• shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    The answer to volatility is obviously just to offer products and services in a crypto currency and then there’s no more fluctuations. If I offer a pack of AA batteries for 0.1 Monero, then it doesn’t matter what the US dollar price of Monero does because as long as you have 0.1 Monero and want a pack of batteries, you can buy one. The more merchants do this, the more stable that given cryptocurrency will become. If another merchant comes in and offers that same pack of batteries for 0.09 Monero, either the first merchant must lower their prices or must justify their higher prices with a better quality product, etc.

    Edit: Yes, I already do this. https://xmrbazaar.com/user/AuroraGeneralStore/

    • demesisx@infosec.pub
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      3 days ago

      Algorithmic stablecoins that are actually unhackable (all possible endpoints have been formally verified) exist too. They offer the best of both worlds. I’d like to see something like that on Monero’s successor (whatever that is).

      edit: I was thinking that successor would be Midnight…but Midnight is closed source, which is a dealbreaker for me…especially with cryptocurrencies. Perhaps ZCash?

      • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        So far at least no algorithmic stablecoin has properly functioned for any length of time. Take a look at the Terra Luna crash for just the largest example.

        • demesisx@infosec.pub
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          3 days ago

          Thats actually 100% false.

          DJED seems to have escaped your notice. It has been humming along without incident for a full year now.

          DJED is the first formally verified stablecoin protocol. The use of formal methods in the programming process has greatly contributed to the design and stability properties of Djed. Using formal techniques, the properties are proven by mathematical theorems: *Peg upper and lower bound maintenance: the price will not go above or beyond the set price. In the normal reserve ratio range, purchases and sales are not restricted, and users have no incentive to trade stablecoins outside the peg range in a secondary market. *Peg robustness during market crashes: up to a set limit that depends on the reserve ratio, the peg is maintained even when the price of the base coin falls sharply. *No insolvency: no bank is involved, so there is no bank contract to go bankrupt. *No bank runs: all users are treated fairly and paid accordingly, so there is provably no incentive for users to race to redeem their stablecoins. *Monotonically increasing equity per reserve coin: under some conditions, the reserve surplus per reserve coin is guaranteed to increase as users interact with the contract. Under these conditions, reserve coin holders are guaranteed to profit. *No reserve draining: under some conditions, it is impossible for a malicious user to execute a sequence of actions that would steal reserves from the bank. *Bounded dilution: there is a limit to how many reserve coin holders and their profit can be diluted due to the issuance of more reserve coins.

            • demesisx@infosec.pub
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              3 days ago

              No problem. Thanks for being intellectually honest! I’ll file down the claws in my previous reply. :)

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      That’s how all currencies work. The value is whatever we believe the value is. You could make the currency paper sacks and that would still be true.

      • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        No, it’s not.

        The US Dollar is a fiat currency. The value is merely what the market dictates amongst trading frequency and how much debt is held in it.

        It’s backed by nothing. A dollar has a made up value. In the1970s Nixon ended the US gold Standard, and those with property, not the government who held the gold, got to dictate it. Same thing through today.

        • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          A dollar has a made up value

          Yeah, that was kind of my point. Currency only has the value people decide it has. It’s based on psychology, as all economics is.

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
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          3 days ago

          The US dollar is backed up by you have to pay your taxes in US dollar so the US economy is going to accept US dollar, thus, if you have dollars, you can buy shit in the US. In effect, thus, the US dollar is backed by the US economy.

          There’s no such mechanism for crypto coins. If you now say “well the Fed can just print money”, that’s US policy. The Euro works differently, there price stability reigns supreme, in any case the policies of both Fed and ECB are well-known and people trust that they don’t change willy-nilly because neither the US nor the EU has any interest in the fallout that would cause. That trust is in no way weaker, less of a guarantee, wrt. giving a hint at the future value of the currency as the collective faith that props up crypto coins as a unit of account.

          And gold, btw, is practically useless as a commodity. Jewelry? Literally only used for that because it’s expensive. Technical applications? Do exist, but the amount needed is negligible. The value of gold relies on the existence of a luxury market.

      • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        National currencies are backed by people’s vested interest in the continued stability of the nation.

        • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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          3 days ago

          National currencies are backed by the fear of people who have given themselves arbitrary titles that they agree allows them to point guns at you without being prosecuted for that.

      • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        While you have a point, paper sacks would be a bad currency because it’s decently easy to create more paper sacks and therefore inflation would run rampant quite quickly. This is why things that used to be considered money are no longer money such as seashells, glass beads, etc. It turns out they were too easy to make and inflation ran rampant until they found a harder currency.

        • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          I love when someone comes along and thinks they have the answer to all life’s problems, as if nobody else ever thought of their idea after thousands of years of economic theory. The hubris is intense here.

        • Kalkaline @leminal.space
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          3 days ago

          Paper sacks have a natural limit to being made just like everything else. Eventually you reach market stability, paper sacks are also not durable, so there would be some churn in the supply.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          3 days ago

          Those things were used either because they had inherent value (gold, seashells, gems) or they were just hard enough to make for the average person (glass beads, coinage).