https://www.yours.org/content/can-bitcoin-cash-scale-on-chain--4c977e7218cb/?utm_content=buffere7e03&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

"In the end the way you scale any software is to push it to the limits, identify bottlenecks, optimize, then wash/rinse/repeat. That’s the Bitcoin Cash scaling plan in a nutshell."


What happens when the problem is that you created a yottabite monster that can't be squashed back into Pandora's box? Layer two seems like a much smarter and more long-term strategy no?! By not raising blocks they've stimulated second layer activity/progress and optimised the future version of BTC's chain by making it smaller. I want the thing that will be 'better' in 5 years, not the thing that works better today.

Very few would use BTC as currency now IMO as the deflationary drag (HODL) is too high sub $100k. First take on gold and break 6 figures, then we can talk about currency. At that point LN will be robust and optimised, just send your month's wedge to your channel for a few bucks, as if from a savings to a current account. I wouldn't spend my BTC at this stage unless I had no other choice, very few people have no choice and BTC turns people into savers.... for now. Fees are also back to a pittence and BTC remains strong over $10k with millions of holders.

Why are people so impatient?

BTC = Verify, don't trust! We don't have to sacrifice that if we can be patient.

Can someone please explain to me how I'm wrong? I'd rather not be wrong. I sold my free BCH dividend long ago. I can't buy the idea of people 'spending' their BTC en masse until the price is going up <100% pa. I don't see that happening for another year or two so LN will be the most efficient and cheapest option for user txs, whilst BTC will be the smaller and more accessible chain for small businesses wanting to run a node.

Can anyone convince me I'm just missing the big picture? How does a marginal use-case like hyper-deflationary currency (in the face of lots of cheap crypto and stable fiat alternatives) topple the network effect of a censor resistant store of value leader? SoV can lead to currency eventually, capacity isn't enough to do it by itself... is it? Value comes from trust. Folks do not trust Fakesatoshi, Jihan and Roger and they don't trust a 'Yottabite landfill' blockchain with their long term savings/investment (apparently since it has <15% of the value). They trust the 1mb chain that exists now and they want the efficiency, price and speed of LN when the time comes to use it as money.

Surely the fact that dodgecoin is consistently doing as many or more txs than BCH says it all? If you value your BCH as currency then you'll spend it. That means 9/10 it'll get turned into fiat by the vendor. Currency = sell pressure at this stage. If you're not going to spend it and you just HODL then what's the point in your big empty blocks? Meh, I'm kinda glad BTC doesn't have that many spenders just yet. I'd rather wait until vendors need to have channels of their own stacked with coin and they feel comfortable holding more of their businesses wealth in BTC.

Anyway, people keep telling me I'm wrong but failing to convince me. I thought I'd throw it open to any generous soul willing to impart wisdom and correct me?

DISCLAIMER: This is not investment advice!

Obviously there's an element of shamelessly shilling your own HODLings with any post like this, but I'd be interested to see what order other people choose for their top picks and possibly add to my own.

I would just like to disclaim that I do hold BTC, ETH, IOTA etc too, but I don't see the top 10 as my path to crazy ROI this year compared to smaller projects. These are more like outside gambles with your speculation money. I still treasure my BTC above all else for now, but I'd be very happy with 4x there this year, so here are my side-bets to beat the honey-badger in 2018!

I have tried to keep my predictions reasonable, but I would not be surprised to see any of them beaten. Crypto has done nothing but surprise me over the last two and half years, but it's best to stay a little modest with expectations and be pleasantly surprised if they are beaten. To the rest of the world forecasts of 2000%+ gains in a year seem insane, here they are 'modest' lol    We are a lucky bunch, let's not waste the opportunities.


1. **MAID** - The sleeping giant. They don't hype at all over at MaidSafe, so it has dropped from top 10 to outside the top 50 now. Very few seem to understand how big a deal it would be if it worked and they ever launched. I see this is an outside shot on the market sentiment, but it's the best ROI shot for short/mid and long term hodl'ing imo - well outside of the real penny stock cryptos that don't really have much to offer under the hood anyway. Having been in development for over a decade (older than BTC) and with a team of 20 odd core devs now I think we'll finally see this beast make a couple of big moves when they release their testsafecoin iterations and data chains get into the spotlight later this year. The implications for a functioning Safe Network and SafeCoin would turn the whole blockchain movement on its head ... it fixes privacy, scalability, distribution, PoW power useage, true decentralisation and autonomy, accessibility, fees, app infrastructure, confirm times... everything and more basically. It really could be a new internet IF it works. It will also likely boom as it gets closer to the moment where we find out how robust it is in the wild.

Prediction - to $10bn cap, 20x

2. **ZEPH** - At just a $10M cap this one could pop quite far. Bitspark making more moves in the world of remittance. As an established company this is all about actual utility rather than speculation for me. They swapped back from Ethereum to bitshares so they could scale now. 25% of fees are used to buy back tokens, creating buy-pressure and value for the coins. It works now and is being used now, building momentum since 2014. I'm not sure how long term I'd back it for, but for 2018 I have high hopes.

Prediction - to $200M cap, 20x

3. **Filecoin** - Long term I prefer MaidSafe's model and incentives, but for 2018 I'd say Filecoin hodlers can expect  returns to outpace BTC. Demand was not satisfied in the token sale. Only qualifying investors who went through an arduous proof of wealth process were allowed to participate as 'sophisticated investors'. They have a lot of money and big guns behind them. With the flood of interest that has arrived in the space since that token sale I would imagine a top 20, perhaps even top 10 position by year's end. Supply will still be nowhere near that 2bn cap (a few hundred million at most). Futures are trading at 4x the token sale price now, I'd say that's a great buy.

Prediction - another 5-10x

4. TEZOS - Well, despite the huge ICO and all the drama since, I still think this is a reasonable pick. The tech is groundbreaking and governance is a huge issue to solve. Staking for 20% pa with 3 month lock in's is a big incentive to keep supply low too. I see no reason why TEZOS can't break the $20bn mark this year (probably just around top 10 by year's end). With around 600M coins that would be over $30 a coin.

Prediction: 6x

5. BFT - Not yet launched the ICO is coming soon. They're selling $33M to the BanktotheFuture account holders and opening it to the public for the remainder (min&max $1k in the public sale I believe). Simon Dixon has secured strategic partnerships and has the regulation under his belt to create a compliant liquid secondary market for securities/equity tokens. To say this could be big is an understatement. The BTF token will be the only utility token traded in their secondary market, the rest will all be equities. The token is an incentive mechanism for decentralised management of due diligence and deciding what pitches make it on to the platform. They'll be able to take US investors too so this could be very disruptive to the ICO market. Equity has always missed the benefits of liquidity, this is a chance to see that turn around and an end to crazy currencies that are not necessary. If folks can raise on equity that has a liquid secondary market  then we could see a lot of that next year. BttF looks like it will be the only place to do it, so it could enjoy a really privileged position in 2018.

Prediction:  Since they've capped the ICO I'm betting on a 10-20x from there myself.

Happy New Year folks and good luck in 2018!