Isn't it a bad thing to never have more than 21 million coins?

[SleeperUnit]

Although high deflation rates can lead to a deflationary spiral that would devastate any economy based upon that currency. As long as a currency's mean deflation rate is lower then the "real" rate of return for short-term deposits, it will not cause any significant problems.

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[Valalvax]

21,000,000*10^8 = 2,100,000,000,000,000

If all 6,970,000,000ish people on earth used BTC, that'd be enough for each person to have 301,291 BTC (because I figure after they shift the 0 they'll call the new placement BTC as well...)

that's assuming they don't make it possible to shift the zero further than 8 times

[Gabi]

that's assuming they don't make it possible to shift the zero further than 8 times

It's possible without problems

[Etlase2]

What if it's super popular and such? I know it can be divided, and a single Satoshi is 10^-8, but capping out make it seem more like real estate to me than currency.

If it's super popular, the people who were there before it got popular get rich.

[lord]

OR: it's becoming super popular, the people who were there before it got popular ARE rich right now

[cruikshank]

OR: it's becoming super popular, the people who were there before it got popular ARE rich right now

Unless they used Mybitcoin, in which case 

[hmongotaku]

bitcoins is in inflation right now, something akin to like 7,000 coins minted every day?.. It won't be bad until 10 years later when bitcoin is worth 2000 per us dollar. OR when this current currency fade out of popularity.

[P4man]

The price of bitcoin is not relevant to its usefulness as a way to conduct transactions. Even if bitcoins become nearly worthless with a trade value of $0.0001, it will still be an awesome way to transfer funds. You only have to type a few more zero's when you do a transaction. Volatility is a bigger problem if its value fluctuates too much on a short timescale it would make it less usable.

[hmongotaku]

yea I heard that guy did he spent 40,000? Bitcoins to buy an pizza! Seriously who is gonna do this when bitcoin is worth .0001 us dollar? seriously. I lol at that concept. I'm sure they will just move onto solidcoin 3.0 before that shitz happen, or namecoin 10.0 etc...

Picture the old Zimbabwe money or the german mark during the 1920s.




The reason why people are holding onto bitcoins right now is 5-10 years down the line when it's harder to generate more coins and thus a bigger demand for the coins compared to what it is now.

[P4man]

yea I heard that guy did he spent 40,000? Bitcoins to buy an pizza! Seriously who is gonna do this when bitcoin is worth .0001 us dollar? seriously. I lol at that concept.

Only a year ago, a pizza would have cost you about that many bitcoins. So what? Rather than using bitcoin, you'd typically use "KiloCoin" or whatever, and you pay for your pizza with 40KC. I dont see the problem with that as a trade instrument.

[Shawshank]

I definitively believe it is a really good thing to keep the Bitcoin supply limited to 21 million.

Fiduciary money such as dollars and euros are based on the trust you have on central bankers to keep inflation at bay. You can go back 100 years in History and see that fiduciary money has always been debased over time, whatever politicians have ever said. The US is flooding the country with oversupply of dollars which will definitely generate high levels of inflation in the long term.

On the other hand, the European Central Bank is trying to strictly control inflation, but this is causing instabilities in the most indebted countries, and the outcome is yet to be seen.

The 21 million threshold may make Bitcoin a currency or commodity nobody will like to borrow from, but it is in the cards that it well may be an excellent store of value and trading platform.

[doobadoo]

Right now, the majority of the network that allows BitCoin to run is supplied by miners, either solo, or in a pool.  So when the last coin is minted, all the miners go away.  So the majority of the network goes away. BitCoin will survive, but will be on life support.  It also leaves the network open to brute force attacks, such a chain takeovers at 51%, but that's a whole separate problem.

Mining is gone, so that leaves buying/trading, and transaction fees.  These two are linked, transactions fees are awarded when BitCoins are exchanged (bought/sold/etc.).  As it stands right now the majority of the polls out there keep the transaction fees for themselves, so the end user never even sees them.  But the fact is, transaction fees by themselves are not enough to pay to keep hardware running, either for a pool, or the end user.  So all the pools go away along with the few people still running BitCoin to keep the network going.  End of Bitcoin.

It's a bit more complex than this, but this is a general idea.

the code will be patched to tolerate a low inflation rate. 1% maybe 2%...whatever is needed to keep the hash rate of the network going.

[Giraffe.BTC]

I think the 21 million coin limit is a fatal flaw in Bitcoin, but luckily we won't reach it for a while.  So we still have a normal inflationary currency for now.

[paraipan]

I think the 21 million coin limit is a fatal flaw in Bitcoin, but luckily we won't reach it for a while.  So we still have a normal inflationary currency for now.

you trolling ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin#Monetary_differences

[hmongotaku]

I think the 21 million coin limit is a fatal flaw in Bitcoin, but luckily we won't reach it for a while.  So we still have a normal inflationary currency for now.

you trolling ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin#Monetary_differences

why so mad? Bitcoin is IN inflation right now... 7000+ coins minted a day that is lowering the value of the coins you have today.


Quote from your link:

Proposed failure scenarios for Bitcoin include a declining user base, the discovery of a flaw in the code,

Ok, so he found flaw, 21 million coins, lol.

[Mavyl]

i was wondering, how many bitcoin are left "unmined"?

[Explodicle]

i was wondering, how many bitcoin are left "unmined"?

Since about 7 million of 21 million have been mined, there are about 14 million left unmined.

[cruikshank]

Also remember that the 21 million is just the base money supply. The total money supply will grow due to banking/ investment schemes.

A good way to think of it is like this: I have 1 bitcoin, Joe has none. I lend my bitcoin to Joe, now I have 1 btc worth of investment, joe has 1 btc, so the total money supply is now 2 btc. You may say "but you don't have a real bitcoin!", but I can still trade that investment to Kim (so now Joe ows Kim 1 btc), since I can use it as trade it is still money.

That makes no sense what so ever. That would be like saying I could invest 21 million bitcoins in someone and create another 21 million bitcoins out of thin air because it was an investment that I traded for something else. The 21 million bitcoins is not the base money supply, it is the entire the money supply. Once the last bitcoin is mined, no others will be created.

[payb.tc]

The 21 million bitcoins is not the base money supply, it is the entire the money supply.

it is the entire bitcoin supply.

however other forms of money can easily include bitcoin IOUs or many other kinds of derivatives.

[SleeperUnit]

The 21 million bitcoins is not the base money supply, it is the entire the money supply.

it is the entire bitcoin supply.

however other forms of money can easily include bitcoin IOUs or many other kinds of derivatives.

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