I like Satoshi's quote on this:
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Coins have to get initially distributed somehow, and a constant rate seems like the best formula.
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http://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography%40metzdowd.com/msg09979.htmlThe nonchalance, to me, indicates a nice trust in markets to do their job of optimizing allocation over time. But - if Bitcoin ever starts to become a serious global economic force, mainstream economists are going to flip out over the above quote, given the initial-distribution algo didn't go through some deep analysis, etc...
I think it's interesting how the engineering decision of making a simple/transparent (easy to implement, thus more secure) distribution algorithm trumped any potential detailed economic complexity, presumably due to Satoshi's understanding that the market would eventually allocate the capital optimally anyways, given the transparency of the current and future supply.
One of the nice things about having a 'benevolent dictator' is that it will be much easier to make decisions about these things going forward.
We already know that in the noble interest of getting a 'critical mass' in order to 'outrun regulation', it is critical to subsidize transaction costs. We also know with some reasonable certainty that one of the early attractions of Bitcoin was that people could 'make free money' with only a token effort. People like free shit. Always will.
In order to spread the wealth there are two choices.
- make more wealth and give it away (e.g., screw the obsolete 21 million cap thingy.)
- appropriate existing or lost money and hand it out.
Idea! We can be pretty sure that if/when XT takes over, coin tainting is not far behind. Why don't we use the otherwise wasted value to pass around to the masses. Maybe like a dividend to be distributed to all existing addresses. To be more fair and reduce gaming, however, it makes sense that people would need to appropriately register their true identities in order to receive the dividend though.