Why Bitcoin?

[gentlemand]

Crypto faces an uphill struggle to convince the wider world to trust it.

Bitcoin has been battered relentlessly since day one. The technical failures that occurred such as the hard fork and multi billion coin incident occurred while it was still small. Other coins might have similar vulnerabilities that wouldn't be uncovered until they had proper value. No doubt thousands of people have tried to crack it open and have failed.

It's also gained strength against a backdrop of overwhelming negativity and scepticism and it's seeping into more and more nooks and crannies every day.

That type of trial by fire is just as valuable as the size of the network in building a viable future. No one will ever be able to replicate it and it can't be transferred.

No one's going to risk pouring a similar amount into an unproven system.

[erikalui]

The price of Bitcoins is more than any other currency and it is pretty similar to forex and stock markets where one can trade bitcoins by buying them at a lower price and selling them at a higher price. That's the reason many use bitcoins.

[johnyj]

Bitcoin is just the first honest money on internet. In fact an honest money does not limited to bitcoin, as long as it is produced by inputting similar amount of value as its face value. From this regards, other coins could also have some value as their production cost

Universal acceptance is very important for money, from this regards, bitcoin has magnitudes wider acceptance than altcoins

[Amph]

Bitcoins are limited to less than 21 million BTC. The value of each BTC, and therefore the value of all BTC combined is now in the billions.

If there are about 21 million BTC, and each one is worth $200 USD, then the market cap of the entire cryptocurrency is more than 4 billion USD.

why price it in USD? peronally i've never used USD.

because the usd is the biggest fiat currency? second place is for euro

it make sense to use as a primary conversion rate for bitcoin

[kpitti]

Bitcoin has been there for couple of years and then in right time start climb up. I would say it`s question of good timing and of course there is something behind which started such popularity. But who knows true?

[kelsey]

Bitcoin is just the first honest money on internet. In fact an honest money does not limited to bitcoin, as long as it is produced by inputting similar amount of value as its face value. From this regards, other coins could also have some value as their production cost

Universal acceptance is very important for money, from this regards, bitcoin has magnitudes wider acceptance than altcoins

production cost does not give something value.

why do you consider bitcoin the first honest money on the internet? what makes bitcoin honest?

[kelsey]

Bitcoin has been battered relentlessly since day one. The technical failures that occurred such as the hard fork and multi billion coin incident occurred while it was still small. Other coins might have similar vulnerabilities that wouldn't be uncovered until they had proper value. No doubt thousands of people have tried to crack it open and have failed.

bitcoin certainly has vulnerabilities to this day and it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to exploit these.

[Amph]

Bitcoin is just the first honest money on internet. In fact an honest money does not limited to bitcoin, as long as it is produced by inputting similar amount of value as its face value. From this regards, other coins could also have some value as their production cost

Universal acceptance is very important for money, from this regards, bitcoin has magnitudes wider acceptance than altcoins

production cost does not give something value.

why do you consider bitcoin the first honest money on the internet? what makes bitcoin honest?

the fact that is not controlled by banks/government, one could argue that it is controlled by whales instead, but it is always better than being in the hands of bank or gov

Bitcoin has been battered relentlessly since day one. The technical failures that occurred such as the hard fork and multi billion coin incident occurred while it was still small. Other coins might have similar vulnerabilities that wouldn't be uncovered until they had proper value. No doubt thousands of people have tried to crack it open and have failed.

bitcoin certainly has vulnerabilities to this day and it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to exploit these.

it seems that it take a certain effort, seeing as no one has exploited it since years

[kelsey]

it seems that it take a certain effort, seeing as no one has exploited it since years

you know being around yourself wouldn't take much to think out a plan, just you, or I  or anyone who could figure it out has no motivation too, but thats not saying someone sometime would.

[gentlemand]

it seems that it take a certain effort, seeing as no one has exploited it since years

you know being around yourself wouldn't take much to think out a plan, just you, or I  or anyone who could figure it out has no motivation too, but thats not saying someone sometime would.

So out of all the skilled people on the planet who could take it apart to either - enrich themselves, have some lulz, prove themselves superior to every one else in the world or do it on behalf of multiple malevolent entities, not a single one has done it because they can't quite be arsed?

[kelsey]

it seems that it take a certain effort, seeing as no one has exploited it since years

you know being around yourself wouldn't take much to think out a plan, just you, or I  or anyone who could figure it out has no motivation too, but thats not saying someone sometime would.

So out of all the skilled people on the planet who could take it apart to either - enrich themselves, have some lulz, prove themselves superior to every one else in the world or do it on behalf of multiple malevolent entities, not a single one has done it because they can't quite be arsed?

no because pretty much everyone who can figure out an exploit, wants bitcoin to suceed.

[gentlemand]

no because pretty much everyone who can figure out an exploit, wants a bitcoin to suceed.

I'm not so sure. There must be tens or hundreds of thousands with similar amounts of skill who would take enormous pride in killing it off if they could.

[kelsey]

no because pretty much everyone who can figure out an exploit, wants a bitcoin to suceed.

I'm not so sure. There must be tens or hundreds of thousands with similar amounts of skill who would take enormous pride in killing it off if they could.

i'll give an example that doesn't give anything away to anyone with malice intent. pools have nearly 51% bitcoin in the recent past but had no malice intent and averted it.

now one could setup a pool and do so, note not that I think a 51% attack is even a real problem so I am giving such as just an example.

[GingerAle]

no because pretty much everyone who can figure out an exploit, wants a bitcoin to suceed.

I'm not so sure. There must be tens or hundreds of thousands with similar amounts of skill who would take enormous pride in killing it off if they could.

Well in all honesty there should be internal efforts to find exploits in order to fix them. I know I've read some papers discussing these. There was one relatively recently IIRC.

Back to "why bitcoin?"

1. I also think its reached the too big to fail status. It will be supported because it can't not be supported. If bitcoin fails it all fails (or takes a long time to recover)
2. It has the most secure network (most alts could be 51% with less than astronomical accumulation of hardware (POW) or currency (POS)).

[Mike Christ]

It's the most popular alternative currency; currencies get better the more people use them.  I wouldn't use, say, altcoin-X, because if I wanted to make a purchase, I'd likely have to exchange altcoin-X into bitcoin or perhaps dollars, so I may as well cut out a step.

But if you're asking why bitcoin is the most popular and not some competitor, it's likely because bitcoin came first so it's the most established; everyone knows bitcoin, not altcoin-X or some other p2p system like, say, ripple.  This may change in the future, nobody knows for sure.

[kelsey]

no because pretty much everyone who can figure out an exploit, wants a bitcoin to suceed.

I'm not so sure. There must be tens or hundreds of thousands with similar amounts of skill who would take enormous pride in killing it off if they could.

Well in all honesty there should be internal efforts to find exploits in order to fix them. I know I've read some papers discussing these. There was one relatively recently IIRC.

Back to "why bitcoin?"

1. I also think its reached the too big to fail status. It will be supported because it can't not be supported. If bitcoin fails it all fails (or takes a long time to recover)
2. It has the most secure network (most alts could be 51% with less than astronomical accumulation of hardware (POW) or currency (POS)).

yes the exploit was a sidetrack as most other cryptos suffer similar.

but yeah I'd agree with the too big to fail angle.

not sure about the security v other alts, as pure hash doesn't ensure security. pos/pow combos could be argued as more secure, though pos well, less secure then most realise (n only takes mini resources/currency to exploit, tested that alot).

[umair01]

Having bitcoins, free's you from curency fluctuations, economic inflation, remittance fee, service/tax charges,funding your requirements without interest, approximate decimal value, although it has its vunerablaties, is similar to having an offshore account that can't be tracked

[kelsey]

It's the most popular alternative currency; currencies get better the more people use them.  I wouldn't use, say, altcoin-X, because if I wanted to make a purchase, I'd likely have to exchange altcoin-X into bitcoin or perhaps dollars, so I may as well cut out a step.

But if you're asking why bitcoin is the most popular and not some competitor, it's likely because bitcoin came first so it's the most established; everyone knows bitcoin, not altcoin-X or some other p2p system like, say, ripple.  This may change in the future, nobody knows for sure.

my questionings coming from the angle of why are so many diehard bitcoiners, when its hard to envisage bitcoin being mass adopted, eg anon dev (cool in the crypto underworld not so to average joes or regulators) especially when anon devs hold a million stash etc, silkroad and illegal rep...list goes........first mover advantage yes, but paving the way hasn't come without cost.

(note i'm not arguing satoshi's stash, or any points about btc reputation ie USD used for more illegal etc....so no arguments on the neg just saying those perceptions exist).

[thejaytiesto]

You could ask the same with facebook, why should someone use it instead of a different social network. The answer is simple facebook is the biggest social network with the most support worldwide. Bitcoin is like this the biggest crypto currency in the world, until a new crypto currency comes wich will have more support and more users than bitcoin we will still prefer bitcoin.

It's not exactly comparable, the analogy of the "first this or that". It will never be the same after Bitcoin, it solved too many unseen things and the protocol can and will adapt anything as needed. No coin will ever surpass BTC, it is what it is.

[kelsey]

You could ask the same with facebook, why should someone use it instead of a different social network. The answer is simple facebook is the biggest social network with the most support worldwide. Bitcoin is like this the biggest crypto currency in the world, until a new crypto currency comes wich will have more support and more users than bitcoin we will still prefer bitcoin.

It's not exactly comparable, the analogy of the "first this or that". It will never be the same after Bitcoin, it solved too many unseen things and the protocol can and will adapt anything as needed. No coin will ever surpass BTC, it is what it is.

very blinkered mindset, one thing i'm confident of is another p2p currency will surpass btc (not saying such exists yet).