*********** Amber Alert ************
I've come to the conclusion that the world economy actually exists to support the banking system and in that respect, the number one enemy is deflation.
Forget the myriad of economic indicators and just look at it this way:
Money can only be produced by issuing an equivalent amount of debt. For that debt to be considered an "asset" it has to be serviced, but the money to service the existing debt base must be new money - so there in a nutshell is the reason why central banks are given a "policy target" of keeping inflation at around 2%.
We can't have deflation at any cost because it will lead to defaults. Nothing to do with people not being prudent - simply a question of not enough money in the system to cover the amount of global debt, like a jumper that you put on when it was dry and then you jump in a pool, it shrinks and tears.
But look what's happening - after 3 years, the fed is winding up QE. Mr Draghi said he wasn't "too keen on it" and now ? Stocks are red every day, oil is crashing and even metals are declining. That's that wet jumper getting tighter and (central) banks are going to have to do something about it before it tears. China's not growing, Japan's not growing, Europe's not growing and the US isn't growing so the commercial banking sector has not been able to facilitate "transmission" of the last 4 years' monetary policy by translating all that new money into economic activity.
Things are in a prickhairyarse state. There's also the threat to Western economies of the new BRICS system of gold based finance. That might force them to raise interest rates as well which will throw a raft of nations back under the bus known as the "European Sovereign Debt crisis".
Basically we're f*ckd. Thats what I think.
They never solved the 2008 financial crisis - just moved it from one coat peg to another. There are 3 coat pegs: 1-private sector debt, 2-soveregin debt, 3-monetisation by central banks. We're currently at stage 3 in Japan and US and stage 2 in Europe and the UK.
The only light on the horizon I can see is Bitcoin and its associated flotilla of alt coins. That has still got such a huge capacity for growth and capitalisation that when the crisis comes - if we're lucky - it might just have enough track record, confidence and infrastructure under its belt for it to be considered a "safe haven" (in relative terms at least).
That's why it's so important for Darkcoin to double down on technical development, consolidation and marketing. It needs to bee seen as a ROCK SOLID complimentary asset to Bitcoin. Its 2 strengths in this regard are:
[1] - its anonymity properties (which Bitcoin doesn't have)
[2] - its 2-tier architecture (which its competitors don't have)
The two tier architecture is important because tier-1 of that architecture is basically Bitcoin - it is Darkcoin's commercial facing technical interface. Tier-2 is the masternode network which supports the anonymity properties.
I'm not saying this as a "fanboy" by I'm sorry, Darkcoin's competitors are screwed - and I've been in them all. I've got more CLOAK, XMR, XDM, you name it than I ever had DRK but they've got too little too late plus they've picked the wrong design by opting for an integrated architecture. Time is running out and as far as 1st generation Bitcoin cryptocurrencies go (as opposed to Bitshares & co) Darkcoin is IT or nothing.
So if Evan needs people to test stuff or more masternodes on testnet or whatever, we better get supply them because the Earth-to-Mars launch window is approaching and there's only be one shot at it.
Do stuff: design work, technical work, promotion, write better explanations of Darkcoin, exchanges, economic commentaries - anything. This thread has had some amazing contributions in all these fields lately but now is the time to consolidate and grow all these to get to the next stage in the game !
(IMHO of course )
Some excellent analysis there... We just need the world banking system to hold on for another year or two, I think we are 12 months away from having the right fundamentals in place for Crypto to start replace existing debt based ecosystems...