How to reduce circulating supply of a crypto currency ?

[pearsed]

Hi All

I was looking for some advice on ways to reduce the circulating supply of a coin if you were the creator of it, would you have to have full blockchain code access and how can it be done?

Say you had 150,000,000 coins in circulation and gradually wanted to buy back and reduce circulation what woudl be the best way to do this?

I take it just buying and holding them woudl not reduce circulating supply?

Advice and feedback appreciated.

[DooMAD]

Hi All

I was looking for some advice on ways to reduce the circulating supply of a coin if you were the creator of it, would you have to have full blockchain code access and how can it be done?

Say you had 150,000,000 coins in circulation and gradually wanted to buy back and reduce circulation what woudl be the best way to do this?

I take it just buying and holding them woudl not reduce circulating supply?

Advice and feedback appreciated.

Being the creator of a currency doesn't generally give you power to alter that once you've released your code into the wild and others have started using it.  

One way to reduce the circulating supply is to make the coins unspendable.  In Bitcoin, this is generally done using burn addresses or sending coins back to the genesis block, although other coins may be different (altcoins, for example, may have spendable genesis blocks).  But, you would have to own (and willingly surrender) all the coins you wish to remove from circulation with this method.

Other methods would likely require a consensus change on the chain in question.  Whether it's to alter the mining reward so that the total supply is reduced, or whatever else may affect the release schedule of newly created coins in that particular currency.  But everyone else on that network will have to agree with the change, or you'll just fork that altcoin into a new one with a different capitalisation.  The original would still remain with the old cap.


//EDIT:  Only the 50 BTC Block Reward in the genesis block is unspendable, coins sent back to the genesis block from any other address may well be spendable, assuming the private key isn't lost (which it might be, but there's no point in risking it).  Just go with burn addresses if you decide on that first option.

[TommyZ]

If coin is already released and live and you don't have built-in functionality of "burning" coins all you can do is update to the client and include that burn function. Hopefully nodes that run your coin will update their software and you'll be able to do what you want.

[pearsed]

I am in the process of launching a project with a crypto currency, posisbly an erc20 token to start with then progressing on to our own alt coin.
Part of the plan is to reduce the circulating supply over 3 years, the info you have given me will help in planning the project. Thanks Folks.

[A Feeder]

First of all if you have yourself your own alt coin, it is advisable to keep minimum the coins you produce to regulate effectively your circulating supply.

[TommyZ]

I am in the process of launching a project with a crypto currency, posisbly an erc20 token to start with then progressing on to our own alt coin.
Part of the plan is to reduce the circulating supply over 3 years, the info you have given me will help in planning the project. Thanks Folks.

If it's ERC20 token that you didn't release yet, this issue i trivial. Simply implement a function in your token that will subtract given amount of token of the caller. You can actually use zeppelin-solidity contract for this - BurnableToken. Just inherit from it and you are done.

Another case is that you can automate burning of your token but that's another story.

[desmodiAN]

discourage keeping coins for a shorttime.
encourage not moving coins. (interest on froozen coins)
bind coins to something else that is uneasy to shift...
forbid trading on exchanges...

[pearsed]

Thanks for all the feedback folks I will pass this info to our blockchain developer guys.

I suppose I should probably start an official post about our concept soon, at the minute I am doing private crowd funding with 10% referral bonus and was thinking of not posting officially about it on here until then.

The initial idea is to cap at 150,000,000 tokens and then spend 5 years taking as many out of circulation as possible, while increasing volume and usage. I think an erc20 token sounds like the best bet initially and possibly allow people to convert to alt if we build our own later.

We wont just be selling coins we will also be selling shares in the company so it will be a little different to what people are used to in ICO's

[richlipkin]

If coin is already released and live and you don't have built-in functionality of "burning" coins all you can do is update to the client and include that burn function. Hopefully nodes that run your coin will update their software and you'll be able to do what you want.

It's possible to simply send coins to an unrecoverable address, one that nobody has the public key to. With ethereum, the universal "burn address" is 0x0000... etc.

So no built-in "burn function" is really necessary. Just send them to an unrecoverable wallet.

Hope this helps.

[Kakmakr]

I am in the process of launching a project with a crypto currency, posisbly an erc20 token to start with then progressing on to our own alt coin.
Part of the plan is to reduce the circulating supply over 3 years, the info you have given me will help in planning the project. Thanks Folks.

Are you going to do this with a pre-mine and then burning the coins? A lot of people are not keen on Alt coins having a pre-mine, even if you promise to burn them. What would the strategy be for a gradual reduction on the coin supply? Why not just reduce the Coin cap at the start of the project?

I would not get too fancy with the tactics, rather start with a smaller coin cap and be done with it. ^smile^

[monkeydominicorobin]

Hi All

I was looking for some advice on ways to reduce the circulating supply of a coin if you were the creator of it, would you have to have full blockchain code access and how can it be done?

Say you had 150,000,000 coins in circulation and gradually wanted to buy back and reduce circulation what woudl be the best way to do this?

I take it just buying and holding them woudl not reduce circulating supply?

Advice and feedback appreciated.

Years ago someone sent thousands worth of bitcoin to an address with a non-existent private key. This is an effective way of reducing the supply without even tinkering with the code.

[razzbee]

Sending the coins to non existent address , burning the coins or sending the coins to an address without a private key.. these are the possible ways

[TommyZ]

If coin is already released and live and you don't have built-in functionality of "burning" coins all you can do is update to the client and include that burn function. Hopefully nodes that run your coin will update their software and you'll be able to do what you want.

It's possible to simply send coins to an unrecoverable address, one that nobody has the public key to. With ethereum, the universal "burn address" is 0x0000... etc.

So no built-in "burn function" is really necessary. Just send them to an unrecoverable wallet.

Hope this helps.

Since it's ERC20 token probably based on opensource code like zeppeling-solidity (as it should), it will not allow token transfer to 0x0 address. Transaction will fail.

Even if contract allows transfer to 0x0 address (it really shouldn't), it will not actually burn the token. Token would be unusable, yes, but total supply would not change. Burn function solves it all.
This is how it looks on etherscan while sending token to 0x0 address: https://ibb.co/jcJm7m

Thanks for all the feedback folks I will pass this info to our blockchain developer guys.

If you need to ask community about burning coins and give our feedback to blockchain developer, you may want to consider if you hired the right guys for the job.

[Jet Cash]

Circulating coins are coins being actively used. Buying them and holding them long term reduces the circulating supply. It is my belief that the rise in the price of Bitcoin is caused by some organisations and individuals taking coins out of circulation. Forexample, if Amazon accepted coins in payment for goods, but didn't pay them out or exchange them, they would have an increasing store of wealth, and scarcity may reduce the wider adoption of Bitcoin, this would make it easier for them to introduce their own coin.

[pearsed]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, i was thinking just put them beyond use.

Regards Pearse

[malikusama]

Hi All

I was looking for some advice on ways to reduce the circulating supply of a coin if you were the creator of it, would you have to have full blockchain code access and how can it be done?

Say you had 150,000,000 coins in circulation and gradually wanted to buy back and reduce circulation what woudl be the best way to do this?

I take it just buying and holding them woudl not reduce circulating supply?

Advice and feedback appreciated.

It is simply impossible to control either a decentralized or a centralized currency in this way as you are stating. If you are a creator it doesn't mean that you have a control over the coin that is circulating in the market. The supply and demand is responsible for the price of a currency but also a total deadlock in market (means no circulation of coin) can cause a huge downfall.

[rule144]

I've noticed lately it seems swaps are popular, i.e.; COLX 2:1 or even PIE > PIEX 4:1 ... thus halving or quartering your supply. Done via a fork.

[inashed]

What you want is called demurrage.

Freicoin have this, talk with them about this:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=89843.0