Aeon is one of the major Cryptonotes out there and has a lot of amazing features that come together to make it the first true digital cash. Cryptonote based coins aren't some pump/dump scam or a copy/paste job - they are the real deal, and the honest goodness "bitcoin 2.0" that people sometimes joke about. Aeon's main focus is on mobile payments and experimental blockchain techniques such as pruning. As an experimental test bed of ideas, we have slowly come up with the idea of making it a test bed of economic ideas as well.
Therefore,
the proposal is that after the initial 8 year emission period is finished, in which the initial 18.4 million coins are distributed (approximately 50% distributed now, scheduled to be complete in approximately 2022) Aeon will move to a perpetual inflation rate of 8/9% (or 0.88888~%). This provides a percentage based increase each year, always incentivizing miners and providing new Aeon to mine. The problem with fiat is not that it is inflationary; it is that a small group of elite insiders can set the inflation to whatever they desire which leads to a ruinous course for civilization and titanic criminal conspiracies such as LIBOR (
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/2-british-ex-bankers-convicted-of-all-charges-in-u-s-libor-scandal-trial-1.2644442 )
Indeed, a fixed interest rate can be a very healthy thing, and ours would debase wealth by about half over the course of an average human lifetime. This seems fair in many ways - if you are a human sitting on a massive pile of wealth and do nothing with it during your life time, it will decline in "true value" by about half. This incentivizes people to invest and spend money in a sustainable fair way that is in line with Freidman's K-percent rule,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman's_k-percent_rule (thanks to Reddit user /u/Oodges for the information).
As you can see, the increase in Aeon over the years will not be drastic at all. This is an approximate mock-up of Aeon distribution from 2022 to 2050 using the proposed 8/9% curve.
In fact, even the logo for "aeon" has the number 8 hidden in it, unrealized until now:
And if you are paying attention to the mathematical pun involved, that is also an 'infinity' symbol, also symbolizing our "infinity of 8's" principle.
Additionally, the number 8 has a massive history and cultural significance to many cultures, but especially in China. In fact, 8/9% is not just an elegant mathematical interest rate, it also symbolizes incredible prosperity and longevity. The fact that it reduces to a decimal expansion of an infinite series of 8's makes it a singularity of beauty in itself.
The word for "eight" (八 Pinyin: bā) sounds similar to the word which means "prosper" or "wealth" (發 – often paired with "發財" during Chinese New Years, but is used alone or paired with numerous other "compound words" that have a meaning of luck or success, Pinyin: fā). In regional dialects the words for "eight" and "fortune" are also similar, e.g., Cantonese "baat" and "faat". Note as well, this particular symbol matches the mathematical symbol of infinity. While Chinese does have other words for luck, this full understanding of luck that includes the infinity concept marries into a Chinese understanding of this particular word.
There is also a visual resemblance between two digits, "88", and 囍, the "shuāng xĭ" ("double joy"), a popular decorative design composed of two stylized characters 喜 ("xĭ" meaning "joy" or "happiness").
The number 8 is viewed as such an auspicious number that even being assigned a number with several eights is considered very lucky.
- In 2003, A telephone number with all digits being eights was sold for CN¥2.33 million (approximately US$280,000) to Sichuan Airlines in Chengdu, China.
- The opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Beijing began on 8/8/08 at 8 seconds and 8 minutes past 8 pm local time (UTC+08).
- A man in Hangzhou offered to sell his license plate reading A88888 for ¥1.12 million (roughly $164,000).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Chinese_culture
After seeing & realizing all of the above, in my mind there can be no answer to this problem. This feels almost like finding "
golden number" for a proposed interest rate, and has wide community support already as can be seen at the following links:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.12886599 https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.12878866 https://www.reddit.com/r/aeoncoin/comments/3riy37/ok_i_think_we_finally_have_it_aeon_will_move_to/ In fact, the more you think about it, the more coincidences of "8" you find running through Aeon's past, present, and future (for example, it will also take 8 years for the initial emission to finish). This idea has quickly gained a
lot of popularity so will likely be coded into the next version (or soon afterwards). If you support this proposal, please make your support known here, and if you don't - also feel free to also speak out.