Who came up with the burn a coin as it is used idea?

Has this idea been used anywhere else?

What is its purpose?

Burning a coin means it can’t be used again.

SafeCoin is not burned, it is recycled and returned to a pool that can be used to reward farmers.

This creates an economy much like the real economy where money circulates, so it has been used in real world situations. I don’t know if any other projects have a similar approach though.

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What @happybeing said plus:

Burning coins is sending them (bitcoins, and other blockchain tokens) to an address from which they can’t be spent by anyone.

This was used to give the Counterparty token (XCP) value when that protocol was originally launched. That is, destroying real bitcoins to create Counterparty tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain. That gave participants skin in the game, i.e., proof of burn.

Not sure what other uses burning has been put to, but that was, I think, the first broad intentional use. “Burn” is effectively accomplished any time value is sent to an address for which no one has the private key, whether intentional or not.

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