I love the Bitcoin algorithm and implementation. But the total number of bitcoins to be produced—approaching 21 million—is not enough, for two reasons.
Bitcoin won’t be useful until at least 100 million people use it. We’d really like 1 billion people to use it. But the maximum number of users possible is 21 million, because only 21 million people can have bitcoins, even if each has only one.
It’s very discouraging to start up your bitcoin client every day for weeks, and keep it running all the time, and still have no bitcoins. This will discourage early adapters.
Bitcoin won’t be useful until at least 100 million people use it. We’d really like 1 billion people to use it. But the maximum number of users possible is 21 million, because only 21 million people can have bitcoins, even if each has only one.
Bitcoins are divisible to the one hundred millionth place. So the code can support up to 2100 trillion users.
It’s very discouraging to start up your bitcoin client every day for weeks, and keep it running all the time, and still have no bitcoins. This will discourage early adapters.
Early adapters are a bit more robust than that, I think. But there’s a thread on this topic in the bitcoin forum, so perhaps the button will be removed in future versions. Ewallets like MyBitCoin do not have this problem to begin with, and it appears that the Google version does not have this feature either.
Bitcoins are divisible to the one hundred millionth place.
Actually, it’s better than that. The software can be updated in the future to make them more divisible, even just by shifting the decimal places on their internal representations (thus, start using ‘bitpennies’ or something.)
I love the Bitcoin algorithm and implementation. But the total number of bitcoins to be produced—approaching 21 million—is not enough, for two reasons.
Bitcoin won’t be useful until at least 100 million people use it. We’d really like 1 billion people to use it. But the maximum number of users possible is 21 million, because only 21 million people can have bitcoins, even if each has only one.
It’s very discouraging to start up your bitcoin client every day for weeks, and keep it running all the time, and still have no bitcoins. This will discourage early adapters.
Bitcoins are divisible to the one hundred millionth place. So the code can support up to 2100 trillion users.
Early adapters are a bit more robust than that, I think. But there’s a thread on this topic in the bitcoin forum, so perhaps the button will be removed in future versions. Ewallets like MyBitCoin do not have this problem to begin with, and it appears that the Google version does not have this feature either.
Actually, it’s better than that. The software can be updated in the future to make them more divisible, even just by shifting the decimal places on their internal representations (thus, start using ‘bitpennies’ or something.)