What would be an estimate of the value gained if the whole world started using Bitcoins?

I remember that before the Euro was first introduced, I read estimates on how much economical benefit every person would get (GDP per capita) once the Euro was fully implemented. Estimates like these were used in the cost/benefit analysis used for deciding whether or not it was worth the trouble of creating the Euro at all.

I guess they didn't include the risk of a Euro-collapse and the related costs, but nevertheless, it was an estimate. I do not know whether this question is too speculative, but it is truly the most interesting question I can think of. If it would be too difficult to estimate for the whole world, then an estimate for a region would also be interesting.

David

Posted 2011-12-17T13:19:50.893

Reputation: 3 304

I think this question is better suited for Economy SE. – ThePiachu – 2011-12-17T22:54:26.253

@ThePiachu I thought about it, but Bitcoins has very special characteristics, so on Economics SE it would be something like: "Imagine a currency that has the following special characteristics...", which makes it a poor question. – David – 2011-12-18T01:31:34.587

1I think the Economics SE people know of Bitcoin, but at the same time from my experience I found their approach to it a bit negative at times. Probably your question could be dismissed due to being a bit of a speculation, but if they were to answer it, the reply would probably be more of what you look for than what you'll find here. Generally, you ought to link to a website explaining Bitcoins, or explain that it is a finite crypto currency, they should understand what you are getting at. – ThePiachu – 2011-12-18T11:32:29.830

Answers

According to xkcd: Money Chart estimated total economic production of the human race as of 2011 is $2,396,950,000,000,000 . Divide it by 21 million and the theoretical maximum price per bitcoin would be $114,140,476, but that figure is impossible, because for one, even in best case scenario Bitcoin will co-exist and compete with other currencies and would have only a small share of the pie. Second, Bitcoin is more efficient medium of exchange then USD, in other words, to complete transaction a someone required to hold bitcoins for shorter period of time therefore less total amount of bitcoins would be required for circulation and that also means lower price.

Serith

Posted 2011-12-17T13:19:50.893

Reputation: 5 220

I have attempted to clarify the question, but please help out if you can. My question is not the amount of coins each person would get, but how much GDP per capita would be gained because Bitcoins for example remove currency risks. – David – 2011-12-17T15:40:57.840

1The answer to your question depends on how bitcoin currency would be used in future and what possibilities it will open up. Of course that's impossible to predict unless you already have good amount of details about that new use. You could try to extrapolate the current technology on bigger scale but I can assure you that it would not be anywhere near future reality, e.g. just yesterday bitsyn.com announced, twitter.com/BitSyncom, that they are working on building blocks for mesh network that would be alternative to ISPs and would use bitcoin as payment system for internet access. – Serith – 2011-12-17T17:35:52.697