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Bitcoiners: I like to ask hard questions.

Generally, I see the tendency to complain about how the previous generation used the financial system to create debt and bring forward a wealth of assets at our expense today.

What keeps future generations from looking at the “HODLer” generation the same way? In 50 years when the mining fees have dropped significantly, the majority of redistribution would in theory would have to come from our generation and their heirs spending their wealth. Is this better for anyone but you and yours? What’s your best argument for a bitcoin with a hard cap over bitcoin with a fixed inflation rate - say at the current ~1.8% inflation paid to miners today?

halalmoney 2y ago

I like to think that the same foresight which the Hodler generation used to acquire Bitcoin at rock bottom prices will be used after Bitcoin appreciates ten-fold (or whatever the actual increase will be). E.g. if grandpa sees that his grandkids are just waiting for him to die so that they can take over his citadel, grandpa will allocate his capital to initiatives that combine putting one’s house in order and making the world a better place.

By contrast, people who got rich through real estate and the stock markets did so in a way which entrenched the broken incentives of the status quo. They have demonstrated foresight but offered negligible efforts to making things better for society at large.

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Discussion

armstrys 2y ago

Thanks for the response! To me that sounds like trusting those individuals to redistribute fairly. I guess it seems to me that a shift from redistribution via a provably fair method PoW to a method that relies on the good-will of early adopters could be a negative aspect. Of course there are major issues with suggesting a change to bitcoin that would make it unlikely to happen, just trying to understand the trade-offs here

halalmoney 2y ago

I’m not sure that “fair distribution” is either desirable, possible, or a marker of a well-functioning system. I’m more interested in the cultural shift which Bitcoin will, I hope, contribute to: rewarding those who stood by their principles, encouraging healthy scepticism, greater emphasis on privacy, critical thinking and understanding the impact of good and bad incentives.

⚡A C V⚡ 2y ago

What's fair about choosing miners, a specific industry, over the distributed self-interested of the Hodler generation?

Proof of Work is provably fair in spending energy to get the Bitcoin reward, but you're talking about the economy of the broad social community, not of the specific and limited Bitcoin transactional layer. Those are two totally different worlds and Bitcoin has no business being concerned or nvolved in the other layers.

TCP/IP does not concern itself with Twitter vs TikTok - It's neutral to all applications built upon it's base layer.

armstrys 2y ago

Good point. I probably shouldn’t have said probably fair.

I guess my question ultimately comes down to this: if an open and permissionless mechanism (over trusted parties) was the better way to distribute in the early days then what makes it different in 100 years when the new generation had no say over the actions of their parents?