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You're missing one of the key points of the OP's post, deflation. With fiat currencies, small inflation is a feature not a bug. If goods cost more tomorrow th
by vitaflo 5y ago
You're missing one of the key points of the OP's post, deflation. With fiat currencies, small inflation is a feature not a bug. If goods cost more tomorrow than they do today, it promotes purchasing today not tomorrow. If the expectation is that each year I will get a raise, it promotes work to get that raise. This increases economic activity. A psychological trick perhaps, but an effective one for the economy.
With Bitcoin et al being deflationary it means that goods will be cheaper tomorrow than they are today. This promotes hoarding, not purchasing. You would expect to get a pay cut every year, not a raise. This grinds the gears of economic activity. You are being incentivized not to spend your money unless you absolutely have to, which is the death knell of any functioning economy.
While there are certainly problems with the current model, cryptocurrency simply makes them worse.
- Gosper 5y agoThis is why the home computer and smartphone revolutions we were promised never happened. No one absolutely had to have them so everyone waited for next year's cheaper, faster, and better models and the market died out. Imagine a terrible world where people are incentivised to buy stuff they don't need and barely want; we'd be drowning in crap and burning up the Earth to make it.
- datadata 5y agoWith an inflationary fiat currency, people are always going to try to invent things like bitcoin to be able to do something with their money other than watch it dissolve from inflation or be forced to consume. I don't think that means that bitcoin is going to be successful, but fiat currency is either going to become less important or more coercive as people become aware of what inflation does and try to escape it.