4 ms·
The hyperinflation example is quite interesting because: 1) If it happens, it happens rapidly, and you don't want to implement this in a hurry 2) If it happen
by Shrezzing 3y ago
The hyperinflation example is quite interesting because:
1) If it happens, it happens rapidly, and you don't want to implement this in a hurry
2) If it happens, the global economy could well be melting down, and your financial institution will have other priorities to attend to
3) Retaining existing staff, and hiring new engineers, will be challenging at best
You really don't want to be implementing this change in those circumstances.
- runeks 3y agoI think it's the worst example. I very much doubt we will ever see the price of, say, a car approach a billion billion dollars (or cents). It's too many zeros for people to work with on a daily basis. I think what will happen is that, at regular intervals, the old hyper-inflated currency will be replaced with a new currency that's, say, 2^32 times less than the original one. Besides, if you think a billion billions might be reached (64 bits) then why wouldn't a billion billion billion billions also be reached (128 bits)? 128 bits seems just as arbitrary as 64 bits in this context.
- jefftk 3y agoBefore 2009 would you have predicted that a 100 Trillion Dollar bill would never be issued by a central bank?
- RandomLensman 3y agoGermany had notes and stamps in the trillions Marks in 1924 - nothing new there
- ilyt 3y ago2^63 / 100 Trillion = 9.2E6 so even in this case you have few decimal positions left.
- zarzavat 3y agoYou may be overlooking the potential for someone to own more than one of those $100T bills. Apparently it was worth about 30 USD at the time.
- hot_gril 3y agoIf $100T = 30 USD, then probably nobody will mind if we round to the nearest $1B. Just like how I have no way to compensate someone for less than 0.01 USD.
- xypage 3y agoThe government cares, the precision necessary for taxes is sub cent as mentioned in some replies to the top comment on this post.
- cesarb 3y ago> It's too many zeros for people to work with on a daily basis. I think what will happen is that, at regular intervals, the old hyper-inflated currency will be replaced with a new currency that's, say, 2^32 times less than the original one. I lived through hyperinflation (in Brazil). What happened was that, at regular intervals, the old hyper-inflated currency was replaced with a new currency that's 10^3 times less than the original one. Cutting decimal zeros is better for humans, and three is convenient because it matches the usual three-digit grouping (that is, 123.450,00 becomes 123,45). This had to be done because, otherwise, calculators would become useless (most common pocket calculators had only eight digits).
- themagician 3y agoBy the time this is a problem the currency has collapsed and no one is using it anymore.
- nxobject 3y agoI can imagine some contractual obligation being litigated in those cases... on the other hand, maybe attorney's fees would far outstrip any sum being litigated for.