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Comment by dnautics | Hacker News Reader

Pardon, where in the paper do you see that society should be reformed to favor consumption?

It is also hard to see how a blockchain technology would encourage faster consumption than an inflationary fiat system like that which we have with FRNs, but maybe I missed something in the OP.

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The OP is proposing a system where savings decays over time, which creates incentive to spend your money quickly while it has value, hence consumerism. This effect already occurs to an extent via the FED's target inflation rate of 2% per annum. This strategy can also cause malinvestment. A person or company is more likely to make riskier investments rather than a certain loss. These risks often lead to economic bubbles. I see what the OP is trying to accomplish, but it would likely lead to a turbulent economy.

I'll add that by using public ledger and blockchain tech I take a lot of the problems of mal-investment out of the picture because we can collapse holes in the economy when they pop up. The market will take care of this because people will learn that it is far more profitable to avoid holes in the first place, but I also provide an escape hatch.

When the bubble collapses you can just follow the chain, convert the failed companies to pass through entities and move on the next best idea. The money went somewhere after all. Today we can't find it because of complexity theory. With a chain, you can find it. Or at least that is the theory....

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