Bitcoin Forum

Economy => Economics => Topic started by: Ashpool on March 28, 2011, 06:49:39 PM



Title: Bitcoin destruction or reduction in liquidity?
Post by: Ashpool on March 28, 2011, 06:49:39 PM
Ok I'm new here.  I love the concept and have been turning it over in my head.

Can anyone help me with these figures and concepts.
I see on the bitcoin watch that there is about 150 thousand bc going through an hour?
Is there anyway I can track this over time? 

What happens with lost or deleted wallets.  This will be an ongoing issue, especially during this early phase of the market when the value of a bc has high volatility.  1 bitcoin lost now could represent huge value lost in the future.

Does anyone think these lost wallets will affect overall liquidity of the market.  Or will it just push the deflation rate higher?



Title: Re: Bitcoin destruction or reduction in liquidity?
Post by: Ashpool on March 28, 2011, 07:28:32 PM
Ok it seems like this topic is a regular here.  I think I am grasping the wider economic concepts for this..slowly.


Title: Re: Bitcoin destruction or reduction in liquidity?
Post by: asdf on March 28, 2011, 10:48:51 PM
Ok I'm new here.  I love the concept and have been turning it over in my head.

Can anyone help me with these figures and concepts.
I see on the bitcoin watch that there is about 150 thousand bc going through an hour?
Is there anyway I can track this over time? 

All transactions are encoded into the block chain. You could conceivable write a program which reads the chain and extracts this information. Such a program may already exist. Try digging though this web site:
http://bitcoincharts.com
Also, consider that this number does not accurately represent economic activity, as many of these transactions are from people "paying themselves" or moving money between wallets, getting payed out from a mining pool, etc. Not necessarily trading goods and services.

What happens with lost or deleted wallets.  This will be an ongoing issue, especially during this early phase of the market when the value of a bc has high volatility.  1 bitcoin lost now could represent huge value lost in the future.

Does anyone think these lost wallets will affect overall liquidity of the market.  Or will it just push the deflation rate higher?

Lost bitcoins are lost forever. Since bitcoin is infinitely divisible, this is not a problem for the currency. Lost bitcoins just increase the value of the existing bitcoins; monetary deflation. Backup your wallet!

I don't see how lost bitcoins would affect the liquidity.