Ideal Properties of Digital Commodities
Inspired by the thread: http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=2966.0
Ideal Properties of Decentralized Digital Commodity
If we had the ability to design and implement an ideal form of digital commodity money, what would it look like? How does Bitcoin currently compare?
| Property | Ideal Implementation | Bitcoin's Current Rating (A..F) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decentralized | no single point of failure or issuing authority | A. | |
| Scarce | required to be a reasonable store of value | A. | |
| Divisible | should be as close to infinitely divisible as possible | B. | |
| Storage | actual commodity should be cheap and easy to physically store securely | A. | |
| Irreversible Transactions | transactions should be irreversible | A. | |
| Anonymous | untraceable transactions (if desired) | C. | currently requires some trusted third party to obsfucate transactions |
| Unspoofable | should be exceedingly difficult to counterfeit | A. | |
| Audit** | publicly auditable balances, with account holder's permission | C. | since permission is not required |
| Free Transactions | transactions should be free, or nearly free, forever | B | bitcoin future tx fees are a big unkown right now |
| Unique Use-Value? | ideally a commodity should have a unique non-monetary use-value | F | currently there is nothing you can do with bitcoin that you cannot do with a national currency |
\**May not be a necessary property. Thinking it would be cool if a known address could be audited via a tool like blockexplorer.com but if the coins are moved from that address, they are untraceable.