what would happen to bitcoin if...

[stsbrad]

What do you think would happen to bitcoin say a year from now if it was more widely adopted and being used as say a paypal alternative but bitcoins were at a fixed price? Lets just say $8.00/btc

thoughts?

[1715502969]

1715502969

[1715502969]

1715502969

[1715502969]

1715502969

[MelMan2002]

How would a code change fix the price??

[Richard Rahl]

How would a code change fix the price??

http://www.funbumperstickers.com/images/Mickey_Mouse_Fantasia.gif
Magic

[payb.tc]

price fixing doesn't work.

unless you punish people (jail time, death penalty?) for trading at a different price, there will always be market pressure to do so.

[johnj]

It's been a while since I coded anything, let me take a whack

Code:

10 Print HELLO
20 Print How much are Bitcoins?
30 Input 8-8
40 Print Bitcoins are $Input

It may need a few tweaks.


It's hard to answer your question though (as what would happen) because I'm not even sure -how- that would happen, which would alter things, on top of getting enough clients to switch over to the fiat-pinned version.

[stsbrad]

price fixing doesn't work.

unless you punish people (jail time, death penalty?) for trading at a different price, there will always be market pressure to do so.

ty

[stsbrad]

How would a code change fix the price??

Magic

I was speaking about exchanges etc. thanks for your useful post though

[rezin777]

Do you really want an exchange that is strong enough to fix a price to Bitcoins? Think about it for a while. How would it even be possible? What happens when another exchange allows Bitcoins to be traded for a different price? What happens when I decide to trade Bitcoins for a different price? I think the creator of Bitcoin was going for decentralization for a reason.

[rezin777]

It's funny. In one thread (several actually) we have a bunch of people that are extremely concerned over a possible trader having enough clout to manipulate the exchange rate in his favor and in another thread we have someone who wants someone or some group to have the power to lock the rate in at one price! 

[PatrickHarnett]

Many currencies were "fixed" in the past, and more recently more are floating.  Some still are fixed or controlled, and that's helps the forex world operate.

p.s. I liked the code snipet. Could have just been something like:
10 print "Bitcoins are eight dollars"
20 goto 10

[payb.tc]

Many currencies were "fixed" in the past, and more recently more are floating.  Some still are fixed or controlled, and that's helps the forex world operate.

give me an example of a fixed currency, and i'll give you an example of punishment metered out to those who would try to trade it at a different price.

[Richard Rahl]

How would a code change fix the price??

http://www.funbumperstickers.com/images/Mickey_Mouse_Fantasia.gif
Magic

I was speaking about exchanges etc. thanks for your useful post though

You're welcome.

Magic will work though, if you just believe!
Unfortunate for you, it's the only way for your idea to work.

[PatrickHarnett]

Many currencies were "fixed" in the past, and more recently more are floating.  Some still are fixed or controlled, and that's helps the forex world operate.

give me an example of a fixed currency, and i'll give you an example of punishment metered out to those who would try to trade it at a different price.

I was thinking about my local currency up until the mid 1980's, but China still had theirs controlled until 2005.  I'll try to find a nice/current example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fixed_exchange_rate  Hong Kong dollar isn't too obscure.  UAE might be a little less common.

[payb.tc]

Many currencies were "fixed" in the past, and more recently more are floating.  Some still are fixed or controlled, and that's helps the forex world operate.

give me an example of a fixed currency, and i'll give you an example of punishment metered out to those who would try to trade it at a different price.

I was thinking about my local currency up until the mid 1980's, but China still had theirs controlled until 2005.  I'll try to find a nice/current example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fixed_exchange_rate  Hong Kong dollar isn't too obscure.  UAE might be a little less common.

well, i read this today out of interest:

Typically, a government wanting to maintain a fixed exchange rate does so by either buying or selling its own currency on the open market. This is one reason governments maintain reserves of foreign currencies. If the exchange rate drifts too far below the desired rate, the government buys its own currency in the market using its reserves. This places greater demand on the market and pushes up the price of the currency. If the exchange rate drifts too far above the desired rate, the government sells its own currency, thus increasing its foreign reserves.

Another, less used means of maintaining a fixed exchange rate is by simply making it illegal to trade currency at any other rate. This is difficult to enforce and often leads to a black market in foreign currency. Nonetheless, some countries are highly successful at using this method due to government monopolies over all money conversion. This was the method employed by the Chinese government to maintain a currency peg or tightly banded float against the US dollar. Throughout the 1990s, China was highly successful at maintaining a currency peg using a government monopoly over all currency conversion between the yuan and other currencies.

i wouldn't call the first method 'fixed' because clearly it could float between $7.95 and $8.05 for example even if the government was trying to 'fix' it at $8 by buying and selling in the market.

in the second example, china made it totally illegal to trade at a different rate, and i for one wouldn't want to get caught doing anything illegal in china.

[stsbrad]

It's funny. In one thread (several actually) we have a bunch of people that are extremely concerned over a possible trader having enough clout to manipulate the exchange rate in his favor and in another thread we have someone who wants someone or some group to have the power to lock the rate in at one price! 

I never said I wanted it. I wanted to talk it out is all.

[stsbrad]

How would a code change fix the price??

http://www.funbumperstickers.com/images/Mickey_Mouse_Fantasia.gif
Magic

I was speaking about exchanges etc. thanks for your useful post though

You're welcome.

Magic will work though, if you just believe!
Unfortunate for you, it's the only way for your idea to work.

my idea? I just wanted to know what would happen if.

[stsbrad]

my main thoughts were would it survive and thrive? or die out because the speculation market is gone.

[cbeast]

It's hard to say what will become of bitcoin. It's kinda like Linux. If you ask average Joe what Linux does, they would have no idea that it runs the internet and even Wall Street. The reason that Linux isn't the most popular OS isn't that it's the best idea, but that ideas must be marketable for greedy people. Bitcoin can certainly not be marketed as a brand, for there is no profitability in doing so. But it may well market itself with the power of greed.

[payb.tc]

Bitcoin can certainly not be marketed as a brand, for there is no profitability in doing so.

but bitcoin.com can be, along with many other bitcoin-related brands that will surely turn a profit.

[rezin777]

my main thoughts were would it survive and thrive? or die out because the speculation market is gone.

Some of us are here to get away from the control that comes with fiat. I would go so far as to assume that some of the more hardcore Bitcoin proponents feel this way. If someone managed to control Bitcoin (which I see as unlikely at this point), many of those hardcore proponents would be gone the next day.