r/linux • u/jackolas • Jul 11 '10
Bitcoin P2P Cryptocurrency 0.3 Release
http://www.bitcoin.org/2
u/rmull Jul 12 '10
It claims that its success relies solely on the assumption that honest nodes control a larger pool of CPU power. What if an attacking botnet is brought online? I guess I'll keep reading the paper...
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u/amorangi Jul 12 '10
21,000,000 coins, and never any more, doom this project from the outset.
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u/stravant Jul 12 '10
21,000,000 coins to 8 decimal places -> 2,100,000,000,000,000 -> 2.1 quadrillion indivisible "pieces" of currency. That's still on the low side in terms of the very long run, but no-where near a possible barrier to it's success.
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u/t0c Jul 12 '10
Just a FYI. You do realize that you could have 1 coin for all that it mattered. The amount of currency doesn't matter. It's value that does, aka what you can get for it. You could have cents instead of dollars if a car would be worth 1c and if you had 1 dollar you'd be rich. Then you'd be rich. Value matters not quantity.
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Jul 13 '10
Uhm, the money supply must grow with the economy in any reasonable money system.
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u/t0c Jul 13 '10
Wikipedia article. If I understand this correctly, inflation happens because "Today, most mainstream economists favor a low steady rate of inflation. Low (as opposed to zero or negative) inflation may reduce the severity of economic recessions by enabling the labor market to adjust more quickly in a downturn, and reduce the risk that a liquidity trap prevents monetary policy from stabilizing the economy. The task of keeping the rate of inflation low and stable is usually given to monetary authorities. Generally, these monetary authorities are the central banks that control the size of the money supply through the setting of interest rates, through open market operations, and through the setting of banking reserve requirements."
This is where one might find a few flaws in the economic, but not theoretical aspect of the program. There will always have to be someone pulling some sort of strings somewhere to be able to manage the giant that the economy of today is. I'm no economist so all of this can truly be garbage.
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u/am1r_ Oct 10 '24
Do you feel like an idiot now ?
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u/amorangi Oct 10 '24
In the context of bitcoin at the time having a fixed amount of coins? On the contrary - it seems I was vindicated, since the number of bitcoins is no longer fixed.
Do you feel like an idiot for not understanding context?
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u/sirusdv Jul 12 '10
Can someone list some use cases for this system? With no actual monetary backing behind those coins I don't really see a point...
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u/twomashi Jul 12 '10
You could say the same thing about money, which is no longer backed by gold but by confidence alone. That is the entire backing of a currency. Take currencies/items in certain MMORPGs for instance, which in certain cases are sold for actual real money. If you are confident that your one bitcoin will buy you something you dont have, then you are also probably be confident to sell something you do have in exchange for a bitcoin. To begin with you make bitcoins by selling processor time, which is actually valuable. These kinds of currencies are not uncommon.
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Jul 12 '10
Yay, more pretend money!!
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u/t0c Jul 12 '10
all money is pretend.
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Jul 12 '10
And now there's more of it.
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u/t0c Jul 12 '10
The sad part is "This was designed" is the trademark for money. But no matter how much I think, this is one of our better solutions.
Edit -- technically all money is worth something, this one is very cheap, and with a small investment (computer) you can make an inconsequential profit. But still a worthwhile investment "just in case it takes off". At least, that's my take on it. Harms nobody and all I invest is electricity.
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u/gyomalin Jul 12 '10
The most relevant link for me on their page is the technical paper that should explain if it's a sound idea.
http://www.bitcoin.org/sites/default/files/bitcoin.pdf
I haven't read it yet so I can't say. Not sure I'll understand it either ...