Beginner’s Guide #7: Bitcoin's Monetary Policy with Dan Held
01/24/20 • -1 min
Location: Skype
Date: Wednesday, 22nd January
Project: Kraken
Role: Head of Business Development
Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin can be intimidating for beginners. The protocol is complicated, the community can be aggressive and unforgiving, silly mistakes can lose you money, and it is easy to succumb to altcoin marketing.
Bitcoin does though, offer you the opportunity to hold a new type of monetary asset, one which can't be seized by the government and is censorship resistance and It has the potential to change the way the world.
The goal of What Bitcoin Did has always been about making things simple; there are no stupid questions, and the show is here to help beginners navigate this new world. To kick off 2020, we are launching a special series to help beginners understand Bitcoin. We will be looking at the basics from breaking down the protocol to explaining the economics and discussing the potential societal shift.
Beginners Guide Part 7 - Bitcoin's Monetary Policy with Dan Held
In our current economic system, currency is issued by the central banks. As fiat (government-issued money) is no longer backed by gold or any other scarce asset these central banks are able to print, or issue money at will.
As more and more money is printed and enters circulation, the money you hold in your bank account becomes a smaller percentage of the total supply and therefore loses value. This by de-facto promotes spending rather than saving and by many, is seen as a flaw in the financial system.
When Satoshi released the Bitcoin protocol, it offered an alternative to this system: scarce digital money. Satoshi gave Bitcoin a fixed supply of 21 million Bitcoins. He also designed an issuance schedule of 50BTC every ~10 minutes which is cut in half every 210,000 blocks (~4 years).
The exact number of the total supply of Bitcoin is not important and it doesn’t matter that the issuance schedule is designed exactly as it is, what is crucial is that this monetary policy can’t be changed.
These rules are part of the Bitcoin protocol and can not be amended or changed without a hard fork. Social consensus for a change like this would almost certainly never happen and Bitcoiners can be confident that their Bitcoin holdings will not lose value to do inflation.
In Part 7 of the Bitcoin Beginner’s Guide, I talk to Dan Held Bitcoin OG and Director of Business Development at Kraken to look at Bitcoin’s monetary policy. We discuss how the economy works, the 21 million hard cap, the release schedule and block rewards.
-----
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Make a tip:
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Location: Skype
Date: Wednesday, 22nd January
Project: Kraken
Role: Head of Business Development
Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin can be intimidating for beginners. The protocol is complicated, the community can be aggressive and unforgiving, silly mistakes can lose you money, and it is easy to succumb to altcoin marketing.
Bitcoin does though, offer you the opportunity to hold a new type of monetary asset, one which can't be seized by the government and is censorship resistance and It has the potential to change the way the world.
The goal of What Bitcoin Did has always been about making things simple; there are no stupid questions, and the show is here to help beginners navigate this new world. To kick off 2020, we are launching a special series to help beginners understand Bitcoin. We will be looking at the basics from breaking down the protocol to explaining the economics and discussing the potential societal shift.
Beginners Guide Part 7 - Bitcoin's Monetary Policy with Dan Held
In our current economic system, currency is issued by the central banks. As fiat (government-issued money) is no longer backed by gold or any other scarce asset these central banks are able to print, or issue money at will.
As more and more money is printed and enters circulation, the money you hold in your bank account becomes a smaller percentage of the total supply and therefore loses value. This by de-facto promotes spending rather than saving and by many, is seen as a flaw in the financial system.
When Satoshi released the Bitcoin protocol, it offered an alternative to this system: scarce digital money. Satoshi gave Bitcoin a fixed supply of 21 million Bitcoins. He also designed an issuance schedule of 50BTC every ~10 minutes which is cut in half every 210,000 blocks (~4 years).
The exact number of the total supply of Bitcoin is not important and it doesn’t matter that the issuance schedule is designed exactly as it is, what is crucial is that this monetary policy can’t be changed.
These rules are part of the Bitcoin protocol and can not be amended or changed without a hard fork. Social consensus for a change like this would almost certainly never happen and Bitcoiners can be confident that their Bitcoin holdings will not lose value to do inflation.
In Part 7 of the Bitcoin Beginner’s Guide, I talk to Dan Held Bitcoin OG and Director of Business Development at Kraken to look at Bitcoin’s monetary policy. We discuss how the economy works, the 21 million hard cap, the release schedule and block rewards.
-----
If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show my doing the following:
Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contribute
Make a tip:
Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2S
QR Codes: Bitcoin | Ethereum | Litecoin | Monero | ZCash | Ripplecoin
If you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank you
Subscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | Deezer | TuneIn | RSS Feed
Previous Episode
Beginner’s Guide #7: Bitcoin's Monetary Policy with Dan Held - WBD188
Location: Skype Date: Wednesday, 22nd January Project: Kraken Role: Head of Business Development
Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin can be intimidating for beginners. The protocol is complicated, the community can be aggressive and unforgiving, silly mistakes can lose you money, and it is easy to succumb to altcoin marketing.
Bitcoin does though, offer you the opportunity to hold a new type of monetary asset, one which can't be seized by the government and is censorship resistance and It has the potential to change the way the world.
The goal of What Bitcoin Did has always been about making things simple; there are no stupid questions, and the show is here to help beginners navigate this new world. To kick off 2020, we are launching a special series to help beginners understand Bitcoin. We will be looking at the basics from breaking down the protocol to explaining the economics and discussing the potential societal shift.
Beginners Guide Part 7 - Bitcoin's Monetary Policy with Dan Held
In our current economic system, currency is issued by the central banks. As fiat (government-issued money) is no longer backed by gold or any other scarce asset these central banks are able to print, or issue money at will.
As more and more money is printed and enters circulation, the money you hold in your bank account becomes a smaller percentage of the total supply and therefore loses value. This by de-facto promotes spending rather than saving and by many, is seen as a flaw in the financial system.
When Satoshi released the Bitcoin protocol, it offered an alternative to this system: scarce digital money. Satoshi gave Bitcoin a fixed supply of 21 million Bitcoins. He also designed an issuance schedule of 50BTC every ~10 minutes which is cut in half every 210,000 blocks (~4 years).
The exact number of the total supply of Bitcoin is not important and it doesn’t matter that the issuance schedule is designed exactly as it is, what is crucial is that this monetary policy can’t be changed.
These rules are part of the Bitcoin protocol and can not be amended or changed without a hard fork. Social consensus for a change like this would almost certainly never happen and Bitcoiners can be confident that their Bitcoin holdings will not lose value to do inflation.
In Part 7 of the Bitcoin Beginner’s Guide, I talk to Dan Held Bitcoin OG and Director of Business Development at Kraken to look at Bitcoin’s monetary policy. We discuss how the economy works, the 21 million hard cap, the release schedule and block rewards.
Next Episode
Beginner’s Guide #8: How is Bitcoin Legal with Peter Van Valkenburgh & Jerry Brito - WBD189
Location: Skype Date: Monday, 27th January Project: Coin Center Role: Peter Van Valkenburgh & Jerry Brito
Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin can be intimidating for beginners. The protocol is complicated, the community can be aggressive and unforgiving, silly mistakes can lose you money, and it is easy to succumb to altcoin marketing.
Bitcoin does though, offer you the opportunity to hold a new type of monetary asset, one which can't be seized by the government and is censorship resistance and It has the potential to change the way the world.
The goal of What Bitcoin Did has always been about making things simple; there are no stupid questions, and the show is here to help beginners navigate this new world. To kick off 2020, we are launching a special series to help beginners understand Bitcoin. We will be looking at the basics from breaking down the protocol to explaining the economics and discussing the potential societal shift.
Beginners Guide Part 8 - How is Bitcoin Legal with Peter Van Valkenburgh & Jerry Brito
Bitcoin is still a relatively new technology. However, it is already a very real threat to government-issued fiat currencies and central banks. This has made regulating Bitcoin a tricky proposition for governments.
China took a hard-line approach to this new asset class and in 2013, banned Bitcoin transactions, and in 2017, the government banned exchanges and ICOs. In Bolivia, there is a unilateral ban on all cryptocurrencies.
Other countries have taken a far more progressive view of Bitcoin, embracing it, though often with caution.
Most accepting has been Malta which has created the Malta Digital Innovation Authority; a government body brought in specifically for creating responsible crypto policy.
While the regulatory landscape is complex and jurisdiction-specific, regulations tend to apply more aggressively to businesses in the space than users. These laws and regulations that Bitcoin businesses must comply with, however, still have an impact. For example; the majority of exchanges must follow AML/KYC rules which means when buying Bitcoin on an exchange you do give up your privacy.
In Part 8 of the Bitcoin Beginner's Guide and to help explain and navigate the regulatory landscape I talk to Peter Van Valkenburgh & Jerry Britto, the Director of Research & Executive Director at Coin Center a non-profit focused on the policy issues for Bitcoin. We discuss the Bitcoin regulatory landscape and the implications to the users.
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