Bitcoin Forum

If you’ve been following Bitcoin and crypto for more than a few months, you will have almost certainly heard someone comparing cryptocurrency — and blockchain — to the early internet. Well, there are many parallels between cryptocurrency today and the internet at the turn of millennium, not least in terms of both resulting in bullish market activity that skeptics regard(ed) as a bubble. However, it’s still far too early to say just how impactful cryptocurrency will be, and it’s arguable that the data comparing crypto to the internet has been misinterpreted and exaggerated.What are the similarities and differences between the two.
Some tweets comparing cryptocurrency and the Internet:
https://twitter.com/CoinCornerDanny/status/1408342142657892355
https://twitter.com/BTC_Archive/status/1408134902130917378

To get a better conclusion, i would suggest to change the concept "Crypto" by the term "Blockchain" so we can make a fair comparison. As crypto impact are somehow limitd to financial use while the blockchain revolution may be more huge than the internet itself aat it's early years .
Actually, and even by this mass adoption for cryptocurrencies, i think it's somehow similar to the Amazon at its early days with the same number of users actually crypto has, as described in the second Tweet mentioned in OP .

I don't think this comparison is technically meant to be taken literally.  I think it's more of a figurately speaking type of thing.  It is a good analogy in my opinion. If you are old enough to remember when computers and the internet became cheap affordable enough to be placed in homes and schools, then you will remember how basic things were.  For example computers were much larger, slower, more expensive etc. Just kind of like how bitcoin is right now.  It's still a major modern technology breakthrough, but it's in its early days.  Wallets, while having gotten much better of late, could be comparable to say a floppy disc.  In time wallets will become much more advanced and efficient.

There's a reason Andreas named one of his books what he did..

https://i.ibb.co/nRtJ1NC/OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA.jpg (https://ibb.co/KmSvspw)

Bitcoin is still too early to take that step in which more people know about it, use, advantages and disadvantages. But that time will come, I say it because the youth more open to technology like to get involved in these things as is the crypto space.
To test a button:

Influencers are saying so particularly when they are discussing Web3.0 which involves the crypto projects that are related to decentralized social media and apps that will interact with the data much like an IA. I'm not even sure how that works. But they can discuss it like it's the most decentralized way because there is blockchain working in the background.

Technically, they are not similar to each other, but in terms of the development of technology and society’s acceptance of this new technology, there is certainly a great similarity. The emergence of the Internet at first raised the fears of many governments and even ordinary people, and they rejected the idea of ​​turning the world into a small village and began looking for charges that It can be directed to the Internet to prevent its spread.
In the case of Bitcoin, too, there is great fear, especially by governments and banks, due to the transition from centralization to decentralization and loss of control. Therefore, they are working on spreading charges about Bitcoin that it is highly volatile and is used to launder money and support terrorism in an attempt to prevent Bitcoin from being accepted around the world.

When talking about the bubble aspect — whereas only a very small number of cryptocurrencies actually end up amounting to something, then yes I highly think so. But I think the ratio between the cryptocurrency projects today that's going to be successful compared to the number of successful .com websites back then will be far worse.

It isn't. Crypto isn't like the early internet.

Crypto doesn't provide any revolutionary way of payment that we already have. Sure, censorship and decentralization are incredibly useful for certain cases but for most people, they appear to be just purely buzzwords which they don't care about. There is no reason, as of now why people wouldn't choose other payment gateways over Bitcoin. It doesn't mean that there wouldn't be a change in the modus operandi in the future as we refine Bitcoin even more or if the geopolitical landscape changes. The way crypto is getting so actively suppressed and goes against the ideas of the government really differentiates it from the internet.

Your internet connection can be censored, cryptos can't.

There are circumstantial similarities in terms of their beginning and their growth but I don't think there are significant similarities between the internet itself and Bitcoin. They're different. But there are similarities in terms of how the internet was not much appreciated at the start, of how it was considered impractical to own one, etc. This might be the same with Bitcoin. At the start, it was not that interesting. But then both of them eventually grew and became more and more important in people's lives than just mere options at the onset.

Although the term bitcoin is familiar to the internet the concept of blockchain is quite new to many of us. Although blockchain and bitcoin are almost contemporary concepts and there is a lot of information about them on the internet many thought that bitcoin and crypto were like the early internet but its transactions became easier through crypto decentralized blockchain technology.

There is a big difference between "cryptocurrency" in general and "bitcoin.
Bitcoin is innovative and has a bright future simply because it is useful and is delivering what it is supposed to (a decentralized censorship resistant currency) but majority of cryptocurrencies aka altcoins are completely useless and are created to be pumped and dumped.
So you can't just say that just because bitcoin is successful that means "crypto" is going to be successful also. It doesn't work like that.

Blockchain is like the internet. At the same time, the crypto is a child in the blockchain. We know that a new project uses a different method than the other project, but they use the network, and it could be ethereum, trx, eos, bsc, or else. And those network is in the blockchain network.

The internet has many things insides, and that is happening with blockchain. But crypto is a new thing that can not be the same as the internet. Both the internet and crypto will be growing more than now in the future.

I don't like complicated thing. I just think as simple as possible regarding bitcoin, I don't compare bitcoin and internet. Although both are a product that will used by many people in the future but both are totally different for me. As investor I almost only interested in profit that I can get, I think bitcoin will get mass adoption in the future and it will make it price rise so much. Today most of us need internet even for daily life, and I think most of us also use bitcoin as main alternative medium of payment in the future. Although maybe it will not replace fiat ( because I think government will not let it ) but I think it can be number 1 choice for online transaction.

Ten years isn't new in my opinion, it's not like I blockchain is a secret technology or anything like that. I think the years of doubt might've delayed the increase of people and the chance of bitcoin from collapsibng thus the collapse was prevented somewhat because not enough people were there to collapse the market.

Bitcoin and crypto has more space to grow but they currently are not like the early internet. Internet requires infrastructures and education efforts.

It takes 2 or 3 decades to bring the Internet over the world but blockchain nowadays can be more easily accessed. Anywhere you have Internet access, you can learn about blockchain and can use it. With blockchain, you don't need to build up more infrastructures beside the Internet.

Developers code, launch a blockchain and everyone can use it.

This is an interesting thread. A stumbled upon a chart recently made by Documenting Bitcoin, taken from research by Crypto.com, which seems to suggest surprising growth. The premise of the analysis is that Bitcoin users are roughly the same as the Internet was in 1997. According to this research if they were to maintain these growth rates, +80% annually approx, by 2024 cryptocurrencies will have about 1 billion users. Over the next few years, it is assumed that Bitcoin and cryptocurrency users could reach 3.7 billion.
https://twitter.com/DocumentingBTC/status/1408072160095215620

As you can see, it's working like that gradually but the only thing we cannot say that they have a similar comparison is, the Crypto industry is not yet fully recognized. however, it's currently on its way to being like the internet nowadays where most of the people using it. Gradually we can reach out to that stage if the years to come will be less of that banning by China and fewer negative tweets by those who have some huge followers on Twitter. anyway, most likely it will happen since whatever things they throw on it, it keeps adjusting and continue to get some publicity.

Comparing cryptocurrency to the Internet may be a somehow shallow channeled comparison as the latter comprises a more holistic body of network why the latter is only focused on financial services provision, as this user has rightly said it’s better to compare blockchain with the Internet to get a better index to base our arguments.

Bitcoin is even better than internet was back in the days because more people are now using Bitcoin than people used internet after same years of existence, and it's just getting started.
Imagine few more countries adopting Bitcoin as legal tender like in El Salvador and all dominos will fall in other countries, and number of Bitcoin users will increase a lot.

As a technology you can't compare the two. They are too different, at least in their current implementations. However, as hinted at above when someone says Bitcoin is like the internet, they aren't trying to compare the two's technical aspects. Instead, they are comparing it to that people will rely on it in the future.

The internet, from its very invention boomed. Now, these days a lot of industries, and people rely on the internet for literally everything. Whether that be their job, hobby or to play games. Literally everyone has a use for the internet. Does Bitcoin have a use for everyone? Well, when there's alternatives that exist like fiat currencies, probably not. Not everyone is interested in the decentralized nature, and not everyone wants to be responsible for their own money. You can question their judgement all you want, but I think its still accurate that not everyone will have a use for Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, unless Bitcoin becomes the mainstream currency people use on a daily basis. However, Bitcoin is far from that at the moment, so at the moment we can't really compare the two, at least without any data backing up our claims.

I think we can say crypto currency and especially bitcoin have the same potential internet had during its early years. The point is how crypto currency and bitcoin are going to be changed or improved along the years, as internet has been. I believe the main aspect of crypto we know right now, that is decentralization, won't last for too long because centralized institutions have already plans to introduce their governance over digital currencies and those which they can't control are going to be more heavily regulated each new day.

We can say internet aged well through so many years and implementations, but could we say the same about crypto currency in a near future?

Sorry but do i understand this correctly ?


Surpass the users growth ? lol do you really know how much internet users compared to crypto users?

even you are using internet almost half your life but are you using Crypto even 1 hour per day?

Don't think bitcoin stands a chances against the internet but if we were to used a more worthy opponent (The cryptocurrency) then we can have a fair completion. Here's what I think, comparing the two came as a result of people not believing them both when they started but in future will be needed for an effective operation of businesses as all businesses will have to rely on them.

Which is why I said using Bitcoin for the comparison won't be a fair one because they're already alternative to bitcoin with the numerous altcoins getting adoption all over so probably if the term cryptocurency was used it'll be more debated.

Both industry have a similarities and they'll end up in the same way dominating their respective fields. Cryptocurrency (hopefully Bitcoin) will take it's rightful place as the king of commence on the internet as it'll be widely accepted as a means of exchanges for goods and services. It's inevitable and just a matter of time so there's no need fighting it as it's already a lost battle.

People,who are comparing cryptocurrencies to the early internet and usually comparing the dotcom bubble with the cryptocurrency price bubbles.They are simply comparing market price trends and patterns,not the technology.
Blockchain technology couldn't exist without internet,so comparing blockchain technology and internet is like comparing an egg to a chicken.
Internet is the foundation and the blockchain technology is one of the additional layers of technology over that foundation.

If you use the Internet, anyone with a connection can get information for free. Bitcoin provides financial sovereignty in the same way. Bitcoin separates money from institutions and central authorities, and the Internet separates information from institutions and central authorities.

In my opinion, i think that the blockchain network is what is actually comparable to the early internet, bitcoin and cryptocurrency are just the early application of this network, but the possibility and the chances that this new technology offers is beyond we can imagine, the blockchain system can replace every way we  interact with each other, and starting with things like smart contracts and payments and govermment documments, and this is already taking place.

In my opinion, the term bitcoin we can say it a blockchain , which is at some position called  the early internet when it was first introduced. That was the point it is likely the early internet for which we can say that crypto is also in the same position.

In some certain extent they are two major difference thing between blockchain and internet, without been told, internet has been in existence before a blockchain no matter the connectivity of cryptocurrency blockchain, in this scenario we all aware that internet is information storage while blockchain just focus on data, record of cryptocurrency but specifically bitcoin, so the comparison is so simple and quite understandable to human comprehension, further more it's obvious that bitcoin which sub branches of cryptocurrency can't do without the application of internet, all the processor of blockchain rely on internet.

I don't think it is like the early internet, as most opinions have pointed out. What I do believe is that in terms of adoption we are where the Internet was in 1995-2000. This market still has a lot of growing to do.

Well I think they really are like the early internet.  The hype and the volatility of the market resembles the early internet.  Aside from that, the rampant scam projects that flocks in the crypto industry and the crazy ideas on integrating anything to blockchain technology is the same during the early internet.

it's deeper than the internet, but bitcoin is still not trusted by everyone, in contrast to the internet that is properly trusted and used by everyone, and the internet is also now very broad in reaching all information, while bitcoin focuses on the financial industry, it is possible that it will be the same as the internet in the future.

Block chain and Bitcoin are here to stay and can even surpass the progress made by internet in future. I think Block chain is the basis of Bitcoin creation so blockchain so it is more important and it  will be used in all aspects of our daily life in coming months and years. It is a wonderful technology and capable to bring out a positive change in all industries including  Travel/tourism and health care.

Currently BTC many people see it as a step forward on cryptocurrency but since Wed 3.0 was born they compare it to this wed 3.0 platform as a new type of BTC improvement and make BTC sometimes become the limit. more institutionalized and BTC is the first primitive coin of the cryptocurrency that doesn't seem to be as technologically advanced as some of the later improved cryptocurrencies.

yes right, crypto and internet look the same. at the beginning of the internet there were many people who did not understand, but slowly began to develop and be adopted throughout the world. bitcoin is also like that, many initially doubted. but look today, btc became something valuable. and slowly but surely the whole world began to adopt it.

In terms of adoption rates, it's still possible that Bitcoin will become used by billions in a few decades and that we're still in early years of adoption, as the Internet used around the end of the 20th century. It's a technology that can find more demand in the future, so in this way it's similar to Bitcoin. But we can't know if it'll become as big as the Internet, just like in the 90s nobody knew if Internet was going to remain a thing for nerds or go mainstream. But if we dive into specifics, I think the Internet and Bitcoin are very different, with the former having more potential for a variety of use cases.

We're comparing the early internet with the current early cryptocurrency situation. Of course there aren't enough people that are using cryptocurrencies right now, just as there are only a few people who are using the internet back then.

Not really. Internet is a different thing and bitcoin does also. Both system works great and being loved by the people but they are different system. Well, internet for me was one of the real and innovative inventions or creations. It made life easier in a broad applications especially ij work while bitcoin could also be useful but in financial aspects.

Though  Internet and Bitcoin work on different technology but somehow Bitcoin is dependent on Internet to execute transactions, to create smart contracts and many many more activities of Block chain.. Internet is much much bigger thing which is not a luxury but a necessity to run our day to day activities of life.

Are Bitcoin and crypto really like the early internet? Yes but it depends on the area the question was related to for internet/web was once sees as danger to human nature during the early stage cause people only focus on the danger it will cause rather than the benefit and so is Bitcoin either.
Some naive people said a lot of things that Bitcoin and other crypto were uses for the illicit transaction but the shocking revelation Is that only 1% of all illicit are done through crypto while 5% are done through USD alone.

you could say this is an initial idea, where everyone wants change, bitcoin and the internet are connected to each other, at the beginning of the rise of bitcoin connected to the internet, all governments are afraid and use all means to bring down bitcoin, and make accusations against bitcoin, they afraid of competition,

I see it that way because so many people are skeptical of Bitcoin like when the internet appeared in the beginning...

people are still afraid of Bitcoin because of the lack of education they get, but the US is different because the data is more than 30 million people in the US already have Bitcoin. from time to time people will definitely not see Bitcoin the way the internet in the early days. people should have started to see Bitcoin as a potential investment.

Indeed, when Bitcoin first appeared, many doubted it and like the early internet. Then most people focus on the negative side more than the positive
side, so few people own Bitcoin when it first appears. One of them is that some people think Bitcoin is widely used for illegal and prohibited activities,
when in fact fiat is mostly used for illegal activities. This can actually be an afterthought for all of us, don't judge something new only from
the negative side. We have to compare the whole, so we judge fairly and will not make the wrong decision.

I wouldn’t say the early days of the internet, but maybe the early days of the web.

People didn’t know what a domain name was, said people wouldn’t use credit cards online, etc. Bitcoin was certainly like that in 2010. And 2013. And 2016. Maybe today it is like the web in 2005.

In a way yes because even at this time that btc is more than a decade not up to 1% of world population are into btc (just my assumption) so I feel anyone who is in crypto at this stage can be considered early, cryptocurrency is still at the early stage compare to other economic sectors, there is more development and accomplished to be made as time progression which means the future is bright in a way.

Both are different technology, the Internet is a free or easy access tool, and everyone can get involved, differentiating it from Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is also something we can't redesign; I would compare the internet to cryptocurrencies in general.
They have more similarities, as we see more apps with different purposes are being developed under blockchain technology,
Just like how the internet grows vastly due to variations of sites offering entertainment and convenience.

In the past, the internet was also considered taboo, and at the beginning of its appearance it was not immediately easy for us to enjoy, wasn't the internet tariffs also expensive? but with the development of technology and changes in lifestyle, the internet is increasingly desirable and effective for completing various tasks effectively, the price is getting cheaper. maybe this analogy is what TS wants to convey.
bitcoin and crypto in general are still in the early stages of adoption, there are still many pros and cons, but more and more people know about it this year because many influential influencers and well-known companies are starting to adopt bitcoin. somehow in the future, the important thing is that we must be able to make good use of this.

To be honest about this issue, it normal for people to feel skeptical about an innovation that's seems complicate to them but the government FUD and stance toward Bitcoin because of it decentralization in nature is what influence the negativity.
I just love the potential of Bitcoin because in the end the same people that said negative statement about Bitcoin will later say it a miracle and better than gold.

And I would probably substitute "blockchain" for "decentralization movement". A blockchain can be centralized and be nothing more but a database with a single point of failure. What we are seeing now is decentralization as it was never achievable before. True decentralization means that actually there is nobody who can shut a system down. Obviously, Bitcoin accomplishes that.
It is similar to the early Internet in the sense that the potential for technological transformation inherent in Blockchain might be comparable to the transformational power of the Internet itself. I guess that is what people mean when they say it.

I would rather say ‘not really’. When the internet came it was completely new and it was one of the major advancement of technology. The volume of tech savvy people at time was less as compared to the time when Bitcoin and crypto came into existence. So, I believe it would not be like the early internet but some similarity is certainly there.

when the internet was first used publicly there were a lot of people who were against it. consider the internet as something that is not really needed. many articles that discuss the internet related to energy issues. bitcoin and crypto looks the same as the internet. This technology was initially rejected, even banned in some countries. bitcoin has always been associated with environmental issues and electrical energy. basically it looks the same. what is happening to bitcoin, has happened in the past, when the internet was introduced to the public. in the future we will see bitcoin become a part of life. just as the internet is now an important part, bitcoin will also be like that.

in general rejection and skepticism on Bitcoin of course it's like the early internet
but the enemy of Bitcoin is the bank and the government, it is a formidable opponent, unlike the early internet

here our struggle as Bitcoin users must be tougher against FUD and the hatred they will continue to spread on Bitcoin
proud of the Bitcoin community which is getting stronger every day against FUD, let's make Bitcoin shiner

Well, at some point we can really compare the two based on what they went through before they become regulated all over the world. The early internet has been seen as a threat at first and many people are against it, likewise with crypto wherein there are countries that considers it as an economical threat and the government is against it cause if not, then it would have been legalized already and there are no countries that are banning the mining and the services of it. It's natural to people to fear something new that could make a huge impact someday since they are not yet certain if it would be in positive way or the other.

Crypto is obviously not AS BIG as the internet because....it's the internet! Crypto is literally just part of the internet. Nothing will ever be as big as the internet.

But crypto is an entirely new technology that represents a bold new step for money technology for humanity - it is a major technological revolution, similar to the development of the internet. Bitcoin is the driving force of this new technology, and Ethereum and a few others will likely play major roles as well. Also just like there was a lot of hyped up useless things on the internet in the 90s and early 2000s, 99%+ of cryptos on the market today (and since the advent of the altcoin) are utter trash, even major ones - just look at stuff like XRP and Doge, these are the hyped of internet stocks of the 90s that crashed into oblivion. But the internet endured and grew far larger, just as 99% of coins will go towards zero against Bitcoin and Ethereum, but a few that are around today will grow massively and new ones will be made in the future that will also become major forced in crypto.

I'd say Bitcoin is like email. It was the earliest and most obvious killer app of the internet. It's simple and has remained simple compared to much more complex things that have been built on the internet in the past 30 years, but email remains as relevant as ever and a cornerstone of internet usage, even as more advanced text and chat apps and social media and video chat have all sprung up since then, none of them actually replace email. Then smart contracts are like http - they're the web. There isn't really a good comparison of smart contract platforms in the internet universe. I mean I guess maybe you can kind of compare them to the way AOL (for a time), Google, and Facebook have become large internet platforms that cover a range of uses but that doesn't quite capture it, because Ethereum and whatever other smart contract platforms will end up becoming important in the future, are closer to the pure infrastructure of http than the application-infrastructure of Google/Facebook, also in the fact that smart contract platforms are more open for anyone to build on than something like Google/Facebook.



So yeah in summary, I'd say blockchain is like the internet but obviously not AS big, as blockchain is literally a subset of the internet itself. And Bitcoin is like email, not a specific email platform but email as a technology itself, but you can actually invest in this fundamental technology. And smart contract platforms are like halfway between the http protocol itself and application-infrastructure companies like Google and Facebook, which again you can invest in these smart contract platforms ever since they came online rather than after they've IPO'd. 99% of altcoins, even plenty that are today in the top 10/20 cryptos, are the dotcom stocks of the 90s that are only worth anything because the crypto investment space is still immature and finding it's legs so plenty of money has been thrown at trash that will eventually go towards zero, and many already have over the years. So yeah bitcoin/crypto is sorta like the internet except one in which you can invest in the base layer technologies from the moment they come online. And in this comparison crypto is still definitely 90's era internet, though in the next few years I think we'll see that analogous crossover from 90's era to 00's era internet in crypto as Bitcoin becomes more normalized in banks, wall st, and as payment through finance companies, and once Ethereum completes it's upgrade to 2.0 and is able to vastly expand it's usage. Perhaps by 2025 I think we'll be in the Amazon, Google, Facebook era of crypto, in which major uses for crypto is normalized and we'll see rapid expansion of crypto on the order of hundred of millions of people per year for a few years - the vertical slope on the S-curve.