[paulmd]

I've always found it hilarious that block rewards are the literal definition of Keynesian stimulus - "burying money in bottles in the desert and paying people to dig it up". Early-stage cryptocurrencies are effectively economies where near-100% of employment rests on government employment.

People just think it's totally different, because this time they are the government. And because cryptocurrency is so steeped in libertarian ideology, they are unable to acknowledge any of the lessons of traditional economics, and are thus doomed to repeat its mistakes (eg: deflationary/hyperdeflationary currencies).

As a form of Keynesian stimulus, it's totally possible for block rewards to represent a net positive gain of economic activity as they "prime the pump". Gold mining is probably quite mechanized nowadays, so I wouldn't really care to guess which is more efficient at translating stimulus into economic activity, though.