Bitcoin Q&A: Denominations and Voluntary Burning
Channel: aantonop
Date: 2018-08-22

What is the effect of voluntary burning or accidental loss? Does it impact deflation a lot? Why is there a limit for 21 million bitcoin? Why are there 8 decimal places? What are the implications of a decimal place increase? Are there sub-satoshi units on Lightning?

As mentioned starting at 4:04, watch Tadge Dryja's presentation here: https://youtu.be/-lgYYz3y_hY

There was also a paper on the topic titled "Probabilistic Lightning," written by Bloxham, Yuan ,Xia, and Jang, to which he contributed: https://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.857/2017/project/7.pdf

Chapters
0:00 Voluntary burning and accidental loss effects over the long-term on bitcoin. Could voluntary burning of bitcoin inadvertently harm Bitcoin?
2:07 A bitcoin is only divisible to eight decimal places. What if we run out of granularity? What if a satoshi ends up being too expensive to do anything with it? Will we need to have even smaller units?
5:01 Sometimes people ask me why the supply limit is twenty-one million bitcoins? I couldn't find any information about why Satoshi Nakamoto has chosen this number. Why not 18 million, 25 million, or something else? Do you know? Why eight decimals?
8:18 Do you believe that the number of satoshis in a fully mined, 21 million bitcoin network will be sufficient to support a scaled number of users and layered applications?

These are questions from the (late) April and May Patreon sessions, which took place on May 5th and May 26th 2018 respectively. If you want early-access to talks and a chance to participate in the monthly live Q&As with Andreas, become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/aantonop

RELATED:
Bitcoin, Lightning, and Streaming Money - https://youtu.be/gF_ZQ_eijPs
The Internet of Money: Five Years Later - https://youtu.be/6xIq0FdmsIA
The Lightning Network - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPQwGV1aLnTurL4wU_y3jOhBi9rrpsYyi
Advanced Bitcoin Scripting, Part 1: Transactions and Multisig - https://youtu.be/8FeAXjkmDcQ
Advanced Bitcoin Scripting, Part 2: SegWit, Consensus, and Trustware - https://youtu.be/pQbeBduVQ4I
The Lightning Network - https://youtu.be/vPnO9ExJ50A
Lightning's security model - https://youtu.be/_GNsT_ufkec
Eltoo, and the early days of Lightning - https://youtu.be/o6eFZ5aI9N0
Misconceptions about the Lightning Network - https://youtu.be/c4TjfaLgzj4
Lightning Network scaling - https://youtu.be/4KiWkwo48k0
Lightning Network interoperability - https://youtu.be/1HYMWcJHGXc
Atomic swaps - https://youtu.be/fNFBA2UmUmg
Running nodes and payment channels - https://youtu.be/ndcfBfE_yoY
What is Segregated Witness (SegWit)? - https://youtu.be/dtOjjB4mD8k
SegWit and fork research - https://youtu.be/OorLoi01KEE
The 21 million supply cap - https://youtu.be/AABkJ55Zz3A
Divisibility and deflationary monetary policy - https://youtu.be/xhLgxX_wU6E
Inflation and debt systems - https://youtu.be/6CwxHiKf27A
HODLing and the "get free" scheme - https://youtu.be/MhOwmsW1YNI
Wealth distribution statistics - https://youtu.be/X2Qsz4eaSPY

Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a technologist and serial entrepreneur who has become one of the most well-known and respected figures in bitcoin.

Follow on Twitter: @aantonop https://twitter.com/aantonop
Website: https://antonopoulos.com/

He is the author of two books: “Mastering Bitcoin,” published by O’Reilly Media and considered the best technical guide to bitcoin; “The Internet of Money,” a book about why bitcoin matters.

THE INTERNET OF MONEY, v1: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Internet-Money-collection-Andreas-Antonopoulos/dp/1537000454/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

[NEW] THE INTERNET OF MONEY, v2: https://www.amazon.com/Internet-Money-Andreas-M-Antonopoulos/dp/194791006X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

MASTERING BITCOIN: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-Bitcoin-Unlocking-Digital-Cryptocurrencies/dp/1449374042

[NEW] MASTERING BITCOIN, 2nd Edition: https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Bitcoin-Programming-Open-Blockchain/dp/1491954388

Translations of MASTERING BITCOIN: https://bitcoinbook.info/translations-of-mastering-bitcoin/

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