And this is you;
www.linkedin.com/in/simonresumeI've previously read your bettering Bitcoin article published in The Finacial Cryptography Journal with Stanford's Robotics. If other's here would read it, it would certainly raise the level of aptitude within this forum.
In any case, looking forward to seeing more of what you're planning. You certainly have the background for this...
Good luck.
I agree, and that's why it was an easy decision to work for him when he called.
here are some more links regarding Simon:
Simon’s paper: http://crypto.stanford.edu/~xb/fc12/bitcoin.pdf which is the second reference here btw:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin#ReferencesSimon Barber’s Profile at PARC: http://www.parc.com/about/people/2220/simon-barber.html
Cheers,
John
Nice paper Simon.
I have some critiques and commentary for you.
Hoarding: a moral hazard? Bitcoins much more than any other currency in existence
derive their value from the presence of a live, dynamic infrastructure loosely constituted
by the network of verifiers participating in block creation. Because of their appreciation
potential, bitcoins will tend to be saved rather than spent. As hoarded bitcoins vanish
from circulation, transaction volume will dwindle and block creation will become less
profitable (fewer fees to collect). If circulation drops too much, it can precipitate a loss
of interest in the system, resulting in “bit rot” and verifier dearth, until such point that
the system has become too weak to heal and defend itself. Of particular concern is an
unavoidable large-scale fraud that we describe in the next section, and whose aftermath
includes sudden loss of confidence, collapse of value, and repudiation.
Towards decentralized organic inflation. An antidote to the preceding predicament
could take the form of a Bitcoin-like electronic currency with a decentralized inflationary feedback built-in, that could control the global minting rate based, e.g., on transaction volume statistics. While we leave the devising of monetary parameters for such an
“organically inflationary” currency as an open problem, we show next how deflationary
expectations negatively impact the long-term structural security of the Bitcoin system.
In my opinion Bitcoin being deflationary does not automatically lead to it being a moral hazard. I think it's a possibility but it's not the result of the cap or it being deflationary. I don't consider it moral hazard because the early adopters are also the ones taking the biggest risks if government decides to crack down. In order to actually defend something like Bitcoin from the established players within the industry who would seek to politically and socially destroy it (by claiming all Bitcoiners are child pornographers, druggies, terrorists, etc), there must be deflation which rewards people for holding Bitcoin. This makes Bitcoin sticky, and only by making it sticky can it defeat increasing social stigma.
If enough people get rich because they saved Bitcoins, those people will have stories to tell which wont involve them being a child pornographer, terrorist, drug dealer (or user). Those stories are critical for the success of any currency. Just as the US dollar relied on the story of the American dream where anyone could get rich if they just work hard, only with Bitcoin it's currently true while with the dollar at this point it's a blatant lie.
I do agree with you on the idea of organic inflation but I don't think we will need that for many years. Netcoin intends to do what you're talking about by building a democratic mechanism into the design. These mechanisms can allow for stakeholders to eventually vote on the inflation rate.
Please have take a look at Netcoin
http://www.netcoin.io/wiki/Netcoin:Community_Portaland if you have time give a review of some of the proposed features, in particular the features I proposed:
Netcoin Community-Oriented Decentralized Social Organization Supported by Blockchain
Coercion resistant decentralized remote electronic voting mechanism for Netcoin Community-Oriented Decentralized Social Organization
Netcoin thread is here
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/mc2-a-cryptocurrency-based-on-a-hybrid-powpos-system-169204
