Bitcoin Forum

In the state of bitcoin now and the issues sorrounding it, is it still the best digital currency to date?

I think ripple will have something to say about it...

best...in which way?

Bitcoin will always remain the "best" digital currency. It is already very popular, it has a few years of "experience", improvement. No other crypto(at least at this moment) had come with an idea that can mach the blockchain technology(even if a new crypto will come with such an idea , BTC can adopt it)

I personally myself feel that bitcoin as of right now is the best digital currency due to the fact it's been out more in which case it has more potential with it already having the basics worked out. You take another currency that has not been around for as long as bitcoin and it's guaranteed to have more problems than bitcoin has now meaning calling it the best would be wrong.

Bitcoin and litecoin are the most stable cryptocurrencies.

This. Even the developers (BTC devs) have said that they will literally copy anything that can treat Bitcoins hegemony, but no one has come up with something really worth copying.
And no other coin is going ever having to have the network effect of BTC.

Quantity has a quality all its own.

http://www.coindesk.com/stellar-ripple-hyperledger-rivals-bitcoin-proof-work/

at least someone is talking about the central authority and the possible global Id.

phew ! finally .

it is and it will be
revolutionary things don't happen every day

I still think BTC is king. The alts, that are not scams, try to fix things that are not problems and offer no new ideas. They are often script kitty versions of Satoshi's code. Only litecoin has any cred that I can see.

PoW creates negative externalities. Bitcoin can only be held responsible for these externalities if, like blood diamonds, a public movement is used to decrease demand and therefore price. However a cryptocurrency's uses as a payment processor and therefore its value is directly tied to its price. Therefore it is highly unlikely for Bitcoin to be unseated because:



A) The majority of mining costs are sunk, the daily money saved transacting in Bitcoin (relative to credit cards, ect...) can offset mining's daily environmental damages (unless you're an eco-nut, in which case you should be picking a fight with China not Bitcoin.) Furthermore as coinbase decreases and miners are unable to exert upwards pricing pressure on fees we will likely see these external costs decrease.

B) An alternative currency cannot easily subsume Bitcoin's uses due to valuation induced demand (wire transfers for S&P 500 companies can only occur above X exchange rate and volume.)

C) The black market feels no shame, some users will not easily convert from Bitcoin. Systems resist change.



I do not view "green" cryptocurrencies as a threat to Bitcoin; and Bitcoin can simply subsume any other beneficial altcoin adaptations.

The alt coins are a scam. They are just a way for their owners to make money off of the idea of bitcoin (they just make a few very minor changes)

Indeed many (allmoust all altcoins) are just pump&dump coins; but it`s a good way to test this new technology and find out new thinks, and apply to Bitcoin if it`s a good idea.

I like Gridcoin, but that is the only alt coin I've seen which offers any real kind of improvement. Hashing power doesn't go to waste but goes through BOINC instead. http://boinc.berkeley.edu/ (http://boinc.berkeley.edu/)

Bitcoin ./

People in this thread seem to be under the impression that altcoins are a scam and no new technology has been developed. That might have been true last year but 2014 has been a revolutionary year so far for altcoins.

It's probably worth exploring further if you're interested. Lots of smart people building interesting projects.

There some cryptocurrencies that are famous but i would say Bitcoin still the best

Ripple is a nice contender for the first place among crypto currencies, but everyone here seems to hate it because of its premine.

Bitcoin is by far the leader in terms of its ecosystem and current utility. It offers significant improvements over fiat for some applications, and it is far more liquid than other digital currencies. I am expecting Bitcoin to continue to increase in adoption, and to incorporate some technological improvements and new features, but perhaps not as quickly as it has in the past.

I personally have also invested in Monero, because I think CryptoNote currencies may offer greater financial privacy than Bitcoin and I think that there is untapped demand for financial privacy. Compared to the CryptoNote alternatives, Monero seems more likely to survive, be widely adopted, and be responsibly developed.

This is precisely why I don't take "Hero Members" seriously...
They are stuck in 2011-12 and using 90s terms like "script kitty"...
When, in fact, Satoshi's unmaintainable C code has always been the key bottleneck in cryptocurrency progress.

I've seen a functional cryptocurrency written in 900 lines of clear Python code.

Bitcoin is the most secure, but BY FAR the least usable crypto in the Top 20...
The last person I introduced to BTC took 3 days to download the db and lost interest...
I cringe every time I have to use BTC instead of the other 20-30 alts I own.

Bitcoin Truthers refuse to acknowledge the fact that Bitcoin velocity has flat-lined...
No one is ever going to buy groceries or clothes or other essentials with BTC.

When an parody coin like DOGE can surpass BTC transactions by a factor of 3...
You are not dealing with much of "network effect"... just a big head start followed by stagnation.

A successor designed to be an actual currency will appear "like magic"...
And Bitcoin will fade fast and hard... and become a store of value like gold.

Hows the price of ripple nowadays? Hows the trend?

The position of Bitcoin is  undoubted,however, other digital currency also own potential to be the best one. There is no sign that the best one is not best ones.

I agree with that great post!

Three very good features alts have came up with:

1. Privacy (like CryptoNote's ring signature scheme)
2. Assets
3. PoS mining (energy efficient)

I don't see why Bitcoin shouldn't implement these.

I have a strong feeling that there will be a resurgence of Alt-Coins based on a variety of current and existing algorithms this winter, and in many ways will be Round 2 for alternative crypto-currencies in general.

The Spring of 2014 in many ways was a learning lesson for developers, miners, and investors alike- which resulted in a burnout due to the many scams, cons, and so on. People just got tired and said I'm taking a summer break.

Now Developers will have no choice but to operate with a higher level of transparency and accountability. These markets only work if miners see the opportunity of a decent ROI, and investors see reason to buy and hold any specific virtual currency.

I feel moving into Q4 2014 and Q1 2015 will be an exciting time for those willing to continue to push this ball up the mountain.

ArcadeCoin DevTeam

The anonymous transactions feature is currently the next best thing and there's no technology that can provide it better than CryptoNote. I think CN based coins are potential winners in the long run.

While a minority of users probably need anonymity, the majority are probably not interested in anonymity services.

These are largely irrelevant to the masses. However, not all alt coin features are irrelevant, speed being one. I prefer these features to an Alt-coin, which, I have yet to find all of them met:

1. faster than bitcoin
2. as broadly supported as bitcoin
3. a genius, simple wallet solution that will help me sleep at night that my 100 backup methods won't fail me with theft or loss
4. hashing network that is safe from attack both from technology point of view and size, POS eventually but gradual transition that preserves hosting incentives.
5. No premine, scammy dev, need-to-trust some dumb human business model
6. anonymous
7. distributed trading platform
8. efficient blockchain management, built for growth

If I had such a coin, I would go all in with my modest Bitcoin stash, and 6,7,8 are somewhat optional to me frankly.

Number 2 is the hardest part. But a currency that keeps backwards comparability with Bitcoin has the greatest chance of also being integrated as payment with in the already built Bitcoin infrastructure. Good list though.

BTC is best duh

Or other parent coins. Case in Point: MaWo was working on localization (multi-language support) for NFD (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=603932.0), but Nxt itself added the same feature to its upcoming-features list. MaWo recently added UPnP support (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=603932.msg8773922#msg8773922), and the Nxt team is already interested: in the spirit of collegiality he offered his improvement to them to consider for Nxt itself.

So, by the standard standard, NFD (http://www.nfdcoin.com/) is a good altcoin with respect to Nxt.

digitalcoin is best digital currency  :D

DSH, ;D

ripple is an excellent platform for crypto. but XRP being the best crypto-currency?  don't think so.

No way, bitcoin will always be the best digital currency yet. It is well accepted and will be accepted all throughout the world

Bitcoin is  just the best based on its seniority

No shit. The BTC price has dropped 13% in less than a week. Bitcoin is anything but stable cryptocurrency.

I think bitcointalk.org is probably a risky place to ask that question. :) Bitcoin and PoW have some very deep problems that aren't just going to go away. For example, millions of dollars worth of BTC are printed up yearly to pay miners to waste electricity. There is a growing community who see PoW as inherently centralizing, which works against Satoshi's original goals of decentralization.

For more reference, check out the Nxt, Peercoin, and Bitshares communities.

Read this: http://bitshares.org/intro-to-delegated-proof-of-stake/

Bitcoin is nr.1, if Bitcoin goes down all crypto goes down.

Bitcoin and Monero.

Bitcoin is still number. With paypal and ebay on our side.

BTC was, is best digital currency...not sure if it will be

Bitcoin
Monero
Doge
Litecoin

I think in that order.

Bitcoin and Dogecoin