Bitcoin

[2531usmc]

A government could decide to start mining a Bitcoin clone, but a government’s blessing alone doesn’t mean that clone will have any value. The government of Zimbabwe infamously printed $100 trillion bills in 2008, but neither printing words on paper nor mining an invented cryptocurrency and calling it legal tender are guaranteed to create a currency with actual value. The actions of buyers and sellers on the open market determine the value of Bitcoin (and its competitors). Real Bitcoin (version 1, as you phrased it) cannot be faked or mined beyond the 21 million limit. Many alternative cryptocurrencies have been introduced trying to mimic and/or improve upon Bitcoin, but none of these alternatives have been able to mimic Bitcoin’s free market value.

So what happens if the original bitcoin bubba (whoever that, or that company, is) decides to mine a bitcoinv2 or even a bitcoinv3?

The number 21 million is not written in stone. It’s just software.

Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand why the world is looking for both an alternative to fiat money and to keep their money away from grasping political systems. But as I said earlier betting big portions of your financial future on bitcoin is folly.

 

[Mighty Mouse]

So what happens if the original bitcoin bubba (whoever that, or that company, is) decides to mine a bitcoinv2 or even a bitcoinv3?

The number 21 million is not written in stone. It’s just software.

There is no single entity in charge of mining bitcoin. Mining is distributed amongst thousands of individual entities spread across the world. They’re all free to choose which cryptocurrencies to mine, and they often do shift their efforts based on market conditions. The closest thing to an “original bitcoin bubba” is the inventor of the Bitcoin protocol, who went by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and (wisely) chose to disappear a few years after launching Bitcoin. “Hard forks” have occurred multiple times and created what could be called version 2, 3, etc. of Bitcoin (e.g, Bitcoin XT, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Classic). Despite the existence of competing alternate versions, original Bitcoin remains the world’s dominant cryptocurrency.

The 21 million supply limit is indeed a software feature that could in theory be changed. Implementing that change would require majority support from miners and node operators, which IMO is unlikely to occur. Increasing the supply limit would be highly controversial and would likely hurt bitcoin’s market value, which is contrary to the financial interests of those holding and mining it.

 

[Historybuff]

we're the bitcoin Bubba now