that disproportionally helps rich people is the opposite of charity.

anonporridge 5y ago

Na, that's stupid with cash because we can arbitrarily print more of it. Any cash burning event would be of marginal collective contribution. It actually matters with bitcoin because of the hard supply cap. Every lost coin shrinks the pie.

bradleyjg 5y ago
“We” can arbitrarily print more Bitcoin or dollars. In either case you just need consensus among the correct group of people.
- cyanydeez 5y ago
  infact "we" can just seitch to any other infinite coins cause again, theres barely anything but grandfsther clauses tying bitcoin to any realworld value
- anonporridge 5y ago
  Technically true, but the big difference is that if someone hard forks bitcoin to start printing more, holders will see their coins fork with the chains. You'll have both the old, hard money and the new diluted money, and the market will decide which one is more valuable. This doesn't happen with fiat. Which one would you choose?
jayd16 5y ago
It doesn't matter with any currency. You don't price things by how many dollars exist. You price things at what people will pay. If the billions weren't being spent, its about the same as if they're never spent. Printing money and giving it away causes inflation because people can use it to buy things but having money printed but locked away does nothing. If this money was locked up then its not much of a change.

paxys 5y ago

It does not give "everybody" a little gift, only people who already have money (since their existing money is now worth X% more). People with 0 still have 0, and people in debt have to work even harder to pay it off. Something that disproportionally helps rich people is the opposite of charity.