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shazow
@shazow.eth
Thought experiment: Are there any possible scenarios where ETH is effectively worth $0 USD, but the network continues to operate securely?
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shazow
@shazow.eth
Off the top of my head: 1. USD is not worth anything anymore. ðĪŠ 2. USD is still valuable, but there is zero liquidity to buy/sell ETH via USD but other pairs are available. This means ETH technically has value that can be expressed within other ecosystems that aren't USD. 3. There is zero liquidity available to buy/sell ETH against any other pair, but for some reason validators are still interested in producing blocks. Perhaps there is sufficient endogenous value and ETH flow that it becomes an entirely closed-loop system? 4. Ethereum is upgraded to use a different gas and staking reward token? 5. Imagine we upgrade Ethereum to stop all regular ETH transfers, but we still reward validators with ETH. Perhaps ETH is still usable as collateral in contracts, even though ETH itself is immovable?
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Snibb123.eth
@snibb123
It seems like this will depend on the the result of the great debate between ETH and SOL: whether economic security matters. Right now, one could argue the SOL thesis is playing out to some degree, since ETH price is down although the network continues to grow. Obviously not 0. But only time will tell I suppose.
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Dean Pierce ðĻâðŧðð
@deanpierce.eth
I think you're talking about testnets. That's the exact economic scenario that testnets operate under, and they seem to do pretty well.
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Andrei O.
@andrei0x309
ETH reaching near 0 values is impossible to predict. Also depends on what operating looks like. If network is very small, then yes it can operate. Plus security is derived from capital if ETH is 0 slashing in POS is effectively nullified. You need a mechanism for funding operation if network is large enough. If consensus mechanism does not yeld that funding, you need off-chain funding. So if it's of public utility taxes may be one way to fund it. The only way to run a very large network without funding is if that network costs almost nothing to run, which requires technology that we don't know it can exist and we don't have at the moment.
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