Can someone please help me understand the "unlimited" supply of Solcoins? For some reason, that sounds like a really bad idea. Please enlighten me on why this is a 1. a good idea and 2. good for the longevity of the coin? Thanks!
The scenario is more complex than often described (the confusion between monetary inflation and price inflation f.e., which is a separate topic) and some of it is speculation as you can never foresee the future value or popularity of any currency, but... the main point with an unlimited (but slow) supply is to avoid monetary deflation due to the inevitable reality of lost currency as people will slowly forget or lose their wallets (or worse, as in the case of Bitcoin, where massive quantities have been seized and unlikely to ever be released again).
With current settings, assuming the currency doesn't fall into complete obscurity, it will take around 9 years for Solcoin to reach its initial planned maximum of ~696 million coins, and at that point Solcoin will already have been on the "service floor" of 27 coins per block for 4.5 years which should be enough to settle its presumed value based on a nominal supply of a mere 27 coins every 3 minutes. This also means that the number of coins in active circulation MIGHT end up less than the ~696 million planned.
