Questions about the supply side of crypto-currencies including the rate and mechanisms by which coins are made available or unavailable in the economy and the affect of the money supply on the value and usefulness of currencies.
Questions tagged [money-supply]
101 questions
94
votes
15 answers
Does hoarding really hurt Bitcoin?
Some people believe that hoarding hurts the Bitcoin economy.
But are they really right?
As long as corresponding goods vendors and services will be here to stay and reinforce people's faith in Bitcoin, hoarded bitcoins simply do not take part in…
herzmeister
- 3,507
- 3
- 23
- 22
28
votes
3 answers
Will all 21 million units be completely mined one day?
It is written that the supply of Bitcoin units is limited to 21 million and that this limit will approximately have been reached around the year 2030.
But is there an actual "last Bitcoin" (or "last Satoshi" for that matter) that will have been…
herzmeister
- 3,507
- 3
- 23
- 22
19
votes
2 answers
Why is Bitcoin defined as having 8 decimal places?
At the protocol level bitcoins don't actually exists, but rather base units (recently called “satoshis”). Bitcoins are defined as 108 base units, meaning that for a 50 BTC mining reward, you are actually earning 5 000 000 000 units.
So, why was 108…
Arturo Torres Sánchez
- 772
- 1
- 5
- 16
18
votes
6 answers
Will forks and alternative block chains cause hyper-inflation of decentralized digital money?
Great effort has been put into Bitcoin's concept of money supply and that there will never be more than 21 million units.
However, it's relatively easy to fork it and create alternate block chains. SolidCoin, IXCoin, IOCoin etc are much less worth,…
herzmeister
- 3,507
- 3
- 23
- 22
15
votes
3 answers
What happens once mining speed gets close to zero?
According to Wikipedia
The number of Bitcoins created per block is never more than 50 BTC, and the awards are programmed to decrease over time towards zero, such that no more than 21 million will ever exist.
from which I naively conclude that as…
sharptooth
- 293
- 1
- 5
15
votes
3 answers
Could there be hyperinflation in Bitcoin?
Currently the creation of new coins is fixed at a certain rate which halves every few years and will at some point in the future drop to zero. As I understand it, this is by consensus, i.e. all the nodes in the network agree on this…
Manish
- 2,012
- 20
- 33
15
votes
1 answer
Why are the mining rewards set to reduce in such dramatic steps?
The mining rewards are scheduled to drop from 50btc to 25btc. The next drop again will be from 25 to 12.5btc. In each of the steps into a new "era" the mining reward is reduced by 50%.
This seems like a very dramatic pay cut at each juncture, Is…
Andrew Vit
- 545
- 2
- 8
14
votes
6 answers
What keeps a dominant Bitcoin client vendor with the majority of the market share from unilaterally changing the protocol?
I've been asking this in the comments, but I'll be more direct.
If a third-party Bitcoin client, say "iBitcoin" (for example), becomes the dominant client by acquiring most of the market share, what would keep the vendor from unilaterally changing…
Manish
- 2,012
- 20
- 33
12
votes
5 answers
How to overcome the 21M limit of Bitcoins as adoption increases?
Are there any ways to increase the Bitcoin maximum coin limit, as a wider adoption would mean there would be a lot of real money chasing fewer number of coins? Also can one hold a fraction of a coin?
Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
- 269
- 1
- 2
- 4
12
votes
3 answers
What happens when the 21 million cap is reached?
I've just recently gotten into bitcoin, but I'm a bit confused about this 21 million bitcoin cap. From what I've read, computers on the bitcoin network validate transactions, which confirms the transfer of bitcoins between addresses. As a reward,…
Timothy Deng
- 231
- 1
- 2
- 6
11
votes
1 answer
Does Ripple allow one to issue their own currency?
Does Ripple allow one to issue their own currency, similar to how ripples (XRP) were created at the system's inception?
ThePiachu
- 42,931
- 25
- 138
- 347
11
votes
2 answers
Exactly how does one calculate how many BTC they will get a certain hashrate?
I am curious on how many estimated BTC I will earn at any hash rate since, I don't really think I'm really earning any BTC at 600 Mhash/s.
user173
11
votes
6 answers
What is the rationale behind Bitcoin mining?
I don't understand the logic of "mining", if bitcoins are a digital currency, why do we need a GPU to "make 'em"?
Pascual
- 111
- 1
- 3
11
votes
3 answers
Is it possible for more than 21 million bitcoins to exist if 51% agree?
One of the commonly cited advantages of bitcoin is that there's guaranteed to be only 21 million bitcoins.
However, my understanding is that the bitcoin protocol is patched by an opensource community, is it possible that the bitcoin miners could…
user1068446
- 273
- 2
- 11
8
votes
3 answers
How does the mining process support the currency?
Why is mining Bitcoins necessary? Is it essentially a distribution mechanism to ensure Bitcoins are not held by a few (wealthy) individuals from the get-go who might just hoard Bitcoins rather than be encouraged to spend them?
Isn't the (growing)…
Natasha
- 81
- 1
- 2