The Fundamental Flaw of Bitcoin
Colin L. Read ()
Additional contact information
Colin L. Read: SUNY Plattsburgh
Chapter Chapter 8 in The Bitcoin Dilemma, 2022, pp 77-93 from Springer
Abstract:
Abstract For the reader interested in the economic theory behind bitcoin mining, this chapter describes the industry dynamics. Those less interested in the mathematics of the industry may prefer to skip to Chapter 9. With some understanding of the economics of the industry at hand, I next complete the economic picture. First, notice that industry dynamics are unique in that the supply of bitcoin is essentially fixed and will expand by only about 5% over the next 118 years. Economists call this supply inelastic because supply varies little, regardless of price and the level of demand. Indeed, when private keys are lost, or coins owned by SatoshiNakamoto, HatoshiNakamoto, Satoshi go unspent, supply actually declines in the bitcoin model. The unusual supply dimensions of bitcoin, combined with increasing demand over time combine to cause an increasing bitcoin price and hence energy consumption over time.
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-09138-4_8
Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031091384
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-09138-4_8
Access Statistics for this chapter
More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().