delvingbitcoin

Deflationary money is a Good Thing

Deflationary money is a Good Thing

Original Postby ajtowns

Posted on: November 30, 2023 08:16 UTC

The principal-agent problem is at the core of issues associated with "intelligent" inflationary minting, where the conflict arises from simultaneously attributing value and creating currency out of nothing.

This can lead to a scenario where an individual could simply create and assign value to currency, thus becoming wealthy. However, this system is unsustainable as the market will eventually recalibrate and assign a different value to the newly created currency.

A proposed solution avoids the act of minting altogether, focusing instead on a fixed commodity like Bitcoin (BTC), which cannot be arbitrarily increased. By setting exchange rates against stable currencies such as the dollar, and pricing goods and services in dollars, wealth is not directly affected; rather, it is the purchasing power in terms of BTC that varies with changes in the savings rate. For instance, if there's a higher demand for BTC, resulting in a savings rate increase, the equivalent amount of BTC for the dollar would decrease across all transactions, thereby allowing central banks to address systemic shocks without inducing inflation.

This system also allows for various denominations in transactions, where some may be in dollars and others in BTC. In the event of a fluctuation in the BTC exchange rate, repayments such as mortgages that are denominated in BTC would consequently require more dollars, affecting both the principal and interest. This differs from current scenarios where rising interest rates primarily impact the interest repayments alone.

However, challenges arise if a single entity were to control the exchange rate, potentially manipulating it to benefit their financial position whether lending or borrowing. To mitigate this, a market-based system could be implemented, determining the BTC to dollar exchange rate based on predictive Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, aligning with the work done by macroeconomists who advocate for Nominal Gross Domestic Product (NGDP) targets over inflation targets. This approach aims to design a system that circumvents direct manipulation and ensures the utility of representative currencies like the dollar.