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Not to make excuses about this issue and Bitcoin, but the main problem here is that while Bitcoins limited supply solution brings with it lots of other problems
by julespitt 14y ago
Not to make excuses about this issue and Bitcoin, but the main problem here is that while Bitcoins limited supply solution brings with it lots of other problems (including frequent but not 100% reliable deflation) - no one has yet even postulated a fully distributed and mathematical means of reliably producing either inflation, deflation, or steady-state value.
Limited supply is a dirty, sloppy hack - but the only known one to most likely maintain the value of a cryptocurrency over time.
- pixelcort 14y agoBefore Bitcoin no one thought it was possible to solve the double spend problem using a P2P network. Maybe someday we'll learn how to control inflation of future crypto currencies using P2P networks as well. Even today there is at least one crypto currency with a built in 5% internal demurrage rate (freicoin). One idea is, for each block mined in a crypto currency, the miner votes on a target inflation rate. Every so many blocks, perhaps every month or so, the P2P network would take the median proposed inflation rate and either demurrage all existing coins or adjust the number of newly generated coins for the next month.
- julespitt 14y agoI'm not downplaying the innovations that Bitcoin introduced and demonstrating - just honing in that the money supply issue is not yet well understood. I would love to see what would happen with a miner-voting system - actually, while I'm dreaming, I'd like to see a proof-of-stake inflation voting mechanism. Too bad all of this hype is about Bitcoin instead of the general concept of cryptocurrencies.
- pixelcort 14y agoThere is a growing subreddit for discussion of cryptocurrencies: http://www.reddit.com/r/cryptocurrency http://www.reddit.com/r/cryptocurrency