Wow thats impressively pointless. Creative destruction or just confusion. Reminds me of a 'real world' event from many years ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Quidall that matters is that an individual miner finds the task expensive
How about utility, a transaction that aids comparative advantage is a good idea but work for the sake of it is what I originally thought btc did and why I thought it was junk
This has the nice consequence that, if people throughout the broader economy are gradually deserting oldcoin (as newcoin catches on), its value need not collapse! Instead, oldcoin gets burnt in the transition process, neatly reducing its nominal supply in just such a way as to roughly keep pace with its declining real demand
Yep, so when K_Foundation set fire to a pile of bank notes. They didnt destroy value, they removed it from their own control. I believe value was distributed to various holders of sterling.
So when they destroy btc, I'd like to think the pointless act is merely redirecting value to the remainder holders and they'll have more sense, if anything I think it helps a coin to remove foolish actors in its ranks