[Cryptography] deflation, was Montana: A Post-Quantum Blockchain with Time as Scarcity

[Ron Garret]

> On May 20, 2026, at 2:49 PM, John Levine <johnl at iecc.com> wrote:
> 
> It appears that Ron Garret <ron at flownet.com> said:
>> It is important to remember that at the exact same time that the Weimar Republic was experiencing its inflationary disaster, the United States was dealing with a
>> deflationary disaster known as the Great Depression.  Herbert Hoover's Fed ran the USD as if it were BTC (at least in terms of monetary policy), and it took fifteen
>> years and a world war to recover.  We escaped a similar fate in 2008 by the skin of our teeth *only* because the Fed had the ability to "fire up the printing
>> presses" and provide liquidity.
> 
> The Weimar inflation was in 1923, while the Great Depression in the US didn't
> start until the 1930-33 deflation.

Yes, this is right.  I have no idea how I got it in my head that these events were contemporaneous.  My apologies for muddying the waters.  However...

> The historical record is abundantly clear that while hyperinflation is bad,
> deflation is worse.  Even if there were any possibility that cryptocurrencies
> would be usable as real money, one should be careful what one wishes for.

That is the point I was actually trying to make.

rg