Bitflate - crypto with inflation

[dnprock]

I've written some articles about Libra, Facebook cryptocurrency. I think they highlight the need for a crypto like Bitflate. Check out the discussions below.

Market is Not Ready for Libra
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5196266.0

Building Stablecoin: Bitflate vs. Libra
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5194840

Join our discord community: https://discord.gg/utnEyp8

[notblox1]

What is the difference when Bitflate is compared to Bitcoin, if we exclude inflation,
is specifications and everything else the same as for Bitcoin (blocksize, etc...) or not?

[dnprock]

What is the difference when Bitflate is compared to Bitcoin, if we exclude inflation,
is specifications and everything else the same as for Bitcoin (blocksize, etc...) or not?

Bitcoin has 10 minute block time and 4 year subsidy halving. Besides inflation, Bitflate has 2.5 minute block time. It'll hit subsidy adjustment every 1 year for 7% inflation. Otherwise, it's similar. I also design block reward system tilted to early adopters. It'll give users more coins before inflation starts.

0: 50 (supply: 10 million)
1: 25 (supply: 15 million)
2: 12.5
3: 6.25 (end of halving)
4: 6.65 (start of inflation 7%)
5: 7.02
6: 7.51
7: 8.04
8: 8.60
9: 9.20
10: 9.85 (supply: 30 million)

We're at block 53k now. The first halving will happen at block 210k. I think this feature would give users incentive to hold the coins. It's similar to Bitcoin's limited supply incentive. But Bitflate is experimental. I'm trying to bootstrap a chain with inflation. This is my best design.

[dnprock]

Interesting idea. It is necessary to read information on the coin.
Do you have any ideas how to further promote the coin? Or are there interested investors?

Thanks for your interest. Bitflate dev here. Most of the information can be found on Bitflate website. https://bitflate.org/

You can find the coin description in this article.

https://bitflate.org/post/2019/04/14/bitflate-cryptocurrency-with-constant-inflation.html

You can read through the blog articles to find more information. I've collected a lot of feedback for Bitflate now. I'll put them into a whitepaper.

Bitflate is decentralized like Bitcoin. So there is really no central authority to pay and promote it. Bitflate holders should tell others about Bitflate. I myself do a lot of it. I am an investor in Bitflate. But I suggest people to do their own research before jumping in.

[dnprock]

Hi everyone,

I wrote a new article: Economic Incentives for Inflating Cryptocurrency

Repost here for followers of this topic.

Original Post: https://bitflate.org/post/2019/11/01/economic-incentives-for-inflating-cryptocurrency.html

Bitflate is a cryptocurrency with a constant inflation of 7% per year.

Skeptic: Your Bitflate coin supply inflates. It’ll devalue people’s bag of money. Nobody will want to hold it.
Me: Inflation creates more coins. More people will adopt it. That’s how it will retain value.
Skeptic: That’s a ridiculous idea. It won’t work.
Me: Yeah, it is kinda weird. But it may work.

Everyone got into crypto because they don’t like fiat inflation. Bitcoin is the pioneer. It has limited supply, really limited, eventually zero supply. This is more limited than gold which has about 1% inflation. Inflation has become a touchy subject in crypto. Most people reject it.

I think this rejection of inflation hinders crypto adoption. This is the reason why I decided to create Bitflate, a cryptocurrency with 7% per year inflation. Crypto enthusiasts question me about the incentives for people to adopt Bitflate. I thought a lot about these. Candidates are the technology, the marketing, the community, the belief, the hope, the opposite of Austrian economics, the solution to cryptocurrency adoption. But I think none of these are the incentives. Inflation is about economics. The answers are economic.

For Bitflate cryptocurrency, I see two incentives: Bitflate Reward System and Bitflate Adoption Rate.

Bitflate Reward System

Although Bitflate chain has inflation, I design a reward system to give more coins to early adopters. The idea is to encourage people to hold on to their coins and create some restriction of supply. I think this create incentives to hold Bitflate coins early on. This way people with coins don’t dump them. The reward system is as follows:

0: 50 (supply: 10 million)
1: 25 (supply: 15 million)
2: 12.5
3: 6.25 (end of halving)
4: 6.56 (start of inflation 7%)
5: 7.02
6: 7.51
7: 8.04
8: 8.60
9: 9.20
10: 9.85 (supply: 31 million)

For the first 3 halvings, Biflate follows the same reward schedule as Bitcoin. But it will switch to inflation after 4 halvings. I think the reward schedule create incentives to hold Bitflate coins early on before Bitflate reaches critical mass. Even with inflation, it will take 10 years for supply to reach 31 million coins.

Bitflate Adoption Rate

After the chain passes its 4th halving, reward will start to increase. There is no supply restriction. Bitflate survival is dependent on adoption rate. There are now 3 possible scenarios:

- If adoption rate is around 7%, the coin will retain its value.
- If adoption rate is greater than 7%, the coin may gain more value.
- If adoption rate is less than 7%, the coin will decline and die.

Long-term Transaction Coin

If Bitflate manages to survive for many years, its adoption will eventually plateau. This is inevitable. At that point, I’m not sure what will happen. People don’t have incentive to hold it. Does it implode and collapse? I think we may be able to develop interest banking to prevent value loss. Because it is digital, it could be easier to manage than inflationary fiat currencies. It may become a transaction coin. Businesses may accept it.

Bitflate is experimental

Despite the two incentives, Bitflate can fail. If Bitflate fails to reach critical mass, it may implode. Price and hashrate will crash. Users may need more than just these two incentives. Historically, authorities force people to use whatever inflationary currencies they issue. On the other hand, people like deflationary assets like real estate, gold, Bitcoin. Bitflate is a new digital alternative. It is better than inflationary fiat. But it may not provide enough incentives.

[dnprock]

Hi everyone,

New article: Tether Problem Highlights the Need for Inflating Cryptocurrency

Original Post: https://bitflate.org/post/2019/11/05/tether-problem-highlight-the-need-for-inflating-cryptocurrency.html

Bitflate is a cryptocurrency with a constant inflation of 7% per year.

Tether stablecoin is in the news again. This time, Bloomberg reported that one Bitcoin whale may have fueled the price surge in 2017. Tether has pending investigations and lawsuits. Many bitcoiners continue to defend Tether. As a private company, Tether dodged authorities by relocating to geo friendly countries (Hong Kong and Taiwan). There is no way to fully audit Tether transaction record. Tether problem highlights the need for a decentralized and digital native transaction coin.

Permissionless is a key feature of cryptocurrency

It is hard to invent money that everybody on planet Earth agrees to use. Bitcoin is the first successful form of digital money. Permissionless is an important and necessary feature. Permissionless comes with tradeoff. We can’t control its price. Tether team may have good intention. But when they eliminate permissionless and try to control it, things inadvertently fall through the cracks. For example, how does Tether team reliably keep track and reserve fiat for each Tether coin? Tether team may have started with spreadsheets. Later, their software may contain a bug that inflates Tether coin over reserve. When Tether team operates the whole system, it’s really easy to make mistake. In this case, Tether team is wholly responsible. This problem will continue to exist in permissioned blockchain. When it comes to digital money, every participants need to share the responsibility.

Why should everybody trusts one company to create stablecoin?

When you need Tether coin, you go to Tether Limited. This creates a choke point. What if all cryptocurrency usage needs to go through Tether. Assume Tether team is ethical, how do we ensure that its software does not contain a bug. What kind of assurance does Tether Limited offer? The risk of using a centralized stablecoin is high.

Besides Tether, there are other stablecoins: USDC, Gemini dollar. But each coin runs on different software. We run into the same risk like Tether. Libra makes significant improvement. It works based on open source software and governed by an association of reputable members. But Libra is currently facing regulators’ scrutiny. The market is not ready for Libra.

The role of inflating cryptocurrency

How do we break this deadlock to move cryptocurrency forward? I think the space needs a new category: decentralized and digital native cryptocurrency with constant inflation. With inflating supply, people will not hold the coins for just price speculation. With balanced reward system and adoption rate, inflation can create more supply for new adopters. The blockchain is decentralized. The tradeoff is price would not be completely stable. But it is a good tradeoff for being permissionless. As more people become comfortable with using cryptocurrency, they would be more open to stablecoin alternatives like Libra. This is how we move cryptocurrency forward.

[dnprock]

Hi everyone,

My new post on crypto future. Cut through the noise and move forward!

Original Post: https://bitflate.org/post/2019/11/10/emerging-markets-of-cryptocurrencies.html

Ten years after Bitcoin whitepaper release, cryptocurrencies have advanced. But its progress is slow. All cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, are just niche speculative assets. We have Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Stellar, and many others. Why has a single crypto made into everyday transactions? We still can’t purchase coffee with cryptocurrency. The world of finance remains disconnected from crypto.

I believe the problem is the lack of experimentation with crypto monetary policy. Crypto builders have focused a lot of attention on the technology. Monetary policy changes are hacks to fix temporary issues. For example, Dogecoin and Grin have tail emission. This kind of supply increase is intended to keep miners around. It does little to change long-term supply and monetary policy. Eventually, tail emission will behave like zero new supply.

I have advocated for more experimentation with crypto monetary policy. Facebook recently introduced Libra. I think it is an interesting improvement. Forward to the future, I develop a framework to understand emerging markets of cryptocurrencies.



Between centralization and decentralization, we have a range of currencies. Each of them will behave differently. Centralization will enable control of currency supply and price. With decentralization, we rely on computers to handle crypto operation. We will not be able to control supply and price. In exchange, rules are fixed. People cannot manipulate rules for their advantage. The game is fair for everyone who understands its rules.

Store of Value & Digital Gold Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is the pioneer and leader in Store of Value (SoV). Limited supply feature makes Bitcoin a Store of Value. Bitcoiners understand the software and its rules. It is extremely difficult to change them. Other altcoins with limited supply will fall into this category. They are competing with Bitcoin for market share. For example, Litecoin positions as Digital Silver. Ethereum is Programmable Store of Value.

I see the following emerging markets of cryptocurrencies.

Centralized and Semi-Centralized Cryptocurrency

On centralization side, we will have improved centralized currencies and cryptocurrencies. Central banks will eventually integrate more technologies. They may record and publish their currency operation on a public digital ledger. Private companies have made strides in providing stablecoin connection between crypto and fiat. Tether is an example of stablecoin connecting crypto and fiat. Ripple and Stellar are trying to adapt crypto software for traditional financial system.

Libra departs away from centralization. Facebook introduced the Libra Association which includes reputable members. Libra software is open source. Libra governance can be more transparent than other centralized currencies.

Interesting development in this category will involve experimentation with software system and monetary policy.

Inflating Cryptocurrency

I think this will be an emerging type of cryptocurrency. Crypto market has overlooked inflation. Being dogmatic about limited supply creates a blind spot. Crypto builder historically dismissed inflation. I think this hinders crypto adoption. Inflation can stabilize price. It discourages HODL behavior. It makes the currency more suitable for transactions. Inflating cryptocurrency can be decentralized and governed by fixed rules. As people becomes more comfortable with using inflating cryptocurrency, they will understand the role of SoV like Bitcoin.

Bitflate is a cryptocurrency with a constant inflation of 7% per year.

[dnprock]

Hi everyone,

Mining update: Bitflate just passed 60k blocks and 3 million coins in circulation.

Block: 60k
Supply: 3 million

60k block here:
https://explorer.bitflate.org/block/00000000000005b50a37e94459ce8be093b8459e4cf26e8aed3baecc02a4549e

Reminder: Bitflate reward will halve from 50 to 25 at 210k blocks (10 million coins). It is designed to give more coins to early adopters. Still plenty of time to get coins before we reach 10 million coins.

0: 50 (10 million)
1: 25 (15 million)
2: 12.5
3: 6.25 (end of halving)
4: 6.56 (start of inflation 7%)
5: 7.02
6: 7.51
7: 8.04
8: 8.60
9: 9.20
10: 9.85 (30 million)

[dnprock]

Bitflate coin is added to CryptoCanary. Please add your review.

https://cryptocanary.app/review/Bitflate

I want to highlight a recent review.

"Anyone has the right to make his own tech project as long as they don't raise money with their coins with public sales and with misleading promises.

So far Bitflate doesn't seem to be raising money and they don't seem to make any promises either (and being transparent about the fact that the coin is not secure and not for business application in its experimental phase). Seems like there is only 1 dev on this project, which has only a little github activity so far. Basically it's just a bitcoin fork with some tweaks, the most prominent one being the perpetual inflation of ultimately 7% per year (which means that over time any future bitflate economy would have to grow at least 7% per year for the prices not to fall). It also means that the supply would double each 10 years; I am afraid this will be a bit too much over the long term tbh for this coin to hold any value.

I noticed the dev also posted a review, transparently and well identifying as such, so all well on that front.

The information is rather limited on a very minimal site, no more elaborate whitepaper to make the case for this coin either.

Interestingly enough the founder chose to use the old Dutch guilder logo/sign for his inflationary "stablecoin", however, although the old dutch guilder was indeed a stable currency, its monetary policy in the past was to be as low as possible with inflation. Just a side note.

No hard feelings against this project and I wish the founder/dev good a lot of fun on their project, but personally I would not ever put any money in it tbh, all probably well meant intentions of the team aside."

My reply:

"Bitflate developer here. Thanks for writing this review. You really dig into Bitflate. The information is accurate.

Bitflate is my research, personal project. I have been working on it since early 2019, almost a year now. I want to incorporate inflation in crypto. I see a lot of scam and hype in this space, including with Bitcoin BTC. I avoid making financial promise of Bitflate. I want people to come to their own conclusion about whether they want to hold the coin.

I personally think it has potential. This is why I create it. Here is my personal take about its price prospect (not investment advice). Even though the coin will inflate at 7%, it won't create very many coins. For example, it'll take 10 years to create 30 million coins and almost 30 years to create 100 million coins. I partly keep reward halving to give more coins to early adopters. Inflation of 7% is still limited supply. If it succeeds, demand will likely be greater than inflation of 7%.

Long-term, it is supposed to be a transaction coin. But that future is far away. In that future, I think we can reduce value loss through interest saving account. Its inflation is fixed. The operation cost is in mining and account service. Theoretically, we should be able to redistribute the new coins minus opex to existing holders. I think it's a fair tradeoff for a decentralized stablecoin. Bitflate is experimental. As always, please do your own research.

I learn something new about Dutch guilder. I'm a software engineer. I put together the logo using Google Draw. I use a lower case f to emphasize inflation. I did not know about Dutch guilder, just coincidence."

[dnprock]

Hi everyone,

Mining update: Bitflate just passed 70k blocks and 3.5 million coins in circulation.

Block: 70k
Supply: 3.5 million

70k block here:
https://explorer.bitflate.org/block/00000000000005fe0653cf7b41e38160dde2134c1c2fccd3a02a5cf6f9f1b9cf

Reminder: Bitflate reward will halve from 50 to 25 at 210k blocks (10 million coins). It is designed to give more coins to early adopters. Still plenty of time to get coins before we reach 10 million coins.

0: 50 (10 million)
1: 25 (15 million)
2: 12.5
3: 6.25 (end of halving)
4: 6.56 (start of inflation 7%)
5: 7.02
6: 7.51
7: 8.04
8: 8.60
9: 9.20
10: 9.85 (30 million)

[dnprock]

Mining update: Bitflate just passed 80k blocks and 4 million coins in circulation.

Block: 80k
Supply: 4 million
Difficulty: 5M

80k block here:
https://explorer.bitflate.org/block/00000000000007f7709693f82eb7ef89cb5a11b200aab7ddb3cb2432fed91d6a

Reminder: Bitflate reward will halve from 50 to 25 at 210k blocks (10 million coins). It is designed to give more coins to early adopters. Still plenty of time to get coins before we reach 10 million coins.

0: 50 (10 million)
1: 25 (15 million)
2: 12.5
3: 6.25 (end of halving)
4: 6.56 (start of inflation 7%)
5: 7.02
6: 7.51
7: 8.04
8: 8.60
9: 9.20
10: 9.85 (30 million)

[dnprock]

There's an opinion article on Bloomberg. It makes the case for adding inflation to cryptocurrency. Check out the Bitflate experiment. I think people will realize the usefulness of Bitflate.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-21/bitcoin-s-future-as-real-currency-like-dollar-relies-on-inflation

[dnprock]

I'm preparing a merge for Bitflate Core client 0.19. If anyone has C++ experience and interested in Bitflate, please help review the changes. In this patch, I fixed all of the failing tests.

https://github.com/bitflate/bitflate/pull/19/files

[iegservers]

Mining update: Bitflate just passed 80k blocks and 4 million coins in circulation.

Block: 80k
Supply: 4 million
Difficulty: 5M

80k block here:
https://explorer.bitflate.org/block/00000000000007f7709693f82eb7ef89cb5a11b200aab7ddb3cb2432fed91d6a

Reminder: Bitflate reward will halve from 50 to 25 at 210k blocks (10 million coins). It is designed to give more coins to early adopters. Still plenty of time to get coins before we reach 10 million coins.

0: 50 (10 million)
1: 25 (15 million)
2: 12.5
3: 6.25 (end of halving)
4: 6.56 (start of inflation 7%)
5: 7.02
6: 7.51
7: 8.04
8: 8.60
9: 9.20
10: 9.85 (30 million)

About to hit 90k blocks in less than 19 blocks!

[dnprock]

Thanks iegservers. We just passed 90k blocks!

This crypto and equity crash shows the need for a crypto for transactions. Existing blockchains with capped supply are very volatile. DAI stablecoin is failing under volatility. I believe that our best shot of making a digital native stablecoin is Bitflate.

Everything is crashing, Bitflate is marching forward.

Block: 90k
Supply: 4.5 million
Difficulty: 5M

90k block here:
https://explorer.bitflate.org/block/00000000000001b106a5ace1c4dc661fa8f0e775f591c4c54ab04898209fa76c

Reminder: Bitflate reward will halve from 50 to 25 at 210k blocks (10 million coins). It is designed to give more coins to early adopters. Still plenty of time to get coins before we reach 10 million coins.

0: 50 (10 million)
1: 25 (15 million)
2: 12.5
3: 6.25 (end of halving)
4: 6.56 (start of inflation 7%)
5: 7.02
6: 7.51
7: 8.04
8: 8.60
9: 9.20
10: 9.85 (30 million)

[CodeMason]

There's an opinion article on Bloomberg. It makes the case for adding inflation to cryptocurrency. Check out the Bitflate experiment. I think people will realize the usefulness of Bitflate.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-21/bitcoin-s-future-as-real-currency-like-dollar-relies-on-inflation

Thanks for sharing, the opinion of the article is really enlightening.

[dnprock]

I wrote a new article about DAI, a prominent Ethereum-backed decentralized stablecoin: https://bitflate.org/post/2020/03/14/the-problem-with-dai.html

I've told others that it's not viable to create a stablecoin on top of volatile assets. A viable approach for a digital native stablecoin is to add inflation. That's Bitflate. Since it is digital native crypto, we won't be able to control its short-term price. But over long-term, its price will remain stable. This is the tradeoff we have to make for decentralization.

[dnprock]

I wrote a new article: Bitcoin is a Store of Value

https://bitflate.org/post/2020/03/17/bitcoin-is-a-store-of-value.html

This is an article that pairs up with a previous article: Bitcoin Will Not Be a Medium of Exchange

https://bitflate.org/post/2019/11/24/bitcoin-will-not-be-a-medium-of-exchange.html

There's also a discussion in the Bitcoin section of this forum.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5233624.0

These articles explain the need for Bitflate, a crypto with constant inflation. We can use it as a Medium of Exchange.

[dnprock]

I've created a new release for Bitflate Core client v0.19.0.1. See release details here:

https://bitflate.org/post/2020/03/27/bitflate-binaries-v0.19.0.1.html

[dnprock]

Bitflate is recently listed on CoinDataFlow.com. They've got good data.

https://coindataflow.com/en/currency/bitflate