Bitcoin mined its first block, Block 0, ( seen at https://www.blockchain.com/btc/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f) on January 3, 2009. Ten years later, almost to the day, Grin did the same. Grin went live January 15, 2019 when it mined its own Block 0 (seen at https://grinexplorer.net/block/40adad0aec27797b48840aa9e00472015c21baea118ce7a2ff1a82c0f8f5bf82), so it's new on the scene.
A new coin or a new token is really nothing new. They're a dime-a-dozen these days. So, what's noteworthy about Grin?
The Grin website at https://grin-tech.org is a good place to start learning. But, I'll try to relay an overview and convey my takeaways here.
Grin has similarities to Bitcoin.
Grin gets it right when it comes to fair play. It is, or will be, a 100% mined coin, like Bitcoin. There are no silly pre-mined coins generated from thin air. And, there are no lucrative bonuses to the developers who wrote the code. The devs get nothing. The Grin system, like Bitcoin, solely awards the work of "mining"—which is really a code word for helping to verify transactions and to secure the blockchain by reaching a consensus, that says, "Yep, these transactions are legit. We all agree on that. Write it down."
As with Bitcoin, the Grin developers are anonymous, like Satoshi Nakamoto. Grin is community-made and driven, without any foundation or committee or leaders. It hearkens back to the independence-minded creed of the original cypherpunks and the mailing list where Satoshi first accounced Bitcoin in 2008.
Becoming Bitcoin 2.0 does not mean copy-catting Bitcoin. There are very real differences with Grin.
Grin is private.
Bitcoin, despite often being labeled as anonymous, is not. Bitcoin has very often been portrayed that way, though. True, your name is not aligned with your wallet or Bitcoin address. But, to say that Bitcoin is anonymous is not entirely accurate.
Suppose you have a Bitcoin address. Anyone can see how much you have in there. Imagine if that was true of your bank savings account. Also with Bitcoin, they can see all of the other Bitcoin addresses with which your address has interacted. By connecting the dots (the addresses), a picture of your Bitcoin activity can begin to materialize. This is especially true if any of those addresses are known—if a real person or entity is known to be identified with that address. Then, your anonymity is not quite as certain as before.
For instance, if you bought some alpaca socks with Bitcoin, then entered your name and shipping address, BOOM! You, your physical address, and that Bitcoin address are now tied together. What's more, you, your Bitcoin address, and every other Bitcoin address that it has transacted with are also now linked. Even more worrisome, and although your alpaca socks are totally innocent, you're also linked to any bad-actors whose names my be linked with another Bitcoin address that links to you.
With Grin, amounts will not be visible to others. Nor will past transactions be visible and thereby exist as breadcrumbs along a user's path. Grin is based on MimbleWimble—the name of a tongue-tying hex in the Harry Potter series. The implication is that MimbleWimble confuses the Grin transactions so that they cannot be traced or followed, as with Bitcoin.
Grin has an inflationary money supply.
Perhaps the most direct difference in Grin is the fact that its money supply is infinite. There will only be 21 million Bitcoins, ever. Grin will mine 60 per minute, forever.
Wait, what? To many, myself included, one of the most appealing things about Bitcoin is its hard-coded scarcity. A fundamental impetus for Satoshi creating Bitcoin was the rampant printing of fiat currency and bailouts during the 2008-09 recession. Satoshi's comment in the Genesis block, "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks" is rather clear evidence to this motivation.
So, why would Grin opt for an infinite monetary supply?
The answer lies in Satoshi Nakamoto's first post to the cypherpunk mailing list. There, he revealed he'd been working on "a new electronic cash system." To Grinner's this implies that Satoshi saw Bitcoin as a currency. Today, Bitcoin is seen less as a currency like the greenbacks in your pocket, but rather as a store of value, like gold. After all, you don't pay for a cafe con leche with a gold bar. This system offers a disincentive to spending, and an incentive for hodling—no one wants to make the next Bitcoin pizza mistake.
The Grin philosophy is that for Bitcoin, er Bitcoin 2.0/Grin, to become reality, it should adhere to Satoshi's vision of being a currency usable on a day-to-day basis. So, creating an inflationary monetary policy incentivizes spending now. There is no reason to hodl, because the coin will be worth less tomorrow.
Last thoughts.
I absolutely love most of Grin. But, in full disclosure, I'm not sure how I feel about the inflationary structure. I will say that my gut gets a little queasy here. There is merit to the initiative of trying to generate a currency that people will want to use. But, fiddling with inflation means trying to get it right. This is the mission of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Whether they get it right or wrong, you tell me, but it's hard. And, they struggle with it despite having the freedom to manage things. With Grin, there will be no management of monetary policies, rather, we must solely rely on the hard-coded 60-per minute rule being right, no exceptions.
Worth noting, Grin and its infinite, inflationary policies remind me of another very intriguing project, Radix.
If you've not heard of Radix, it might be worth looking into at http://www.radixdlt.com because it truly does seem different. No, I'm not pumping it I don't own any it's not live yet. Here are some quick bullets:
- It's not a blockchain, DAG, or Tangle. It has created an entirely new way to find consensus that fits none of those descriptors.
- They are shooting for incredible scalability due to their new consensus method, way beyond even levels attained by EOS.
- Its supply is infinite, like Grin, but aims for a degree of stability, something stable enough to be used as a currency. To try and achieve this, more Radix coins may be generated, and some may be burnt.
- The details are not entirely clear yet. But, an economic whitepaper is due out in just a few days, on January 31, 2019.
Originally published on http://satoshitimes.wikidot.com
January 24, 2019
LINK: http://satoshitimes.wikidot.com/blog:30
Although dated, this is being posted here on the Hive blockchain so that it's archived.