5 ms·

Doesn't this break bitcoin's concept of no central issuer? If you have to send stuff to the organiser, that's somewhat of a central authority, isn't it?

dijit 13y ago
yes. sidenote: please stop making coins. it sort of defies the point of it being a currency of any kind if there are millions of different yet indistinguishable ones.
- ekianjo 13y ago
  Don't worry, natural selection will happen to them. Most coins of close to zero value will reach the bottom faster than they expect.
  - jkarni 13y ago
    This isn't obvious! See my comment to IgorPartola above.
- IgorPartola 13y ago
  Why? A new blockchain is no real threat to any existing and established altcoin such as BTC or LTC. On the other hand, it's possible that someone will come up with either a technical improvement over the established altcoins, or die trying. Now, what would be really helpful is a wallet app that lets you have all different types of coins in one place. That way you wouldn't have to run 17 different clients for 17 different coins. It would also help you lose all your altcoins in one place.
  - nwh 13y ago
    17? At the last count there's over a thousand of them.
    - dllthomas 13y ago
      And most aren't used at all.
  - jkarni 13y ago
    It is a threat! If a there are a thousand indistinguishable block chains, it's (arguably[1]) as if the number of coins on a single blockchain were much bigger, which drives down the price. Since there's an infinite supply of new blockchains at more or less any price point (again, arguably), the price should be driven down to zero. [1] Arguably, -there is, for instance, the question of whether arbitrary differentiators such as "being the first blockchain" suffice to make the blockchain market not perfectly competitive, - but this point needs to be (and as far as I can tell hasn't really been, here on HN) argued about. See http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/12/on-the-future-of-dogecoin-bitcoin-and-other-cryptocurrencies-of-the-non-realm.html http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/12/on-... for some references, though.
    - dllthomas 13y ago
      Not much more than different currencies or different goods devalue others as stores of value in general.
      - jkarni 13y ago
        I think you're wrong, but am willing to be told otherwise. Here's why: one currency is not (generally) legal tender outside its country of origin, so there's an exchange rate determined roughly by the trade balance between countries etc. If all currencies were legal tender everywhere (a much more analogous) situation, the exchange rate would not be determined by the same factors, since the currency would in no way be pegged to the nation. Then the question becomes: what does in fact determine the exchange rates? I.e., would one currency be "infinitely valuable" compared to all others? Which one? The first? Or would all of the stabilize at the point where 1 of A is always worth 1 of B, because that's easiest to work with?
        dllthomas 13y ago
        I'm not sure legal tender matters much. It's all about what people generally expect other people generally to give them for the currency when they decide they want to convert it into something else. See, for instance, the Somalian Shilling retaining its value despite a period that basically lacked a government (http://www.economist.com/node/21551492 http://www.economist.com/node/21551492) or the fact that the dollar is happily accepted in very many countries. What does screw with things is currency controls, but that's not really substantively different than any other market manipulation.
  - jaibot 13y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(payment_protocol) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(payment_protocol)
- herge 13y ago
  I don't accept your fiat of making BitCoin the one true coin.
  - dijit 13y ago
    there's room for more than 1, litecoin, bitcoin. don't just make copies of what's available, it drives down price and stops adoption of it as a trading standard.
Xdes 13y ago
I could see SolarCoin working if there was some kind of specialized hardware that monitored the amount of electricity flow, but I can't think of a way to verify that it is hooked up to a solar panel versus plugged into a wall.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  I could see people hacking that specialized hardware...
ctg 13y ago
But SolarCoint is not a bitcoin -- it is just a cryptocurrency.

dijit 13y ago

yes. sidenote: please stop making coins. it sort of defies the point of it being a currency of any kind if there are millions of different yet indistinguishable ones.

ekianjo 13y ago
Don't worry, natural selection will happen to them. Most coins of close to zero value will reach the bottom faster than they expect.
- jkarni 13y ago
  This isn't obvious! See my comment to IgorPartola above.
IgorPartola 13y ago
Why? A new blockchain is no real threat to any existing and established altcoin such as BTC or LTC. On the other hand, it's possible that someone will come up with either a technical improvement over the established altcoins, or die trying. Now, what would be really helpful is a wallet app that lets you have all different types of coins in one place. That way you wouldn't have to run 17 different clients for 17 different coins. It would also help you lose all your altcoins in one place.
- nwh 13y ago
  17? At the last count there's over a thousand of them.
  - dllthomas 13y ago
    And most aren't used at all.
- jkarni 13y ago
  It is a threat! If a there are a thousand indistinguishable block chains, it's (arguably[1]) as if the number of coins on a single blockchain were much bigger, which drives down the price. Since there's an infinite supply of new blockchains at more or less any price point (again, arguably), the price should be driven down to zero. [1] Arguably, -there is, for instance, the question of whether arbitrary differentiators such as "being the first blockchain" suffice to make the blockchain market not perfectly competitive, - but this point needs to be (and as far as I can tell hasn't really been, here on HN) argued about. See http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/12/on-the-future-of-dogecoin-bitcoin-and-other-cryptocurrencies-of-the-non-realm.html http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/12/on-... for some references, though.
  - dllthomas 13y ago
    Not much more than different currencies or different goods devalue others as stores of value in general.
    - jkarni 13y ago
      I think you're wrong, but am willing to be told otherwise. Here's why: one currency is not (generally) legal tender outside its country of origin, so there's an exchange rate determined roughly by the trade balance between countries etc. If all currencies were legal tender everywhere (a much more analogous) situation, the exchange rate would not be determined by the same factors, since the currency would in no way be pegged to the nation. Then the question becomes: what does in fact determine the exchange rates? I.e., would one currency be "infinitely valuable" compared to all others? Which one? The first? Or would all of the stabilize at the point where 1 of A is always worth 1 of B, because that's easiest to work with?
      - dllthomas 13y ago
        I'm not sure legal tender matters much. It's all about what people generally expect other people generally to give them for the currency when they decide they want to convert it into something else. See, for instance, the Somalian Shilling retaining its value despite a period that basically lacked a government (http://www.economist.com/node/21551492 http://www.economist.com/node/21551492) or the fact that the dollar is happily accepted in very many countries. What does screw with things is currency controls, but that's not really substantively different than any other market manipulation.
- jaibot 13y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(payment_protocol) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(payment_protocol)
herge 13y ago
I don't accept your fiat of making BitCoin the one true coin.
- dijit 13y ago
  there's room for more than 1, litecoin, bitcoin. don't just make copies of what's available, it drives down price and stops adoption of it as a trading standard.

Xdes 13y ago

I could see SolarCoin working if there was some kind of specialized hardware that monitored the amount of electricity flow, but I can't think of a way to verify that it is hooked up to a solar panel versus plugged into a wall.

dllthomas 13y ago
I could see people hacking that specialized hardware...

ctg 13y ago

But SolarCoint is not a bitcoin -- it is just a cryptocurrency.