how some countries peg their currency to the dollar
But that’s what I thought I was talking about… (well, actually, I have no idea what I’m talking about, but you’ve enlightened me on money issues before). What if someone comes along soon and creates another e-currency with some credible generation mechanism but without the hard cap that Bitcoin has and pegs it to Bitcoin at some appropriate time?
By definition, if there is no hard cap and people are generating, then a peg can’t be maintained to another currency with a hard cap—basic Pigeonhole Principle. Can’t uniquely match n+m items to just n slots. I’m not really seeing what you’re asking after.
Ah yes, I see. I didn’t think carefully about how a peg would actually be maintained.
Suppose the new currency does have a hard cap—suppose I copy the Bitcoin scheme and create Cyan-coin, of which there will eventually be 21 million. Even if I don’t personally maintain reserves of the two currencies to keep the exchange rate pegged, didn’t I just double the supply of e-money, thereby halving the purchasing power of an e-coin?
Only if people use it and make plans on it. You could make a trillion different Cyan-coin currencies, and if they never left your computer, would they affect anything at all? Of course not.
The purchasing power of a random bitcoin only halves if people run out and start using Cyan-coin in exactly the same quantities as Bitcoin. Otherwise, the actual purchasing power is much less, set by the exchange rate—obviously Cyan-coin is not equal to a Bitcoin in PPP if the exchange rate is 100:1.
I imagine that early uptake of a Bitcoin clone would be facilitated if people thought that the hard cap on Bitcoins proper would cause the scheme to have undesirable properties as a currency.
Although many will not see this, I want to compliment you expressly on these posts. You surely had a very eminent expectation and understanding of the community at the time and what could be expected. I think there is a general lack of the central issue that lead many to move to btc: distrust in the governments in general. I would love if you would perhaps do a retrospective on your memories and predilections of what you thought you knew, whether you did know it, what you weren’t aware of but suspected, and things you were wrong on.
I wouldn’t blame you for deleting all the posts either. I’m sitting here watching numbers go up and I remember 2011 when it became mainstream-ish, and frankly, I still agree with you and most of the posters here. I thought it was stupid and wouldn’t pan out. I was young then, too, so it’s not like I had money- and even worse, I didn’t know shit about computers at all.
But that’s what I thought I was talking about… (well, actually, I have no idea what I’m talking about, but you’ve enlightened me on money issues before). What if someone comes along soon and creates another e-currency with some credible generation mechanism but without the hard cap that Bitcoin has and pegs it to Bitcoin at some appropriate time?
By definition, if there is no hard cap and people are generating, then a peg can’t be maintained to another currency with a hard cap—basic Pigeonhole Principle. Can’t uniquely match n+m items to just n slots. I’m not really seeing what you’re asking after.
Ah yes, I see. I didn’t think carefully about how a peg would actually be maintained.
Suppose the new currency does have a hard cap—suppose I copy the Bitcoin scheme and create Cyan-coin, of which there will eventually be 21 million. Even if I don’t personally maintain reserves of the two currencies to keep the exchange rate pegged, didn’t I just double the supply of e-money, thereby halving the purchasing power of an e-coin?
Only if people use it and make plans on it. You could make a trillion different Cyan-coin currencies, and if they never left your computer, would they affect anything at all? Of course not.
The purchasing power of a random bitcoin only halves if people run out and start using Cyan-coin in exactly the same quantities as Bitcoin. Otherwise, the actual purchasing power is much less, set by the exchange rate—obviously Cyan-coin is not equal to a Bitcoin in PPP if the exchange rate is 100:1.
I imagine that early uptake of a Bitcoin clone would be facilitated if people thought that the hard cap on Bitcoins proper would cause the scheme to have undesirable properties as a currency.
Surely. But that’s not the case, as people think the presence of a hard cap is one of the valuable traits of Bitcoin.
Although many will not see this, I want to compliment you expressly on these posts. You surely had a very eminent expectation and understanding of the community at the time and what could be expected. I think there is a general lack of the central issue that lead many to move to btc: distrust in the governments in general. I would love if you would perhaps do a retrospective on your memories and predilections of what you thought you knew, whether you did know it, what you weren’t aware of but suspected, and things you were wrong on.
I wouldn’t blame you for deleting all the posts either. I’m sitting here watching numbers go up and I remember 2011 when it became mainstream-ish, and frankly, I still agree with you and most of the posters here. I thought it was stupid and wouldn’t pan out. I was young then, too, so it’s not like I had money- and even worse, I didn’t know shit about computers at all.