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by solotronics 2142 days ago
BTC is fully accountable while it's issuance is not in the hands of any certain group. Therefore it has a permanently predictable rate of inflation that is much lower than fiat currencies at the moment.

Nobody has to trust anyone, that's the whole point of bitcoin.
2 comments
xondono 2142 days ago
it has a permanently predictable rate of inflation

It’s volatility would suggest otherwise. As many others have commented here an in other places, the fact that supply is predictable is not enough, demand is a factor too.

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solotronics 2142 days ago
Inflation rate means the rate of issuance of new coin. Its price is related to whatever free market forces decide the price of anything scarce such as gold, silver, fiat currency, etc.
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hyko 2142 days ago
In economics the word inflation refers to the rate of change in the buying power of a currency.

What you’re talking about is the money supply (I guess the Bitcoin equivalent of M2) which in Bitcoin is for some reason increased at a hard coded (decreasing) rate.

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hyko 2142 days ago
Except you have to trust lots of people for Bitcoin to work, from DNS record holders to developers to intermediaries and beyond. The whole system is dripping with trust, so why not just use standard currencies?
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martinko 2142 days ago
False, you do not have to trust anyone. You decide what code you run, not developers. As far as DNS goes, you should study the bitcoin consensus protocol in more detail.
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hyko 2142 days ago
https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/2027/how-does-th...

Do you trust whoever happens to own xf2.org more than you trust a central bank? Do you trust the domain name registrar more than you trust a central bank? Why?

You decide what code you run, not developers well, sure you can run whatever code you like on your machine...the Bitcoin devs get to decide whether your software counts as a Bitcoin client or not. They are in a position of power and you must trust them.

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xur17 2142 days ago
You should read more about how the Bitcoin consensus protocol works.
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hyko 2142 days ago
The consensus protocol doesn’t help in removing either of these trust requirements?

If I own the mechanism of root node discovery, I can mount an effective Sybil attack against a new network participant.

The history of Bitcoin is full of hard and soft forks and changes to the rules. That’s why your original Bitcoin client wouldn’t even let you join the Bitcoin network now. The people in control of the network are in a position of immense power with minimal oversight. So on what basis should I trust them with my life savings? What recourse do I have if they ruin my life?

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xur17 2142 days ago
> That’s why your original Bitcoin client wouldn’t even let you join the Bitcoin network now.

You can run whatever client you want.

> If I own the mechanism of root node discovery, I can mount an effective Sybil attack against a new network participant.

But you wouldn't be able to replicate a chain of blocks with the same order of magnitude of work behind them. And then, even if you could, all you'd be able to do is change history, with the depth of that history dependent upon how much mining power you had available. You wouldn't be able to spend other people's money or give yourself more.

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