I suspect that there’s either a strong ideological component; or a pragmatic acknowledgement that a lot of his fans(on who those speculative valuations depend) have strong ideological components.
Cryptocurrency enthusiasm is just loaded with techno-goldbugs animated by assorted theories on how the communist welfare state will be Weimar-ing away the money of the wealth creators through inflation; and/or the international money cabal/central bank gnomes are using their monetary policy for all sorts of nefarious ends.
And proposing a ‘reasonable’ temporary measure to be achieved by debasing the currency is exactly what those people would do…
(That said, I’m sure his willingness to bend principle last time had nothing to do with personal connections to the company foundering on buggy smart contracts, that sort of unseemly influence has no place in the loft halls of the Dunning-Krugerrand; it was purely a decision based on the maturity of the ecosystem then vs. now.)
If that’s the case (and I don’t doubt you) it seems even more odd that he wouldn’t do it, at least from a technical viewpoint (from an ideological and/or brogrammer culture viewpoint discussed by @fuzzyfungus, however…)
Let’s see, despite all the talk about the debt, when the financial collapse happened everyone scrambled to US dollars.
It is not just because it is the worlds largest economy, but it has never failed and it is backed up by a huge military with carriers and nukes.
If the long term bond market was worried about the US debt, it would expect much higher interest payments - but it’s not- in fact the 30yr bond trades at 2.8% (below the inflation rate) and they still can’t get enough.
The only time Republicans are concerned about debt is when they need an excuse to cut welfare state social services.
(and even then the whole thing is counterproductive - consider that Greece was forced to tighten so much its GDP shrank 30%)
I will let Mark Blyth explain it (as he does to Congress) here in a fairly short 7 minute talk. Also note that in fact US debt to foreign states is actually a small part - most of it is internal to the US.
That was the idea behind “Web Of Trust”. Turns out you need a critical mass of trust in order to make the whole thing turn over and start running on its own.
If there is a chance to hard fork it, roll it back to the last known good state or otherwise unwind the mistake, then the ‘currency’ isn’t really permanently locked up is it?
If so, I think we need to do away with this notion that Vitalik somehow is the all powerful overlord of Ethereum. True, the Ethereum community adores him due to his intellectual chops and because he’s a genuinely nice guy. But Ethereum is run/managed by a vast multitude of stakeholders and anything Vitalik says or proposes is just that - a proposal. (On a sidenote: Vitalik hasn’t communicated anything whatsoever related to this situation.)
The community at large is debating what ought to be done and while a fix would be technically simple, implementing it is most likely going to be quite contentious.
If we don’t cut any spending but we do drastically cut tax revenue, then wouldn’t that deficit spending drastically increase our debt? And wouldn’t that debt become increasingly unmanageable on account of our diminished tax revenue? I wouldn’t expect the bond markets to react preemptively to incomplete legislation.
It doesn’t really matter, anyway. But sometimes I enjoy trying to imagine what product or material is portable, will have trade value in a societal collapse, and doesn’t degrade over time.
Yeah, I left my wallet out with $1000 in hundreds in paper and my credit & debit cards with a friend who said he was a bank… When I returned the next day he said someone took my wallet and it was gone and I shouldn’t do anything about it.
Maybe I’m just old, but I think we have reached the point where technical articles about cryptocurrency are indistinguishable (to me) from William Gibson futurist technobabble. Does that mean it’s officially the cyberpunk dystopia now?
Seriously, sometimes I hear my folks or a boss say something so incredibly old fashioned, maybe demanding a paper atlas or something. And I have to remind them we live in the future now.
Yes exactly! Cryptocurrency interests me not at all (all the downsides of the gold standard… None of the upside. I mean, at least gold is pretty). But block chain technology as a whole… Now that has potential, but it is damn hard to find anything that isn’t cryptocurrency related.
