[2017-12-27] 2017 Was Bitcoin's Year. 2018 Will Be Ethereum's

[hugeblack]

As a long time investor in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, 2017 has been remarkable. But it's important to remember, this is really just the beginning.

Despite the valuations, major protocols remain deficient in delivering value to users. Bitcoin with it's high fees and slow transaction times is hardly suitable for payments – spending the same fee whether you buy a coffee or send $100,000 is a joke and the promise of scaling solutions such as the Lightning Network hasn’t been fulfilled.

Suffice to say, its new positioning as a store of value is precarious, even if, judging by the huge uptick in bitcoin price, the store of value narrative is winning for now.

While there's no shortage of old and new believers to keep the party going, along with plenty of developers working to create better, forked versions of bitcoin, I’m betting my chips on a more flexible alternative.

The door is wide open for blockchains that use smart contracts, like ethereum, and I believe their potential market dwarfs that of "store of value" chains. Platforms like ethereum are an operating system for decentralized finance and commerce.

They power applications – lots of them.

A comparison
Think of bitcoin as DOS and ethereum as Windows or Mac OS. There is nothing wrong with DOS. It came first and was an essential part of the computer's success.

Us geeks grew up on DOS, but computers only went mainstream when Windows and Mac OS appeared. DOS is difficult to learn, tricky to program and few applications ever ran on it. Windows and Mac OS support and encourage applications to be built and are ultimately easier for people to use.

Ethereum is like Windows and Mac OS, and as a result, developers are creating applications in the thousands.

It feels like the internet boom in 2000. Thousands of new companies are sprouting up with highly innovative business models and bleeding edge compliance with regulation, and new methods are being found to finance them. Most, like Pets.com and Webvan, will fail. But some will be the next Amazon, eBay, or Google of the blockchain generation.

But with its proven stability and exceptional immutability, don’t bitcoin’s developers deserve the reverence that the rocketing price implies?

I wouldn't be quick to yes to this. They are so resistant to change that they’d rather give up all hope of serving the common man. Let's face it, bitcoin today is a product for an elitist few that can afford the high transaction fees. They have chosen a path to a technical dead end.

Source :https://www.coindesk.com/2017-bitcoins-year-2018-will-ethereums/

[Qartersa]

If that is the case I hope it is not too late for Bitcoin to thrive even more until the 31st of December. But you know, I am very much inclined into how it would be in the coming days before 2017 ends because it will determine how Bitcoin's movements are. It will definitely be considered a baseline data that will be used as future reference. Hence, whatever its movements will be, it will have an effect on how people -- Bitcoin investors, presumptive Bitcoin investors and naysayers alike -- will decide on their future investments.

[hatshepsut93]

Posts like these are a good example why you shouldn't blindly trust everything you read on news sites, even if they are have a good reputation like Coindesk.

Instead of some arguments backed by data and research, the author presents some analogy between different versions of Windows and trying to extrapolate them to cryptocurrency market. He ignores the fact that Ethereum had explosive bull run in terms of ETH/BTC in this year, when ETH was close to flip Bitcoin's marketcap, but since then it was on decline, and only until recently started recovering. Bitcoin can currently process around 4 transactions per second, but Ethereum is limited to 10 transactions per second, which is not that huge comparing to traditional payment systems. Ethereum's ecosystem if filled with bugs and hacks, and their biggest achievement thus far is a relatively centralized and very primitive game called CryptoKitties. So, I really doubt that Ethereum will be a serious competitor to Bitcoin in the near future.

[digodk]

Posts like these are a good example why you shouldn't blindly trust everything you read on news sites, even if they are have a good reputation like Coindesk.

Instead of some arguments backed by data and research, the author presents some analogy between different versions of Windows and trying to extrapolate them to cryptocurrency market. He ignores the fact that Ethereum had explosive bull run in terms of ETH/BTC in this year, when ETH was close to flip Bitcoin's marketcap, but since then it was on decline, and only until recently started recovering. Bitcoin can currently process around 4 transactions per second, but Ethereum is limited to 10 transactions per second, which is not that huge comparing to traditional payment systems. Ethereum's ecosystem if filled with bugs and hacks, and their biggest achievement thus far is a relatively centralized and very primitive game called CryptoKitties. So, I really doubt that Ethereum will be a serious competitor to Bitcoin in the near future.

This.
If anything, I'd say that ETH is the DOS of cryptocurrencies, since it's more geared towards applications. Bitcoin is something different, but any comparison here won't be of much use. Also, I don't think etehereum's thriving is bad for bitcoin.

Honestly, I see two main hurdles in the cryptosystem as a whole: lack of developers and the difficulty in upgrading or updating the running software in the nodes.

[marckenigsberg]

There is so much wrong with this analogy it is tough to know where to start.
Let's just say that anyone that believes that bitcoin is DOS and finished its development has a really bad understanding of the space.
I hope ethereum does well but I'm still very bullish on bitcoin.
I think 2018 will be a year of development for bitcoin

[Monro3000]

Ethereum is constantly being improved, through the participation of clever contracts and the cost of the transaction. Bitcoin no one buries, but its future is uncertain. Who can make the product fast and cheap one and win the game altcoins.

[wilhb81]

Frankly speaking, Ethereum as the brainchild of Vitalik Buterin - this alt coin is absolutely underestimated. Even though ETH still has so many loopholes with bugs and security issues, it's still one of the most valuable alt coins now (even the total market cap is currently at rank No.2 in coinmarketcap)

In fact, I personally kept 25 times more ETH than Bitcoin myself  No matter 2018 would be the year for ETH or not, this little fellow is going to grow exponentially over the time...

[iamTom123]

The future can be hard to predict so we are just limit to speculation and discussion of what can possibly be. I believe that Bitcoin and Ethereum will thrive well into next year. Though these two giant platforms have their own problems and challenges, I still believe in them. Unlike with BitcoinCash, Ethereum is not considered as the enemy of Bitcoin and this is the reason why many of us who are in Bitcoin also have some Ethereum principally because many of us here are also very much involved with altcoins under the Ethereum banner. I am a big fan of the two and I see them as brothers (or you can say sisters) in the cryptocurrency movement. Whoever will eventually win (if there is such a race, anyway) in the future we will see but i desire for these two to be working hand-in-hand together and not against another.