uh, no, it's not yet. Masses of new bitcoins are being created every day. That is inflationary (and much more so than USD).
@greg_bt: it matters little how you frame it, but the supply of bitcoins is increasing. It will gradually reduce and stop, all of which is predetermined, yes. Today it is inflationary (IIRC its about 15%/y currently, but don't hold me to that), eventually it will be deflationary.
I don't know if 'bitcoins are being created every day' is the right way of looking at it? Bitcoins are more discovered as opposed to created. It would be like if every USD ever was buried and people were gradually digging them out of the ground and everyone knew exactly how many were buried? The amount of bitcoins in circulation is increasing but the total amount of bitcoins that will ever exist isn't increasing at all.
It's also increasing at a controlled rate. To make your analogy more complete, it'd be like all the diggers are aware of each other and whether they've found a USD or not. If too many are being found at once, everyone switches to using their hands. If still too many are found, everyone uses their tongues. If too few are being found, shovels are allowed. If still too few are being found, backhoes are allowed.
Can you give this analogous type summary of how this works from a technical perspective? I assume it doesn't rely on everyone coming to some sort of an agreement?
To be correct, the question of whether a currency is inflationary or deflationary, is a function of both the increase in the supply of the currency, as well as growth in the economy. If the economy is growing faster than the currency, than the currency is deflationary.
There is also the velocity of money, which people tend to forget. MV = PQ is a tautology that tends to be fairly useless in understanding inflation because there's no variable there that is reasonably constant. So other approaches fare better, such as looking at the sources of inflation, e.g. imports, relative labor bargaining power, and aggregate demand vs. supply.
except the previous mega-crash.
>bitcoin being a deflationary
uh, no, it's not yet. Masses of new bitcoins are being created every day. That is inflationary (and much more so than USD).
@greg_bt: it matters little how you frame it, but the supply of bitcoins is increasing. It will gradually reduce and stop, all of which is predetermined, yes. Today it is inflationary (IIRC its about 15%/y currently, but don't hold me to that), eventually it will be deflationary.