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I agree, they could exist. But why would anyone want Xcoins, Ycoins or Zcoins instead of Bitcoins? It's not a choice between meaningless desktop wallpapers or y

I agree, they could exist. But why would anyone want Xcoins, Ycoins or Zcoins instead of Bitcoins? It's not a choice between meaningless desktop wallpapers or your favourite cheeses - this is a currency. And for that you need faith that other people will accept it.

betterunix 13y ago
Why would people want Bitcoins in the first place? Whatever the source of demand for Bitcoin was in 2009 (when it was monopoly money) should be equally applicable to competing systems today.
- leovingi 13y ago
  People started playing around with Bitcoin because it was something new and exciting, it was truly the first of it's kind! Ideas were being thrown around, more and more people started joining the ecosystem, mining was getting really competitive, Bitcoins found their place on Silk Road, etc. The point I'm trying to make is that Bitcoin was first! And all that excitement and experimentation over time translated into monetary investments and architecture, something the alt coins will have to work really hard to obtain! Not saying it's impossible, just highly unlikely.
  - betterunix 13y ago
    You have not actually answered the question. Experimentation and competitive mining do not translate to demand. Why did people ever start exchanging valuable things for Bitcoin?
    - leovingi 13y ago
      I did answer your question, read it again. Do you think that the guy who sold a pizza for 10'000 put some sort of actual value on Bitcoins? No, it was all good fun. You can also include in the mix the idea that this technology seemed like it might go somewhere at the time (still does!) so it might not have been the value at the time that people were putting on Bitcoins, but the value in the future. It's not that easy answering those kind of questions to be honest, without polling everyone who was involved in the community from the beginning and asking them what was their reasoning. So I can only speak for myself.
  - deleted 13y ago
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- pitnips 13y ago
  Not necessarily true. Just look at gold - you can say the same thing about competing metals, but gold was the original and is seen by people as the true de facto metal currency. This has been the case for hundreds of years.
  - betterunix 13y ago
    Except that gold was not the first metal to be used as currency.
deleted 13y ago
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betterunix 13y ago

Why would people want Bitcoins in the first place? Whatever the source of demand for Bitcoin was in 2009 (when it was monopoly money) should be equally applicable to competing systems today.

leovingi 13y ago
People started playing around with Bitcoin because it was something new and exciting, it was truly the first of it's kind! Ideas were being thrown around, more and more people started joining the ecosystem, mining was getting really competitive, Bitcoins found their place on Silk Road, etc. The point I'm trying to make is that Bitcoin was first! And all that excitement and experimentation over time translated into monetary investments and architecture, something the alt coins will have to work really hard to obtain! Not saying it's impossible, just highly unlikely.
- betterunix 13y ago
  You have not actually answered the question. Experimentation and competitive mining do not translate to demand. Why did people ever start exchanging valuable things for Bitcoin?
  - leovingi 13y ago
    I did answer your question, read it again. Do you think that the guy who sold a pizza for 10'000 put some sort of actual value on Bitcoins? No, it was all good fun. You can also include in the mix the idea that this technology seemed like it might go somewhere at the time (still does!) so it might not have been the value at the time that people were putting on Bitcoins, but the value in the future. It's not that easy answering those kind of questions to be honest, without polling everyone who was involved in the community from the beginning and asking them what was their reasoning. So I can only speak for myself.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
pitnips 13y ago
Not necessarily true. Just look at gold - you can say the same thing about competing metals, but gold was the original and is seen by people as the true de facto metal currency. This has been the case for hundreds of years.
- betterunix 13y ago
  Except that gold was not the first metal to be used as currency.

deleted 13y ago

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