4 ms·

How is bitcoin useful? Other coins do exactly the same thing with faster transactions, more anonymity, and lower fees.

by dpiers 9y ago

weddpros 9y ago
the same applies to the dollar, which is useful, only not the cheapest, fastest or most anonymous...
davrosthedalek 9y ago
So they are useful too?
golergka 9y ago
Network effect. Try buying MDMA online with Dogecoin.
repomies691 9y ago
Liquidity is the most important property of the cryptocurrency. Faster transactions, anonymity or lower fees hardly matter if there are no places where I can spend the currency. Or if I sell services with it, there are no customers willing to pay. It is a huge chicken-and-egg problem, but looks like Bitcoin has solved it at least some level, since it is accepted on quite many places. We might start seeing services and merchants adopting other cryptocurrencies as well, but currently those alternatives don't seem that widely adopted.
bufferoverflow 9y ago
There's a ton more infrastructure behind Bitcoin, like ATMs, hardware wallets, point-of-sale systems, exchanges, and more physical and online stores accept it.
- Klathmon 9y ago
  And the ability for cryptocurrencies to evolve and update over time means that the network effect could be the single largest factor in determining it's worth.
  - neuro_imager 9y ago
    I'm interested to see how this will evolve. Right now you can use bitcoin's network effects to some degree with altcoins. eg. You use xmr.to to buy anything that you can buy with bitcoin with Monero. This is a band-aid of sorts for the time being but I don't see why services that currently allow you to use bitcoin could not upgrade to include a better currency/currencies?
    - Klathmon 9y ago
      Well, the security of a cryptocurrency (assuming Proof-of-work based) comes from the total amount of work that has happened in the chain since your transaction. Because of that, the largest cryptocurrencies with the most work behind them will naturally be the most secure the quickest. Monero might have some very good benefits, but the much smaller size of the network means it's a magnitude easier to attack from a state level adversary. And the fact that Bitcoin can (and will) evolve over time means that the benefits from other cryptocurrencies can be put into Bitcoin as they become useful or proven. This is already happening with Bitcoin, and it's not going to stop. That being said, I don't think that other cryptocurrencies are pointless, and I do believe that they can continue to happily coexist. Ethereum is focused on the "smart contract" side of things. Monero is focused on privacy. They can all have their uses and specializations, and they can all exist together in the same ecosystem. Even if Bitcoin ends up not being able to adapt and evolve for whatever reason, being a "store of value", your cryptocurrency savings account, is still a valid use case, and can continue to be one even if there are cryptocurrencies that do everything else objectively better.
      - SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
        Bitcoin radically gimped their VM at the start, destroying the inherent value of the coin. BTC is going to die to a gen 3 VM that learns from the ETH mess of gen 2 and just ungimps the BTC VM. I don't believe BTC has the political leadership to fix that poor decision, given that a) they've demonstrated poor leadership until now and b) some of the people involved in the gimping are still in positions of influence.

How is bitcoin useful? Other coins do exactly the same thing with faster transactions, more anonymity, and lower fees.

by dpiers 9y ago

How is bitcoin useful? Other coins do exactly the same thing with faster transactions, more anonymity, and lower fees.

weddpros 9y ago

the same applies to the dollar, which is useful, only not the cheapest, fastest or most anonymous...

davrosthedalek 9y ago

So they are useful too?

golergka 9y ago

Network effect. Try buying MDMA online with Dogecoin.

repomies691 9y ago

Liquidity is the most important property of the cryptocurrency. Faster transactions, anonymity or lower fees hardly matter if there are no places where I can spend the currency. Or if I sell services with it, there are no customers willing to pay. It is a huge chicken-and-egg problem, but looks like Bitcoin has solved it at least some level, since it is accepted on quite many places. We might start seeing services and merchants adopting other cryptocurrencies as well, but currently those alternatives don't seem that widely adopted.

bufferoverflow 9y ago

There's a ton more infrastructure behind Bitcoin, like ATMs, hardware wallets, point-of-sale systems, exchanges, and more physical and online stores accept it.

Klathmon 9y ago
And the ability for cryptocurrencies to evolve and update over time means that the network effect could be the single largest factor in determining it's worth.
- neuro_imager 9y ago
  I'm interested to see how this will evolve. Right now you can use bitcoin's network effects to some degree with altcoins. eg. You use xmr.to to buy anything that you can buy with bitcoin with Monero. This is a band-aid of sorts for the time being but I don't see why services that currently allow you to use bitcoin could not upgrade to include a better currency/currencies?
  - Klathmon 9y ago
    Well, the security of a cryptocurrency (assuming Proof-of-work based) comes from the total amount of work that has happened in the chain since your transaction. Because of that, the largest cryptocurrencies with the most work behind them will naturally be the most secure the quickest. Monero might have some very good benefits, but the much smaller size of the network means it's a magnitude easier to attack from a state level adversary. And the fact that Bitcoin can (and will) evolve over time means that the benefits from other cryptocurrencies can be put into Bitcoin as they become useful or proven. This is already happening with Bitcoin, and it's not going to stop. That being said, I don't think that other cryptocurrencies are pointless, and I do believe that they can continue to happily coexist. Ethereum is focused on the "smart contract" side of things. Monero is focused on privacy. They can all have their uses and specializations, and they can all exist together in the same ecosystem. Even if Bitcoin ends up not being able to adapt and evolve for whatever reason, being a "store of value", your cryptocurrency savings account, is still a valid use case, and can continue to be one even if there are cryptocurrencies that do everything else objectively better.
    - SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
      Bitcoin radically gimped their VM at the start, destroying the inherent value of the coin. BTC is going to die to a gen 3 VM that learns from the ETH mess of gen 2 and just ungimps the BTC VM. I don't believe BTC has the political leadership to fix that poor decision, given that a) they've demonstrated poor leadership until now and b) some of the people involved in the gimping are still in positions of influence.