I've been asked by one of our (emunie's) members to post his response, as he only just made a BTT account and is stuck in the Newbies sub-forum:
TL/DR: I really like eMunie.
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I was invited to the beta test group a few days ago. I'm currently running several test instances of the user-client and hatcher-client across multiple servers spread out geographically.
In no way ever have I been requested to contribute financially to the project. I have, however, done so willingly based upon my initial testing results.
Initial first impression of the client:
This application will most likely be a game-changer. I have to constantly temper my enthusiasm for how beautifully and elegantly the current beta version operates and thankfully my wife is always there to keep my "feet on the ground."
Regardless, in its current version I find it to be elegant, simple, easy-to-use and understand. Those are high bars to leap over in the crypto-currency environment if "we" (the less than 1% of the world involved in the electronic money ecosystem) ever hope to achieve any significant adoption by the masses who don't care for complicated systems.
Fundamentally, my main reasons for why I believe in emunie are based on its economic model since it is founded upon "The Quantity Theory of Money"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantity_theory_of_money The basic premise behind this theory is that the "supply" of a currency should equal "demand" for its use and nothing more. This theory is the ONLY theory that ALL competing economic theorists can fundamentally agree on (read up on Keynesians vs. Monetarists vs. Austrians vs. Milton Friedman). As such, if you can find ANY theory that all of these guys can agree on as being an accurate representation for how trade and commerce should operate efficiently then you know you've stumbled upon something revolutionary.
However, "ideas" are dime-a-dozen, the real test of an idea is in its "implementation" in a real world environment. Accordingly, once it has been tried and subsequently fails there are many critics available that will quickly pounce upon the notion that the "theory" itself is flawed. This is not entirely true. As someone with a Six-Sigma (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma) background for over 15 years + 20 years experience in Supply Chain Management (ie study of supply vs. demand in business
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain_management) I would suggest that the fault "might" lie instead upon the technical "implementation" of the theory since the tools to efficiently implement it might not have existed at the time it was implemented.
For the past 5000 years the "implementation" of this theory has been tested countless times to be a successful method of promoting trade and commerce. However, the failure of each of these "implementations" has NOT been been because of the theory itself, but rather a failure in how best to "control" the supply vs. the demand through the limited tools available at the time.
Prior to the internet, there was really no easy, systematic, or automated method to determine supply vs. demand. As such, humans were needed to be in control centrally. This was done by Kings, central planners and, most recently, by central banks through the study and analysis of a whole host of trailing and leading economic indicators. Unfortunately (by design), this system is flawed in numerous ways since primarily the central body is operating in a "reactionary" environment in that they must constantly be tweaking the supply to match demand based on the latest data available. When they miscalculate in their analysis we get a predictable set of circumstances that lead to either an inflationary or deflationary environment. At these extremes we find hysteria and depression since these are the natural outcomes from mismanaging the supply/demand based on imperfect information.
In the world of emunie the above scenario is removed from the hands of a centrally managed group that uses imperfect information to control suppy/demand and is instead autonomously managed by the system itself. As demand increases so does supply. As supply increases, it is distributed equally among all users so that the impact of inflation is eliminated (i.e. a rising tide lifts all boats equally). A rising supply at "just the right level" ensures trade and commerce. The ability to adjust supply/demand in near real-time across a decentralized network is what sets this system miles above any competing "coin" based solutions.
At this point I've probably waxed on for far too long (as my wife will agree I have a tendency to do) so in closing I'd like to suggest for you to watch the following videos I have seen recently if you have the time (yes, they are a bit long, but worthwhile nonetheless).
While watching each video try to avoid the conspiracy theory conjecture and the "us vs. them" rhetoric that can easily be incited in such an emotionally charged topic as money often leads to. Instead, try to keep a pragmatic/rational mindset and always continually ask "Why?" By that, I mean you should keep asking yourself "why" each of these "implementations" has failed.
History of currency:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdSq5H7awi8&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLE88E9ICdipidHkTehs1VbFzgwrq1jkUJComment: Granted this guy is a promoter of gold/silver, but the history lesson is quite relevant. Technically, (my view) gold and silver are nothing more than non-technological method for "trying" to control supply/demand in world of imperfect knowledge of supply/demand by pegging it to something that we know is limited. As stated earlier, previously we didn't know of any other way to manage it (although emunie has found a way).
Note how at around 3 to 4 minutes into it we see "why" it was successful in that it was standard, universal, fairly stable unit of account (price) that allowed for the coins to be successful.
Biggest Scam in history
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0Comment: This video does a solid job of explaining the current central bank process, but I provide it more so as an example of a flawed "implementation" of the theory to try and control supply/demand based on imperfect information.
Secret of Oz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qIhDdST27gComment: This provides a view of an alternative "implementation" based on who should manage supply (government instead of central bank), but never discusses "how" it will be controlled by the government to ensure supply matches demand. As such, regardless of whether a central bank or the government controls it are meaningless since both would be dependent upon imperfect information and self interests to manage the environment. However, the video does show several examples for how allowing "supply" to be adjusted dynamically to meet demand results in the promotion of increased trade and commerce.