Another, perhaps more philosophical question. Should we really be using "mining operations" that require wasted energy? It just doesn't seem to make sense to make zillions upon zillions of calculations, just to be able to create a quasi-physical (here crypto) currency to put into circulation... Is there really no other alternatives or ideas how to go about this?
Don't want to steal the thread just referring to a new idea below: Bitcoin is the first real competitor to the banking system but there will be others. I am collecting support and you can join the group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/creditsystem/doc/580888151936183/Overview / Executive Summary / One sentence explanation
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The Credit system is the complete opposite of the Banking System where a single entity, the banks, create money. In the "credit system" proposed herein, whenever new money is created to the Credit Money Supply, all new money is equally distributed to all participants in the system, avoiding inflation, debt and money-monopoly. The initial money creation is assigned to every person that is born according to the current volume of money supply.
In the beginning of the system, everybody participating in the system, on a national or global level is assigned 1000 Credits. An initial exchange rate to the banking system is created at 1 Credit equals 15 EUR. Therefore everyone of us who is born, immediately is now assigned 15 000 Euros in Credit Money. ( NOTE, I AM NOT SURE IF THERE WILL BE CONVERSION TO FIAT MONEY, CONVERSIONS HERE ARE GIVEN FOR REFERENCE AND REPRESENTATION ONLY)
The actual conversion rate between credits and EUR/USD/GBP/etc. doesnt matter because it will be adjusted on marketing principles when trading houses are opened later in the process. In fact considering the current levels of bank money printing and the lessons from Bitcoin, it is safe to assume, that within 2 years of starting up the credit system, 1000 Credits can easily be worth 150 000 EUR since the starting of the System. And that is credit you get immediately. The system is therefore anti-debt and a democratic one.