How much can we affect the total inflation rate of Dash by spending more or less of the Treasury???
In the discussion on DashCentral about the "mop up" proposal for DCG, there was some concern expressed about causing too much inflation in the Dash ecosystem by spending pretty much the entire amount available in this treasury cycle. Since I am a spreadsheet nerd, I thought it might be worthwhile to look at the actual numbers. This resulted in the following response:
In my view it would not be a bad thing to spend every Duff that is available in the Treasury process in the short term. Once Evolution Platform is launched and the value of Dash crawls back out of the gutter it would be a useful and worthwhile conversation to discuss the merits of creating less Dash than the theoretical maximum.
Here's a fun Dash history trivia fact: Back in the day, Evan voiced the opinion that if Dash ever needed an extra infusion of money, he could tweak the protocol and create some or all of the Dash that had not been created in the past. I'm not lobbying for that, but I find it interesting.
It is also worth noting how much we can or cannot affect the inflation rate of Dash (AKA, the emission curve). Certainly, many Dash and crypto people (me included!) are concerned about inflation since that is one of the many drawbacks of all fiat currencies. Before you read any further, what number pops in your head about how much inflation we could cause if we were wildly irresponsible and created/spent every penny of Dash that is possible in every single Treasury cycle this month and and next month and forever?
The actual numbers are illuminating. If we produce every possible Dash from today forward (spend/create every Duff, every treasury cycle), the total Dash ever produced will be 18.9 million Dash.
If we never created another Duff through the treasury cycle, the grand total would be 17.7 million Dash, a difference of 1.2 million Dash. Expressed as a percentage, spending/creating every possible Dash would result in a grand total that is 6.8% greater. (this is based on somewhat outdated data, see link below). Updated data would show an even smaller difference.
Not year over year inflation as the vastly inferior legacy banking system accounts for inflation, but in the whole emission curve over the next century, we could cause a grand total of 6.8% inflation. At the moment, many countries would sell their grandmother to have an annual inflation rate of 6.8%. Never mind a lifetime inflation rate of 6.8%.
In real life, we are going to spend a substantial part of the treasury every month for the foreseeable future. We have a lot to do yet if we are going to provide honest money to the world. And a lot of that costs money. The difference between the theoretical maximum and the "real life" maximum is something closer to 1%.
I understand and respect and share the concern that many in the Dash community have about restricting inflation in the Dash universe. But when we look at the actual numbers, our very best efforts at restricting the Dash emission curve will reduce the total inflation rate by an amount that is literally a "rounding error."
Additional details can be found here for those who like documentation and proof. Scroll down to Total Coin Emission: https://docs.dash.org/en/stable/docs/user/introduction/features.html#emission-rate
The take home message is that we should create and use Dash in a responsible manner. Don't fund stupid crap for sure. But don't lay awake at night worrying about damaging the value of Dash because we spent most or all the the available Treasury funds. We got this.
best regards,
solarguy