Post
Topic
Board Beginners & Help
Re: Can bitcoin become the currency of the people and replace money.
by
manman523
on 10/06/2012, 17:32:00 UTC
I dont think so, I think the limit on bitcoins is 21 million. We wold need much more then that for it to be a universal currency especially for governments and such.
This max supply of 21 million is an arbitrary number and says absolutely nothing.

It's the amount of units in which you can divide this supply, that counts!

Following the current specs, there would be a max supply of 2.1 quadrillion units (satoshi's) available. That's a LOT. Much more than there are cents in any other currency in the world (although they are unlimited because governments and banks can create them out of thin air as much as they desire - which is the cause of an entirely different plethora of problems, but that's an entirely different discussion).

Furthermore, should the need arise (which won't happen anytime soon), this could be easily adjusted and we could increase the precision to 16 decimals and even beyond that. This would allow for a worldwide supply of no less than 210 sextillion units. Every single person on earth could have more of these units than there are cents of any other currency in existence.

So, no, this is not a problem Smiley
What I mean is that it is a finite amount, unlike the currencies we have now that are completely arbitrary. The entire system of currency governments rely on would have to be uprooted for bitcoins to work and I just cant imagine that happening.