Serious question - Corp Coin

[Joe200]

Hi. I am a giant multinational corporation that deals with consumer payments - Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, whatever. I am going to start a new coin. It's an exact copy of bitcoin, but with a brand new ledger. I won't pre-mine, insta-mine, or any shit like that. It will all be fair and square. I will just launch this new coin and promote it to all of my users on my website.

"Shit coin clone", I hear you say? Well, I have 1 billion users all over the world, and I just started accepting and promoting my Corp Coin on my website. Want that Insane Birds app? That will be 10 Corp Coins. While we're promoting the coin, we will knock it down to just 2 Corp Coins for you. It's an exact copy of bitcoin, except it will have 100,000,000 users overnight and more to come after that. The user base will be 100x that of BTC overnight.

All the bitcoin businesses can very easily start accepting my Corp Coin. These businesses are built around bitcoin the technology, not around BTC, a specific coin.

What happens if I do this? Is this the death of bitcoin the coin (as opposed to the technology)? Network effect. Will everyone start using my Corp Coin and dump BTC?

----

If bitcoin starts catching on, I think it is inevitable that something like this will happen. Sooner or later. Since bitcoin the technology has been doing so well, probably sooner.

If that's the case, holding (HODLING) BTC is very dangerous. It could crash to 0 any day, whenever the announcement of the Corp Coin comes.

What do you think? Is this possible or plausible? What's your plan if this happens?

[RodeoX]

Who are your nodes? At the core of bitcoin is a voluntary distributed network. Without this it is nothing like bitcoin.  This is why a corporate coin will not work. It would have to be a centralized currency that only works at their store. In other words, it's a coupon. 

I would never even consider using another system unless it was a decentralized, distributed network that is not tied to identity. It must work in all countries and at many outlets, and must be beyond the control of any entity. No business is going to fund such a coin as they will have no advantage using it. The war is over and bitcoin won.

[gentlemand]

What possible reason or motivation do they have to create a new currency? No corporation has anything to gain from that. That's not and never has been their remit.

Governments and now us lot are the ones who have the ball ache of creating a currency. They make their money by making whatever currency easier to use. Why would they want to have to fuck with exchange rates and the security of maintaining their ledger when all they want is profits in USD.

There'll no doubt be ever faster and cleverer ways to process payments. Tokenisation already exists and that's where they'll head further into. I well and truly can't see any corporate entity bothering with more.

[Joe200]

Who are your nodes? At the core of bitcoin is a voluntary distributed network. Without this it is nothing like bitcoin.  This is why a corporate coin will not work. It would have to be a centralized currency that only works at their store. In other words, it's a coupon. 

I would never even consider using another system unless it was a decentralized, distributed network that is not tied to identity. It must work in all countries and at many outlets, and must be beyond the control of any entity. No business is going to fund such a coin as they will have no advantage using it. The war is over and bitcoin won.

The Corporation won't "control" Corp Coin. They will just release it and promote it on their site.

Anyone can mine it. I am sure plenty of people will jump on the mining the Corp Coin bandwagon. It will be the first mainstream coin. The Corporation can even give away small miners to people for free. Imagine the bonanza, especially in the eyes of regular people. You can create money on your own home computer. And the USB miner, you get for free!

It will be completely decentralized, just like bitcoin. It will work in all countries, just like bitcoin. The difference is that it will have a much larger user base right away.

[Joe200]

What possible reason or motivation do they have to create a new currency? No corporation has anything to gain from that. That's not and never has been their remit.

The cool factor? It costs them almost nothing, but it makes them seem like cool cutting edge innovators. It's good for the brand.

Maybe they want to accept bitcoin payments, but they don't want anything to do with BTC, because of perceived bad publicity (drugs, "dark internet", and so on). So they just rebrand BTC and launch it through their website under a new name. Again, minimal costs. Why not?

[manselr]

Hi. I am a giant multinational corporation that deals with consumer payments - Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, whatever. I am going to start a new coin. It's an exact copy of bitcoin, but with a brand new ledger. I won't pre-mine, insta-mine, or any shit like that. It will all be fair and square. I will just launch this new coin and promote it to all of my users on my website.

"Shit coin clone", I hear you say? Well, I have 1 billion users all over the world, and I just started accepting and promoting my Corp Coin on my website. Want that Insane Birds app? That will be 10 Corp Coins. While we're promoting the coin, we will knock it down to just 2 Corp Coins for you. It's an exact copy of bitcoin, except it will have 100,000,000 users overnight and more to come after that. The user base will be 100x that of BTC overnight.

All the bitcoin businesses can very easily start accepting my Corp Coin. These businesses are built around bitcoin the technology, not around BTC, a specific coin.

What happens if I do this? Is this the death of bitcoin the coin (as opposed to the technology)? Network effect. Will everyone start using my Corp Coin and dump BTC?

----

If bitcoin starts catching on, I think it is inevitable that something like this will happen. Sooner or later. Since bitcoin the technology has been doing so well, probably sooner.

If that's the case, holding (HODLING) BTC is very dangerous. It could crash to 0 any day, whenever the announcement of the Corp Coin comes.

What do you think? Is this possible or plausible? What's your plan if this happens?

No one is going to say bye to their Bitcoins in favor of "coin number #90342390" no matter what. Why? Because Bitcoin is the original and has the smartest devs in the game working on it, and "corp coin" doesn't, which means "corp coin" would depend on Bitcoin advancements to stay up to date, which means "corp coins" life depend on a healthy Bitcoin.

[Joe200]

No one is going to say bye to their Bitcoins in favor of "coin number #90342390" no matter what. Why? Because Bitcoin is the original and has the smartest devs in the game working on it, and "corp coin" doesn't, which means "corp coin" would depend on Bitcoin advancements to stay up to date, which means "corp coins" life depend on a healthy Bitcoin.

There's a huge difference between bitcoin the coin and bitcoin the technology. Bitcoin the technology will stay. The dev's will continue developing it. It's open source, the Corporation can use whatever the bitcoin dev's create as soon as they create it. The Corporation will even throw a few (million) dollars at the dev's, to make sure everything runs smoothly.

[achow101]

So why should people use a brand new coin that is an exact clone of Bitcoin when Bitcoin is the exact same thing but has been around longer, has the largest use, and has the largest user base?

[newflesh]

I think it would be way too risky for a corporation to release its own crypto currency (assuming it's very similar to bitcoin). Imagine the bad PR if someone did create a anonymous marketplace to sell drugs or tweeted about financing terrorists using Corp Coin

It would have to be a shitty version of Bitcoin, blacklists and proof of ID like a certain dev proposed....

[Amph]

so i assume this is a pos coin, because you were not talking about the mining aspect and how to secure your network

since you can't replicate the bitcoin network out of thin air, bitcoin has still something more to offer in term of secuirty in comparison with the stupid pos system

no one will ever take seriously the distribution of a pos coin, there will be always some form of abuse and it will labeled as a scam since birth

[Joe200]

So why should people use a brand new coin that is an exact clone of Bitcoin when Bitcoin is the exact same thing but has been around longer, has the largest use, and has the largest user base?

Why? Because the Corporation will promote Corp Coin on its website. It will have giveaways and prizes if you start using it. It will give away free Corp Coin USB miners. It will be exciting and fantastic.

BTC around for longer. And? Actually, BTC being around for longer could be spun as a disadvantage. A lot of people whine that the early adopters have a shit ton of coins, and that's "unfair". Now, the Corporation comes in, and launches a new coin that's open to everyone around the world. No unfair early adopters. Everyone can get as much as they want.

Largest use. No it doesn't. All of the businesses that accept or use BTC can very easily start using Corp Coin. It's just a few lines of code for them. Once they see the exploding user base for Corp Coin, they'll start accepting it.

Largest user base. Not so fast. With 1 billion customers worldwide, even if 10% of them start using Corp Coin, that's 100,000,000 users. BTC probably has around 1,000,000 users. So Corp Coin will have 100x the users right away.

[Joe200]

so i assume this is a pos coin, because you were not talking about the mining aspect and how to secure your network

since you can't replicate the bitcoin network out of thin air, bitcoin has still something more to offer in term of secuirty in comparison with the stupid pos system

no one will ever take seriously the distribution of a pos coin, there will be always some form of abuse and it will labeled as a scam since birth

No, I said it would be an exact copy of bitcoin. Only two differences: different name, and it will be promoted on the Corporation's website, and accepted by the Corporation as payment.

People will mine it just as they mine BTC. Lots of miners will want in because the demand for the coin is almost guaranteed -- since the Corporation accepts it as payment. Plus, free USB miners for the lucky winners, so they can mine from home.

[Joe200]

I think it would be way too risky for a corporation to release its own crypto currency (assuming it's very similar to bitcoin). Imagine the bad PR if someone did create a anonymous marketplace to sell drugs or tweeted about financing terrorists using Corp Coin

It would have to be a shitty version of Bitcoin, blacklists and proof of ID like a certain dev proposed....

This is the first response that makes a good point. There is the danger of bad PR for the Corporation.

They might still take the risk though. There are a lot of advantages: improved image from being so cutting edge, instant payments and not having to pay 3% to the credit cards. They might decide that these advantages outweigh the risk of having some bad PR from time to time.

It's not cut and dry. They will donate money to anti-drug campaigns.

No, not a shitty version of bitcoin. What if they use the technology as is.

[Amph]

so i assume this is a pos coin, because you were not talking about the mining aspect and how to secure your network

since you can't replicate the bitcoin network out of thin air, bitcoin has still something more to offer in term of secuirty in comparison with the stupid pos system

no one will ever take seriously the distribution of a pos coin, there will be always some form of abuse and it will labeled as a scam since birth

No, I said it would be an exact copy of bitcoin. Only two differences: different name, and it will be promoted on the Corporation's website, and accepted by the Corporation as payment.

People will mine it just as they mine BTC. Lots of miners will want in because the demand for the coin is almost guaranteed -- since the Corporation accepts it as payment. Plus, free USB miners for the lucky winners, so they can mine from home.

then if it is the exact copy we will embrace it and we will be happy, but aside from this i don't see any point in a big company to create an exact clone of bitcoin, if they cannot still control it

better to invest in bitcoin, without wasting tons of money to build another network equal to bitcoin, with all the costs that, there will be for electricity and everything else, nobody in their right mind would ever do it

[Joe200]

then if it is the exact copy we will embrace it and we will be happy, but aside from this i don't see any point in a big company to create an exact clone of bitcoin, if they cannot still control it

better to invest in bitcoin, without wasting tons of money to build another network equal to bitcoin, with all the costs that, there will be for electricity and everything else, nobody in their right mind would ever do it

If you embrace it, it means you are spending your fiat to buy Corp Coin, and there is less fiat left to buy BTC. Meaning, the price of BTC falls, correct?

There is no money wasted for them. There are no costs. The miners bear the cost of mining and electricity. What costs does the Corporation have to pay?

[jonald_fyookball]

Why shouldn't I just mine corpcoin and immediately dump it for bitcoin which has a better network?

[achow101]

So why should people use a brand new coin that is an exact clone of Bitcoin when Bitcoin is the exact same thing but has been around longer, has the largest use, and has the largest user base?

Why? Because the Corporation will promote Corp Coin on its website. It will have giveaways and prizes if you start using it. It will give away free Corp Coin USB miners. It will be exciting and fantastic.

BTC around for longer. And? Actually, BTC being around for longer could be spun as a disadvantage. A lot of people whine that the early adopters have a shit ton of coins, and that's "unfair". Now, the Corporation comes in, and launches a new coin that's open to everyone around the world. No unfair early adopters. Everyone can get as much as they want.

Largest use. No it doesn't. All of the businesses that accept or use BTC can very easily start using Corp Coin. It's just a few lines of code for them. Once they see the exploding user base for Corp Coin, they'll start accepting it.

Largest user base. Not so fast. With 1 billion customers worldwide, even if 10% of them start using Corp Coin, that's 100,000,000 users. BTC probably has around 1,000,000 users. So Corp Coin will have 100x the users right away.

If you create such a coin and you have such a large number of users, how many do you think would actually begin using Corp Coin when all they hear about cryptocurrencies is all the negative stuff that the media reports? How many people would actually use Corp Coin within its first few weeks of launch? By the time that people begin using then, they will also complain about how the early adopters in those first couple of weeks who were able to mine with cpu and gpus or maybe even ASICs have over 90% of the coins. If people with several terahashes of SHA256 ASICS they could point them at this new coin, make the difficulty spike and earn tons of Corp Coin (Free Money!!) in the first few weeks. Then they could pull away their miners and go back to Bitcoin and leave the difficulty incredibly high, leaving your network insecure and impossible to mine without more ASICS. Your USB ASIC miners would soon be just as out of date and worthless as they are now in Bitcoin.

[Amph]

then if it is the exact copy we will embrace it and we will be happy, but aside from this i don't see any point in a big company to create an exact clone of bitcoin, if they cannot still control it

better to invest in bitcoin, without wasting tons of money to build another network equal to bitcoin, with all the costs that, there will be for electricity and everything else, nobody in their right mind would ever do it

If you embrace it, it means you are spending your fiat to buy Corp Coin, and there is less fiat left to buy BTC. Meaning, the price of BTC falls, correct?

There is no money wasted for them. There are no costs. The miners bear the cost of mining and electricity. What costs does the Corporation have to pay?

how there is no cost, from where their will buy all the mining equipments to build their huge centralized farm? which basically can double spend anytime, and for this alone i doubt many will embrace it

Why shouldn't I just mine corpcoin and immediately dump it for bitcoin which has a better network?

this is my point, you can't simply build a network like bitcoin, overnight, no way

[herzmeister]

Microsoft also didn't take over the Internet with their proprietary "Microsoft Network" back then. (only the name remained, MSN)

[jonald_fyookball]

can't simply build a network like bitcoin, overnight, no way

True.

Just because a corporation backs something doesn't mean you're going to get more people into crypto than Bitcoin.  And in fact, I think what probably would happen is they will just end up creating more awareness and adoption of bitcoin.