What mechanisms exactly would appeal to enough people, so that they would trade the guaranteed-less-than-100%-ever-more inflation of bitcoin, for something which cannot markedly appreciate in value over time, due to new creation tied to increase in userbase?
That's what I've been pondering for longer than I care to mention. But I think I have an answer now.
Clearly there is no way to convince the crypto anarchist, libertarian, gold lover, "saver" of the fixed coin bitcoin model that a variable coin/fixed value coin is BETTER than bitcoin.
However, clearly, there is a need for a COMPLEMENTARY fixed value currency in addition bitcoin. What for? The other half of speculation. When bitcoin is going up, speculators want to own bitcoins. When bitcoin is crashing they want to own anything but bitcoins. However, all the stable alternatives are currently fiat "accounts" within currency exchanges. These are subject to all the non-anonymity, seizure, hacking, fraud risks that regular (cyprus style) bank accounts are subject too.
How might you make a value stable non-fiat currency? This is one potential way.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47628.0All the cool bits you love about bitcoin. None of the price instability.
The idea of 2 complementary currencies with a focused design is very interesting. One could be optimised as a pure transactional with a stable exchange, and the other as a deflationary store of value. And still have the benefits of a decentralised, near-anonymous and non seizable.
Let speculators speculate with bitcoins, and merchants deal with the other one. And let people choose a mix of both according to mood.