"Voted upon by everyone participating in the network"... So does that mean I can buy 0.001 bitcoins and have equal voting power? And therefore that I can create a million shill accounts? Or is voting weighted by total number of bitcoins possessed?
Voting power is determined by how many processor cycles you're dedicating to mining the next block, it's not a 'how many coins do I have' or a 'one vote per one voice' kind of system, it's a 'how much am I actively contributing to the system as a whole'.
On a slight tangent, I can't help but think that it'd be interesting to see a democratic political system where the amount of contribution you make to the good of society affected how much influence you had on the political process. Course I don't realistically see such a thing as workable on a national scale. Just food for thought I guess.
It will be a long time until BitCoin reaches the maximum number of coins in circulation, specifically around 2140, and at the time, the number of bitcoins will be approximately 21 million. Since each bitcoin is currently divisible up to 8 decimal places, that means that when those last bitcoins are mined, there will be about 2.1 quadrillion individually accountable units of bitcoin currency available for use. That means that there is a controlled inflation value until 2140, and only after that point would deflation be inevitable. If we're still using bitcoins in 2135 or whenever that becomes a serious concern I'm sure some enterprising fellow will create a bitcoin clone, and encourage users to switch (which they will if they realize their money can only depreciate in value).
Considering the gross world product for 2011 was just about $79 trillion USD, (or if we include the currently smallest common division of US currency in our calculations, the penny, we have aproximately 7.9 quadrillion individual units of currency) I think the number of potential bitcoins is plenty to compete with any other world currency. Especially since although the GDP figures above are listed in USD, the actual distribution of GDP is in USD, CAD, Euros, Yen, and whatever other currencies you can think of.
BAN anonymous calls or otherwise hiding their numbers and identities. I can't think of a single legitimate reason why a call should be anonymous.
I can think of a few, say for example you are a delivery driver for a local pizza place. Now you need to get in touch with the customer while on the road for some reason (maybe you're not sure where their address is because it was misentered by the person taking the order, or maybe the customer isn't answering their door despite your knocking, or they happen to be in an apartment complex that won't let you inside without a key and doesn't have a door buzzer. A quick phone call could alleviate all of those problems, but it's unlikely that you'd use a company phone for that task, you'd likely use your own cell phone. Well, do you necessarily want some random stranger to know your cell number?
Seriously, +1 Internets to the first person who can put a positive spin on this one. Wow. Just wow.
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Sincerely,
Your friendly local cable company
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