$100k seems laughably low, when you consider that it buys less than 4 months of dev time (assuming a $200/hr consulting rate).
It does seem low compared to the rise in developer salaries of late. I guess that's why they need help tracking inflation.
A $100k Prize for a Decentralized Inflation Dashboard
31–40 of 121 posts
Re: A $100k Prize for a Decentralized Inflation Dashboard
#32OK, blockchain fans, I’m genuinely confused as usual… Can someone explain what the point is of collecting price data and then putting it on the chain with a smart contract to do calculations on it? If “censorship” is a problem, why not just broadcast/mirror the signed data? If the calculation is untrusted, why not just publish the source code and let people run it on the published data? What is the blockchain accompl…
For about the same reason that you should use blockchain for inventory management.
Re: A $100k Prize for a Decentralized Inflation Dashboard
#33What I'd really like to see is a multi-dimensional inflation vector that would also be future-proof. People really need diverse items: they need food, but also real estate, the prices of which are going through the roof currently, and that's a form of inflation. Also, there are many profiles of consumption. People have different needs. I'd say that it could be a 100 floating point vector; with the first 40 values arr…
>Also, there are many profiles of consumption. People have different needs.
How do you get people to agree on which profile? I have a feeling it'll end up like the various unemployment statistics U-1 through U-6, ie. "you're a fool if you believe unemployment is at x% (U-3), the real unemployment rate is y% (your choice of U1/2/4/5/6, depending on the picture you want to paint)"
Re: A $100k Prize for a Decentralized Inflation Dashboard
#34>If enough of the right people believe that inflation is going to happen, it will. As such, when inflation is happening, there is often a push to censor discussion of inflation itself, under the grounds that discussing the problem actually causes it in the first place. The flip side to this notion is that if someone stands to profit from inflation, they're incentivized to promote discussion of inflation with the hope…
Yeah I'd have to set some actual evidence of censorship, rather then just asserting it. Unless by censorship they really mean people arguing against them. There seems to be a thing now in some circles where any disagreement is considered censorship.
Re: A $100k Prize for a Decentralized Inflation Dashboard
#35> Inflation is a monetary phenomenon, a function of money printing
Is it, though? Are hotels and used cars more expensive this year because of money printing?
Re: A $100k Prize for a Decentralized Inflation Dashboard
#36Inflation can be good. It causes the value of debts to decrease. However, sharp inflation in consumer prices without corresponding wage increases can precipitate a humanitarian crisis.
Inflation is neither good nor bad. It is merely a measure.
People mistake cause and effect in economics all the time. Inflation can be a good proxy for money velocity. But it can also just be a proxy for growth of money supply. In the former, it’s often a sign of economic activity/growth. In the latter, it’s often a sign of stagflation.
The US seems closer to stagflation at the moment. The Fed have an opportunity to nip this in the bud and deflate their balance sheet, but they won’t.
Re: A $100k Prize for a Decentralized Inflation Dashboard
#37>If enough of the right people believe that inflation is going to happen, it will. As such, when inflation is happening, there is often a push to censor discussion of inflation itself, under the grounds that discussing the problem actually causes it in the first place. The flip side to this notion is that if someone stands to profit from inflation, they're incentivized to promote discussion of inflation with the hope…
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Re: A $100k Prize for a Decentralized Inflation Dashboard
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
>* offer integrations into various relevant systems What's your moat here? What's preventing a competitor from using the blockchain data you published to make their own product? >* ability to build custom baskets and/or change the weighting of different categories Considering that the data is public, that seems easy to do. See also: above comment about moats.
If it has a good enough UI, people will pay, just like anything else. Not everybody wants to build their own scripts around the data, even if its free. Obviously this is not a billion dollar idea, but it sure could bring in some $ to pay for a full-time developer or two and still make a little profit.
> If it has a good enough UI, people will pay, just like anything else. Not everybody wants to build their own scripts around the data, even if its free.
Then a big corp comes up with their own offering and steamrolls you with their lower prices, integration with their existing products, and better engineering/sales staff. See for instance, mongodb and elasticsearch.
Re: A $100k Prize for a Decentralized Inflation Dashboard
#39> Inflation is a monetary phenomenon, a function of money printing Is it, though? Are hotels and used cars more expensive this year because of money printing?
Indeed! If somebody was able to print a trillion dollars and stash it away in their bank account, I don't see why any observable inflation would occur.
Re: A $100k Prize for a Decentralized Inflation Dashboard
#40OK, blockchain fans, I’m genuinely confused as usual… Can someone explain what the point is of collecting price data and then putting it on the chain with a smart contract to do calculations on it? If “censorship” is a problem, why not just broadcast/mirror the signed data? If the calculation is untrusted, why not just publish the source code and let people run it on the published data? What is the blockchain accompl…
Probably so it can tie in with some smart contract that's based off the CPI (eg. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities). As for why that's useful, I'm not sure. At the end you'll still need a trusted oracle for the scraped prices.
It would be very useful for on-chain financial derivatives based off a more accurate inflation gauge. I don't trust the official CPI numbers and don't see them as accurately reflecting my cost of living increases over the years. Couple in the fact that there are literally trillions in pension benefits tied to CPI, so the incentive to manipulate these numbers is huge. It's already very opaque. If you look at the constituents [0], housing, education and health care make up around 60%, so it makes no sense that inflation has been flat for the last ten years.
The prices would ideally come from a large number of sources and some averaging would take place.
[0] https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2021/07/1...