4 ms·

Cryptocurrencies != bitcoin.

• Theodores 8y ago
  ...because bitcoin is actually decentralised. All of the other fake coins have some aspect of control built into them, e.g. that 'airdrop' where everyone gets some new allocation of fake-coin, the people doing the air-drop hope that some people use the new fake-coin and that the price goes up and they can then sell their special founders hoard of fake coins for real money (or real bitcoin). The 'airdrop' idea is a scam to get around the problem of the ICO - just magic these new fakecoins into existence and avoid any regulatory problems. Point being that bitcoin is unique among the crypto-coins in that it is actually not centralized in any way, all the others pretend to be that but there is some fat controller hoping to profit from the uptake of the things. That said, although bitcoin is legit compared to all the rest, there is a problem when it is no longer economic to mine. If the mining won't pay for the electricity bills then there is nobody around to take those exorbitant transaction fees. Of course these problems can be solved with more centralisation and control - lightning networks and the like.
• chrisco255 8y ago
  Agreed, this article does make sweeping arguments about the costs of operating these currencies, but their implementations vary wildly, some cryptos are able to do thousands of TPS (and even BTC, with lightning, can achieve this). Some are POS and use minimal electricity.