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Pavitra comments on General Bitcoin discussion thread (June 2011) - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: SilasBarta 10 June 2011 11:21PM

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Comment author: mutterc 11 June 2011 03:20:39PM *  0 points [-]

I do not understand why people are especially excited about bitcoin.

My understanding:

  • It's not under the control of any particular government, which excites people who view governments as evil mutants
  • It has a fixed upper quantity, which excites people who understand macroeconomics little enough that they think that's a good idea for a medium of exchange

Or in two words: techno-libertarian porn.

EDIT: It occurs to me the fixed upper quantity is necessary given de-centralized production.

It also occurs to me to wonder if there are any reasons to advocate Bitcoin other than those two - anyone want to help me update?

Comment author: Pavitra 13 June 2011 12:23:17AM 0 points [-]

I'm not sure that the fixed quantity is necessary. The generation rate hasn't started leveling off yet, and the bitcoin economy seems to be okay. I've thought before that it might have been better to schedule long-term linear growth, just keeping the block bounty at fifty forever.

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