Subject: Re: [bitcoindev] The Future of Bitcoin Testnet

From: Matthew Bagazinski <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2024 11:46:59 -0700 (PDT)

Unfortunately, the current form of Testnet is doomed to have value, just 
like BTC. Its scarcity makes it a valuable asset. And no reset will change 
that. It will only result in repeated resets, multiple versions of testnet, 
and people never learning.

I have to agree with emsit here. Never underestimate the ability for people 
to ascribe value to something with provable scarcity.  I like Peter Todd's 
suggestion of removing the halving completely, so that plenty new coins are 
always coming into circulation, but it received pushback for removing the 
regular 210,000-block events. Here are a few dumb ideas to chew on to see 
if we can come up with something better:

   - Doubling every 210,000 blocks. This leads to the supply growing 
   exponentially; impossible to try to ascribe value to that.
   - Adding 1 to the subsidy every 210,000 blocks. Still an infinite 
   supply, closer to a standard subsidy, but there is still a change happening 
   every 210,000 blocks.
   - Subtracting 1 every 210,000 blocks. This is technically still scarce, 
   but a much gentler decline in admissions. Yes, it eventually drops to 0, 
   but after 50 events instead of the current 33 halvings.
   - Change "half" to some other fraction like "nine-tenths". Still 
   technically scarce, gentler decline in rewards, but still retains the 
   property of having a geometric sequence to the subsidies.

Like I said, dumb ideas, but I think there is a decision to be made between 
avoiding a future reset by mitigating reasons people add value to tBTC 
(such as scarcity) and expecting/planning for more regular resets when 
people start inevitably valuing tBTC.

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