Bitcoin halving to be canceled?

[deisik]

Honestly if your scenario would to happen, I bet everything that Bitcoin would be done right away. It would be history and forgotten and some other altcoin would come and replace it.

Let's assume for a moment that Bitcoin halving has been canceled. And what does it change? Nothing, everything remains as it is now. I hope most understand that Bitcoin exists only as long as there are miners supporting it, and they certainly deserve their reward. Yes, some will be angry, especially those who expected that halving would spur the prices up (so that they would finally break even), and they are likely to sell their stash with a loss...

That will be a good day to buy hard

[zero01]

of course it will not happen
bitcoin has been recognized in several countries and i hope will be better again

[willope]

No Way man.
In one minute the price would fall to zero.

[johnyj]

You can tune the parameters a little bit to make the reward having more gradual: Like reduce the reward to 84% every year instead of 50% every 4 years, but overall the reward halving is equal to a 16% increase in difficulty per year, very mild effect comparing with difficulty jump we have seen during last year, so it should not make too much impact for the miners

However, considering that even changing the block size is super difficult, I don't think there will ever be a slightest chance of changing the reward having schedule

Miners are only a small part of the community, even if 70% of miners are not following the major consensus and successfully fork their chain, the coins on that chain will not be accepted by exchanges and merchants, basically becomes useless. And the majority of the communities will dump their pre-fork coins on that useless chain to drain the new coin's value on exchanges if there is any

[silverleafy]

Can not cancel something that is build into the design.

What is made by one human can be unmade by another human (and most certainly will be). Personally, I wouldn't count on this...

Laws carved in stone are rewritten in blood

Man, that is the lamest thing I've heard. They don't have the power you think they do. Just by virtue of having been made by a person does not mean that it will be remade, changed or destroyed by another. Sure, the government of North Korea could repeal the US constitution and impose whatever new Kim is the dictator at the time... but I'm quite right in living my life assuming that's never going to happen. Bitcoin is a system where the halving is very, very unlikely to be delayed or cancelled by the miners or pools. If they do, it is a failed experiment, like DOGEcoin, and would have to be left to slowly die as something better takes its place.

[Miss Fortune]

There was much hype about the Fed raising interest rates in 2015, but we are still there, at the lowest possible level (wtf, it is even no longer the lowest possible limit). Bitcoin halving in July, 2016, is talked about as much, but will it really happen?

I ain't sure

Im sure this is just one of the nonsense rumors that idiots spread out, anyway cant if ever this might be true nothing will really change and world goes on everything's the same. But they cant just cancel something that is already established.

[johnyj]

Bitcoin's soul is consensus. Notice that the property of "fixed total amount of coins" can be selected by each participants by simply using the fork that have this property, unlike in legacy financial system you don't have any choice but passively accept whatever monetary policy central banks make

[sorryforthat]

Can not cancel something that is build into the design.

What is made by one human can be unmade by another human (and most certainly will be). Personally, I wouldn't count on this...

Laws carved in stone are rewritten in blood

The miners can just modify the reward as they feel fit.
Unfortunately, for them, the blocks with a different reward will be considered invalid and rejected by the full nodes.
They can mine as much as they are able, but the rules on the other full nodes will not change and their blocks will be discarded.
For example, the exchanges will not accept the bitcoin mined by invalid blocks. The shops will not accept them.

Now, the Core developers could change the rules in a new version of the Core, but I would not count on the users to download and upgrade their nodes with the new code when they discover what is in it.

Necessity is the mother of invention

If Bitcoin halving will negatively affect its infrastructure, up to a point of an escalating failure (e.g. due to miners leaving), this may be the only option, that is, to change the protocol and cancel the halving...

You dont seem to really understand that if you change what has been planned for years then you lose faith and trust from users. Big government can print money at a whim and does so daily with absolutely no backing, and by allowing Bitcoin to do the same, it then becomes what it was set out to go against.

[NoRespect]

why they had to cancel the current bitcoin bitcoin was well known as it is today  ?

[deisik]

You can tune the parameters a little bit to make the reward having more gradual: Like reduce the reward to 84% every year instead of 50% every 4 years, but overall the reward halving is equal to a 16% increase in difficulty per year, very mild effect comparing with difficulty jump we have seen during last year, so it should not make too much impact for the miners

This looks more reasonable and sound. But if you follow this idea to its conclusion, you will agree that it would be better to cancel the reward halving altogether. Why all the fuss and to what end?

[deisik]

To everyone concerned

Guys you seem to be missing the whole point I was trying to make. Please answer the following questions:

1) What is the purpose of Bitcoin halving
2) Does it contribute to the Bitcoin infrastructure and Bitcoin overall robustness in any positive way
3) Who profits most by this
4) If there were no such thing from the beginning, would it change anything in the long run (for the worse)

[MasterYii]

There was much hype about the Fed raising interest rates in 2015, but we are still there, at the lowest possible level (wtf, it is even no longer the lowest possible limit). Bitcoin halving in July, 2016, is talked about as much, but will it really happen?

I ain't sure

Why have to do that? I think it is doing really fine and well and there is no reason to cancel it, a lot of people believe in it and put there hopes for it so I don't think having it canceled is a good idea.

[Amph]

the halving is needed because there is an hard cap of 21M, otherwise the whole supply would be dried much quickly, if we still were at 50 per block, it would have ended already with a miserable price of 230 per coin

the point is to give enough time for the distribution and to let a possible of value increase in the future, miners can't do shit about the halving, they are not the only one that matter, if they change something fundamental like this no one will bother with bitcoin anymore

it's like asking for the death of it, which will result in a more huge loss for them, they will simply hope like everyone else that the price will increase or some of them will leave the scene

[johnyj]

To everyone concerned

Guys you seem to be missing the whole point I was trying to make. Please answer the following questions:

1) What is the purpose of Bitcoin halving
2) Does it contribute to the Bitcoin infrastructure and Bitcoin overall robustness in any positive way
3) Who profits most by this
4) If there were no such thing from the beginning, would it change anything in the long run (for the worse)

1) To have a limited total money supply, and by doing so, to be on the opposite side of today's monetary system, where central banks rob the wealth of the currency user by printing more money. This is clearly indicated in the genesis block

2) The system will provide maximum protection for its users' wealth, thus get maximum support from its users and increase its robustness for the whole ecosystem

3) Currency users are benefited most

4) Bitcoin from the beginning can have many other reward halving schemes, or a constant supply,  or even constant inflation rate like Milton Friedman suggested. But without forced circulation like fiat money, it is very likely no one will care about it if it does not have a clear benefit of limited total money supply

The whole point of bitcoin is to provide a totally different monetary policy than legacy system and see if it is more successful, and so far it is.

Imagine that from the beginning bitcoin have constant supply 50 coins per block forever, then very likely another coin with reward halving will become more popular among users (due to stronger long term appreciation potential), attracting more capitals and eventually overtake bitcoin. Because the cryptocurrency are voluntarily used, if you don't have a good long term incentive mechanism for its users, no one will care

[Ibian]

why are we entertaining this foolishness

[deisik]

To everyone concerned

Guys you seem to be missing the whole point I was trying to make. Please answer the following questions:

1) What is the purpose of Bitcoin halving
2) Does it contribute to the Bitcoin infrastructure and Bitcoin overall robustness in any positive way
3) Who profits most by this
4) If there were no such thing from the beginning, would it change anything in the long run (for the worse)

1) To have a limited total money supply, and by doing so, to be on the opposite side of today's monetary system, where central banks rob the wealth of the currency user by printing more money. This is clearly indicated in the genesis block

The halving doesn't contribute to this in any viable way. You could just set the block reward lower from the start, and be done with that

2) The system will provide maximum protection for its users' wealth, thus get maximum support from its users and increase its robustness for the whole ecosystem

This still remains to be seen, since the last (and the first ever) halving had been in 2012, before Bitcoin started to get real momentum

3) Currency users are benefited most

I would narrow the beneficiaries to just holders and savers. Now we see that they are not the ones that could and would change the Bitcoin story. Enterprise would, but they are not interested in an ever appreciating currency and limited money supply. Kinda seems they are not very interested in cryptocurrencies at all

4) Bitcoin from the beginning can have many other reward halving schemes, or a constant supply,  or even constant inflation rate like Milton Friedman suggested. But without forced circulation like fiat money, it is very likely no one will care about it if it does not have a clear benefit of limited total money supply

Then again, the halving scarcely contributes to this in any sensible way. I could even say it is the most risky and strange way of doing just this

Imagine that from the beginning bitcoin have constant supply 50 coins per block forever, then very likely another coin with reward halving will become more popular among users (due to stronger long term appreciation potential), attracting more capitals and eventually overtake bitcoin. Because the cryptocurrency are voluntarily used, if you don't have a good long term incentive mechanism for its users, no one will care

This is a weak argument since it can be countered by stating that you can always create another coin with a reward halving of every 6 months, for example

[deisik]

So the point of reward halving (among other things) was to attract users to this then entirely new technology. I take it, and it might have served well to this end, but I'm still suspicious that nowadays it wouldn't make more harm than good...

[onemorexmr]

wont happen.
every miner, every user and every shop would need to upgrade

if only two people run their old client bitcoin will continue to exist as planned. its called "social contract".

and i know for sure there are more than two people who want to have the halving. so bitcoin will continue as is

[deisik]

wont happen.
every miner, every user and every shop would need to upgrade

if only two people run their old client bitcoin will continue to exist as planned. its called "social contract".

and i know for sure there are more than two people who want to have the halving. so bitcoin will continue as is

Okay, it seems that I have to clarify my point. I don't say that Bitcoin halving should or will be canceled for no reason at all. Everything that I say here revolves around trade-offs. That is, I assume that the coming halving could potentially wreak havoc on the Bitcoin infrastructure. It may appear as not a big deal (in this aspect), but it may be the last straw to break the camel's back, as it were...

I call it an escalating failure

[onemorexmr]

wont happen.
every miner, every user and every shop would need to upgrade

if only two people run their old client bitcoin will continue to exist as planned. its called "social contract".

and i know for sure there are more than two people who want to have the halving. so bitcoin will continue as is

Okay, it seems that I have to clarify my point. I don't say that Bitcoin halving should or will be canceled for no reason at all. Everything that I say here revolves about trade-offs. That is, I assume that the coming halving could potentially wreak havoc on the Bitcoin infrastructure. It may appear as not a big deal (in this aspect), but it may be the last straw to break the camel's back, as it were...

I call it an escalating failure

well it may fail (bitcoin is still an experiment), but that doesnt change the fact that, what we call bitcoin today, will have its halving

(i highly doubt that it will fail though)