Post
Topic
Board Altcoin Discussion
Re: New idea for a crypto-currency. Please tell me if it would work.
by
Relnarien
on 31/07/2014, 01:42:12 UTC
I am new to crypto-currencies but want to share an idea with you. Would it be possible to create a cryto-currency with an inbuilt income for everyone who uses it? That way no matter what people will always have enough for the bare necessities of life.  People will still be able to increase their 'income' (for lack of a better word) but they've got the inbuilt income to fall back on.

It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure it would work the way that you expect it to. People can easily abuse an unregulated system like that by using fraudulent means to "multiply" their "income." But if you regulate it, then it will become centralized even if that isn't your intent. Who would define what the "bare necessities of life" are? Someone who is about to become homeless would surely insist on being given rent money for free for the sake of "fairness." And why would the currency have any value if everyone can get them without having to do anything or invest anything exhaustible? People would just end up passing inflated money around while goods continue to be consumed without replacement. It would look like a perverted form of neo-communism designed for the digital age.

Just a few more things to add. You said this currency would not have value but how would it be any less valuable than bitcoin? I mean bitcoin isn't backed by anything apart from trust. And each user would receive a fixed income. It would be just enough for them to get by. And, If, for argument's sake, a person was about to become homeless and needed enough money to pay their rent then if their fixed income didn't cover it then they would have to find somewhere within their budget I suppose. And you're right. It does seem like a perverted form of neo-communism which wasn't my intention. Perhaps someone can improve on this idea or think of some sort of variation.

Hashing is necessary to generate more Bitcoins though. That is a costly and time-intensive process. The entities who are currently generating the largest amount of Bitcoins have invested fiat into the network, which means that wealth is being transferred into the system. In the proposed system, coins are regularly generated as income for simply being part of the network. That makes it extremely inflationary and not sustainable in the long term. Some existing coins (not saying which) already generate coins for similar arbitrary reasons in a centralized manner and will someday lose all of its speculative value once massive inflation forces the entities pumping their prices to stop doing so.