Gavin Andresen: CoinLab and Bitcoin
2012 Apr 24
See all posts
Gavin Andresen: CoinLab and Bitcoin @ Satoshi Nakamoto
- Author
-
Gavin Andresen
- Email
-
satoshinakamotonetwork@proton.me
- Site
-
https://satoshinakamoto.network
A friend sent me a link to a GeekWire
article about Seattle Bitcoin startup CoinLab raising half a million dollars
and asked "is that a good or bad thing?"
It's a good thing!
The long-term vision for the Bitcoin economy is a closed loop– people
earn and spend bitcoins, instead of exchanging bitcoins for some other
currency.
Since most people get most of the earnings in the form of a salary,
and since I think it will take a very long time (if ever!) before a
typical company considers paying employees in Bitcoin, the ‘earning'
side of the equation worries me most.
That's why I created the Bitcoin Faucet, and that's why I like to see
projects like ForBitcoin or FeedZeBirds that give people all of
the world ways to earn a little coin. They give anybody with an internet
connection and some extra time, anywhere in the world, a way to put
their time to productive use. That's a very good thing.
CoinLab's idea is to let game companies "earn profit from idle users
with a custom-branded coin client." The users run a little program and
are awarded with in-game items or power-ups. The game companies get
dollars. And CoinLab makes it all work by doing a bunch of
behind-the-scenes infrastructure, exchanging the bitcoins that the users
create for dollars.
I think CoinLab is being smart by not asking the game companies or
users to deal with bitcoins, but instead having them deal with what
they're already comfortable with (dollars and in-game commodities).
But eliminating the exchange and paying the gamers and/or the game
developers directly in bitcoin would be more efficient, and is an
obvious, easy-to-implement feature. Bit-Pay is doing something similar for
merchants, depositing dollars or bitcoins or both in their accounts when
they receive bitcoin payments.
I think the biggest market for a service like CoinLab will be younger
gamers. If you're 15 years old and don't pay rent or electricity then
leaving your computer running overnight to earn some in-game currency
will be pretty darn appealing. If a whole generation of
video-game-playing kids grows up with Bitcoin then the future for
Bitcoin will be very bright.
Theoretically it even makes sense if you are paying
for the electricity, because CoinLab is essentially outsourcing all of
the billing and payment and collection infrastructure to the local
electric company. And utility companies are pretty darn good at getting
their customers to pay their bills; that translates into a more
efficient payment system and lower costs for users.
But... but... what about the environment? What about all those gamers
using all that extra electricity to create bitcoins? THINK
ABOUT THE POLAR BEARS!
Big-picture
economics lesson: more efficient == better. Better for people,
better for the environment.
Think about the unseen– if people are (indirectly) using electricity
to pay for in-game items instead of using their credit-cards or buying
‘game cards' in stores, where does the cost-savings coming from?
That's easy to think about for physical game cards– there will be
fewer produced, which means less plastic manufactured, fewer trucks
shipping them from some factory to stores, and fewer car trips to the
mall so teenagers can spend a little cash to get their Farmville
fix.
It's harder to think about for credit cards, because the costs are
really well-hidden. A lot of effort is put into collecting bad debts.
I'm sure credit card companies and debt collection agencies spend a lot
of money on electricity for their call centers, but most of the cost
savings will be fewer people trying to get deadbeats to pay their
bills.
That would be a good thing, too! Collecting debts doesn't make the
world a better place, and the out-of-work debt collectors will find
something more productive to do. Maybe they'll go work for the game
company who has a little extra cash and can afford to pay for another
customer support person. Maybe they'll go work in a Sierra Club call
center, convincing gamers who have a little extra cash (because they
paid $10 on their electricity bill for some game stuff instead of paying
$10.05 to a credit card company) to contribute to programs that help
polar bears...
Gavin Andresen: CoinLab and Bitcoin
2012 Apr 24 See all postsGavin Andresen
satoshinakamotonetwork@proton.me
https://satoshinakamoto.network
A friend sent me a link to a GeekWire article about Seattle Bitcoin startup CoinLab raising half a million dollars and asked "is that a good or bad thing?"
It's a good thing!
The long-term vision for the Bitcoin economy is a closed loop– people earn and spend bitcoins, instead of exchanging bitcoins for some other currency.
Since most people get most of the earnings in the form of a salary, and since I think it will take a very long time (if ever!) before a typical company considers paying employees in Bitcoin, the ‘earning' side of the equation worries me most.
That's why I created the Bitcoin Faucet, and that's why I like to see projects like ForBitcoin or FeedZeBirds that give people all of the world ways to earn a little coin. They give anybody with an internet connection and some extra time, anywhere in the world, a way to put their time to productive use. That's a very good thing.
CoinLab's idea is to let game companies "earn profit from idle users with a custom-branded coin client." The users run a little program and are awarded with in-game items or power-ups. The game companies get dollars. And CoinLab makes it all work by doing a bunch of behind-the-scenes infrastructure, exchanging the bitcoins that the users create for dollars.
I think CoinLab is being smart by not asking the game companies or users to deal with bitcoins, but instead having them deal with what they're already comfortable with (dollars and in-game commodities).
But eliminating the exchange and paying the gamers and/or the game developers directly in bitcoin would be more efficient, and is an obvious, easy-to-implement feature. Bit-Pay is doing something similar for merchants, depositing dollars or bitcoins or both in their accounts when they receive bitcoin payments.
I think the biggest market for a service like CoinLab will be younger gamers. If you're 15 years old and don't pay rent or electricity then leaving your computer running overnight to earn some in-game currency will be pretty darn appealing. If a whole generation of video-game-playing kids grows up with Bitcoin then the future for Bitcoin will be very bright.
Theoretically it even makes sense if you are paying for the electricity, because CoinLab is essentially outsourcing all of the billing and payment and collection infrastructure to the local electric company. And utility companies are pretty darn good at getting their customers to pay their bills; that translates into a more efficient payment system and lower costs for users.
But... but... what about the environment? What about all those gamers using all that extra electricity to create bitcoins? THINK ABOUT THE POLAR BEARS!
Big-picture economics lesson: more efficient == better. Better for people, better for the environment.
Think about the unseen– if people are (indirectly) using electricity to pay for in-game items instead of using their credit-cards or buying ‘game cards' in stores, where does the cost-savings coming from?
That's easy to think about for physical game cards– there will be fewer produced, which means less plastic manufactured, fewer trucks shipping them from some factory to stores, and fewer car trips to the mall so teenagers can spend a little cash to get their Farmville fix.
It's harder to think about for credit cards, because the costs are really well-hidden. A lot of effort is put into collecting bad debts. I'm sure credit card companies and debt collection agencies spend a lot of money on electricity for their call centers, but most of the cost savings will be fewer people trying to get deadbeats to pay their bills.
That would be a good thing, too! Collecting debts doesn't make the world a better place, and the out-of-work debt collectors will find something more productive to do. Maybe they'll go work for the game company who has a little extra cash and can afford to pay for another customer support person. Maybe they'll go work in a Sierra Club call center, convincing gamers who have a little extra cash (because they paid $10 on their electricity bill for some game stuff instead of paying $10.05 to a credit card company) to contribute to programs that help polar bears...