How to understand bitcoin and other digital currencies
Digital currency is abbreviated as digiccy, which is the abbreviation of "digital currency" in English. It is an alternative currency in the form of electronic currency. Both digital gold coin and cryptocurrency belong to digiccy
digital currency is different from the virtual currency in the virtual world, because it can be used for real goods and services transactions, not limited to online games. The early digital currency (digital gold currency) is a form of electronic currency named after the weight of gold. Today's digital currency, such as bitcoin, lightcoin and ppcoin, is an electronic currency created, issued and circulated by check sum cryptography. It is characterized by the use of P2P peer-to-peer network technology to issue, manage and circulate currency. In theory, it avoids bureaucratic examination and approval, so that everyone has the right to issue currency
Compared with paper money, digital money has obvious advantages, which can not only save the cost of issuance and circulation, but also improve the efficiency of transaction or investment, and enhance the convenience and transparency of economic transaction activities. The issue of digital currency by the central bank also ensures the continuity of financial policy and the integrity of monetary policy, and also ensures the security of monetary transactionsalthough the issuing method of digital currency is still under study, paper currency has been regarded as "the currency of the previous generation" by some professionals, and it is the general trend to be replaced by new technology and new procts. Due to China's large population and volume, the timetable for issuing digital currency is still uncertain. It is predicted that digital currency and cash will be in parallel and graally replaced for quite a long time. When the era of digital currency really comes, people will carry less and less cash, travel more and more safe, poverty alleviation more and more accurate, corruption more and more difficult to escape, and thieves more and more difficult
extended information:
in November 2016, the central bank prepared digital currency, and the cash is likely not to exist in ten years
in November 2016, China digital currency Research Institute was established to cultivate high-level talents of digital currency, carry out digital currency research, consultation, development planning and related activities. It is a non-profit unit with legal license approved by relevant ministries and commissions, and is committed to promoting the integrated development of scientific research and Practice of digital currency instry
so far, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Guizhou have become the three hot areas for the central bank's digital currency pilot. It is reported that Hangzhou is actively promoting the planning and construction of Qiantang River financial harbor, including the blockchain instry. Hangzhou will build the first blockchain Instrial Park in China, which is located in the Internet Finance town of Xihu District, surrounded by ant financial services, e-commerce bank, Zhejiang University and its science and Technology Park and other well-known enterprises and parks
1. A little thought on currency
at present, the currency issued by all countries in the world is basically credit currency. For example, the US dollar has been decoupled from gold since the Bretton Woods system. It is generally believed that the value of the modern dollar is supported by the national credit, or national strength and military strength of the United States
however, this is specious. Because the national strength and military strength of the United States cannot be quantified, who can tell me how much the national strength and military strength of the United States are worth? Since it is impossible to quantify, how can we ensure that the US dollar is not printed too much? In fact, there is no guarantee. On the other hand, it says "in God we trust" on the dollar, which is to tell you clearly that the dollar is actually a kind of faith. It's like trump supporters shouting, "America! USA! ", People's trust in the dollar is not purely rational, but a mixture of rationality, pride, sacredness, speciousness and habitual thinking
and this kind of trust is also fragile. In recent years, for example, the Thai baht and ruble have dropped by 40% or 50% overnight, which is also common. Even more outrageous, for example, the government of the Republic of China basically cheated on the golden yuan
bitcoin is also true. Its value comes from trust, but it is not backed by the government's credit endorsement. The letter of bitcoin is a more pure letter, because it is more invisible than the legal coin, but there is a small group of people who believe in it, such as me. This kind of letter comes from the simplicity and strength of bitcoin technology, from the ideas beyond the times contained in it, from the dissatisfaction with the existing monetary system, and from the natural yearning for progress of human beings
2. Bitcoin price and reflexivity
Buffett's value investment theory is very popular: because of people's fear or greed, the price of a thing may temporarily be higher or lower than its value, but it will eventually return to the value itself
Soros's view is that because of the fragility of human nature, a thing can never return to its value. That is to say, the correction must be over correct. When the value of a thing is absolutely undervalued, then in the process of rising, people's awareness of its rising is constantly strengthened, which often leads to crazy buying, and the final price will rise to its own value, and vice versa
in this process, the rise of price leads to people's pursuit of a thing, and people's rising expectation will continue to push up the price of this thing
Soros calls it reflexivity
for example, there is a prophet in the village. He told us that gold would go up and we should go to buy gold. Everyone flocked to buy gold. The supply of gold was in short supply, and it rose as expected. So everyone said that the prophet was right
this process has nothing to do with the basic value of gold or the actual demand for gold
if you look at it with a magnifying glass. In this process, the bullish view of gold is constantly strengthened. Because gold also rose in the process. If in the first rise callback, someone sold. When it goes higher for the second time, this person will feel that his operation is particularly stupid, so he will not easily sell when he buys again next time. Even if he sells again next time, there will always be a time when he will "learn to be smart" and no longer sell
man is also a social animal. So this expectation of rising will continue to spread and "learn" from each other, aggravating this weakness of human nature
often when a bubble burst, most people could not escape. A few rational people can run away, a few win the majority and make a lot of money. In the book mob, it is said that the IQ of a group is often lower than that of a person. In management, this is called herding. In China's stock market, this is called "retail dividend". You don't see how many people earn money every day on the platform, even wealth is free.
opponents of bitcoin accuse mining of wasting a lot of resources to make meaningless coin toss, while supporters take gold mining as an example. For the bitcoin system, the biggest significance of this kind of resource consumption mining is: to distribute 21 million initial bitcoins fairly, just like to consume resources to dig gold, the only way to distribute initial bitcoins fairly is to consume resources to dig bitcoins
bitcoin has thousands of plagiarists, competitors and improvers because of its open source code. Generally, those who simply and imitate bitcoin are called Shanzhai coins, and those who add certain new features to bitcoin are called competitive coins. Some coins add other functional moles such as smart contract to bitcoin, and call themselves "second generation coins". These thousands of coins try all the initial coin distribution modes you can imagine, such as the average distribution of the initial coin to each Icelandic, the distribution of the initial coin to the nextcoin of 73 crowd funding participants, and the slow distribution of the majority of the initial coin by the developer
but the fairness of all these ways of distributing initial coins is far weaker than the mode of burning money to obtain initial bitcoin, and fairness is the core problem of a monetary system. Therefore, although bitcoin mining consumes a lot of resources, it is a reasonable economic behavior just like consuming resources to mine gold.
The star silver ore is distributed in many places at the white spot in the figure below. You can chop it with the big sword
digital currency is different from the virtual currency in the virtual world, because it can be used for real goods and services transactions, not limited to online games. The early digital currency (digital gold currency) is a form of electronic currency named after the weight of gold. Today's digital currency, such as bitcoin, lightcoin and ppcoin, is an electronic currency created, issued and circulated by check sum cryptography
it is characterized by the use of P2P peer-to-peer network technology to issue, manage and circulate currency. In theory, it avoids bureaucratic examination and approval, so that everyone has the right to issue currency
extended information:
digital gold currency is a form of electronic currency named after the weight of gold. The typical unit of measurement for this currency is the Troy gram or troy ounces, although sometimes the golden Dinar is used
digital gold currency is funded by gold storage without quota or decentralized quota. By January 2006, digital gold currency suppliers held more than 8.6 metric tons of gold as reserves, worth about $154 million
the relevant person in charge of the central bank said that the digital currency research team of the people's Bank of China should establish a more effective organizational guarantee mechanism, further clarify the strategic objectives of the central bank's issuance of digital currency, do a good job in tackling key technologies, study the multi scenario application of digital currency, and strive to launch the digital currency issued by the central bank as soon as possible.