Bitcoin Forum

I'm not going to do AMA again. The first time I tried, got this kind of question that I must answer in 140 characters relatively quickly, and I don't even understand what the guy's after  ???

The BTC blockchain and the btc currency cannot be separated; however, there exists alternative blockchains with alternative incentivization.

^--- Above paragraph is exactly 140 characters with spaces.  ;)

bitcoin was the first blockchain based crypto currency - there now exist 1000+ other blockchain based crypto currencies (alts)

The Blockchain is a means of registering and transfer ownership in a decentralized, secure, independent, transparent fashion.

Bitcoin, the money, is the first practical application built on this principle. But many more will appear. Think company stocks, real estate, voting rights, etc.

There you go. (https://twitter.com/ristopietila/status/567005148262969344)

It makes 0 sense... for a blockchain to be useable you need a big ass network, and only Bitcoin has been successful to generate big ass hashing power.

Bitcoin is digital cash. It has a specific number of units in circulation that enter circulation given as rewards to miners.
Blochchain technology is the consensus mechanism and triple-entry ledger system that makes digital assets ownership manageable and that implements a distributed timestamp server on a peer-to-peer basis.
Bitcoin is the what and blockchain is the how. The context is: digital assets ownership...

I think it means that bitcoin is just a digital currency. But its the blockchain, that makes it unique and different from all the other digital currencies. its special because of blockchain,

They're hard to separate though. Securing the blockchain (mining) isn't free and miners have to be rewarded for their efforts in some way. The most obvious way to do so is to issue tokens to the miners that can be transacted through this blockchain. Without a reward for mining, the security of the system is at risk.

This. Network effect is everything, coz without it the blockchain is useless.

that's right and it's going to be one of the true challenges for bitcoin when all the coins are mined by selfish pricks like KNC and other mining ventures. in fact this is the period when blockchain needs to start finding its demand or use asap or else it loses its momentum and only extraordinary turn of events could save it... also hashpower will follow where there's demand and money, so don't overestimate bitcoin just because it was the first in race as miners can leave in a heartbeat if another coin emerges as a far better alternative, pretty simple economics...

It means that the Blockchain is what Bitcoin is based on but the Blockchain can theoretically be used for anything that requires a ledger. (I actually plugged the previous sentence into Twitter. You could use that as a tweet with 2 characters to spare.) I don't blame you for not wanting to do another AMA. I tried that once and those things can be brutal.

Awesome :D