> With 14 cryptocurrencies currently floating around, isnt the value of one over the other simply a branding problem? One of the most important aspect of a cry

> With 14 cryptocurrencies currently floating around, isnt the value of one over the other simply a branding problem? One of the most important aspect of a crypto-currency is the establishment of trust in the distributed database, most commonly by a proof-of-work algorithm. One can estimate the cost of changing the transaction history. The hashrate devoted to the Bitcoin blockchain is 130 Peta-Hashes/second, so to execute a 51% attach you'd need a lot Hashes/second and a lot of money. You can very easily clone Bitcoin, change the branding and start from scratch, but you'd have to either convince the miners who currently work on the Bitcoin proof-of-work to switch, or come up with a new proof-of-work system that is incompatible with the one used in Bitcoin. Unless you can convince all Bitcoin miners to switch at once, your alternative cryptocurrency will have less devoted hashing power and therefore a lower cost of attack. So it's more than a branding problem.