Realistically does bitcoin have any competition ?

[Denker]

Right now Bitcoin is not having any competition. I also believe that no competition from inside of the crypto world has to be feared. I'm way more concerned about the financial institutions who are really putting in lots of effort and money in Blockchain technology. They have the financial power, the influence in politics, media and a huge customer base to manipulate to use their own coming crypto schemes.

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[dothebeats]

Right now Bitcoin is not having any competition. I also believe that no competition from inside of the crypto world has to be feared. I'm way more concerned about the financial institutions who are really putting in lots of effort and money in Blockchain technology. They have the financial power, the influence in politics, media and a huge customer base to manipulate to use their own coming crypto schemes.

Also put into things to be feared that might actually interferer with bitcoin's growth: regulations and the governments of different countries. Crypto-crypto competition won't exist as bitcoin is proven to be the best among them, that's why we label other coins as an "altcoin" because it is an alternative of bitcoin, sometimes heavily-based on bitcoin's functionality and design. What I'm worried about is the governments imposing regulations and restrictions on the use of bitcoin to make it hard for people to steer it towards its growth. Banks are fine, they are putting too much money on the technology (blockchain) and we know that a centralized blockchain won't work out well.

[Mickeyb]

I would say only possibly Ethereum at the moment and those are only expectations since the Ethereum devs still have to deliver the promised. But Ethereum does have a lot of hype around itself even in the outside world which no other alt does have at the moment. Just look at the last 10 days and the news articles and how many banks are actually looking into Bitcoin and Ethereum.

On the other side, some may argue that Ethereum and Bitcoin are not competition at all since the main use of ETH are smart contracts. So in a essence, these two are complementing each other.

Ethereum can be a possible competitor, but hype alone won't take the cut and as you said, the devs should deliver first before people could actually take it as a serious alternative to bitcoin.

-snip-
On the other side, some may argue that Ethereum and Bitcoin are not competition at all since the main use of ETH are smart contracts. So in a essence, these two are complementing each other.

Yep, ETH can be used ideally in smart contracts and not as a mainstream currency as to what bitcoin is intended to be. That kinda explains why there wouldn't be no tight competition between the two.

Deliver and deliver a lot. They have promised some amazing things and they better make them true. Then again they do have a very capable de team, there shouldn't be problems here, but you really never know.

As for them competing or complementing each other, it depends. Bitcoin has a currency primacy position at the moment and holds it tight. But no doubt that people can turn to Ethereum or any other currency if Bitcoin messes something up with centralization, development, or etc.. and it's not capable to do its job efficiently.

[n2004al]

This will have never chance to be true. Not because bitcoin is different or better than the others (maybe it is). Nor because it is the first in market and as such have slot and open this kind of market. But because behind it exist a technology, a disruptive technology, which have only him and will change to many others actually in market and will do story. This technology will support always bitcoin as a currency and bitcoin will be always a winner.

[Thekool1s]

I understand there are 600 other coins and that banks might be involved in trying to put in place there own mechanisms based on the blockchain but now that bitcoin has become as big as it has is there even a 10% chance that anything could replace bitcoin in the next few years.

I think no, Because Bitcoin has become something like Dollar, Which has placed a value in users mind. But with a little different way as we know because of mining.

[Denker]

Right now Bitcoin is not having any competition. I also believe that no competition from inside of the crypto world has to be feared. I'm way more concerned about the financial institutions who are really putting in lots of effort and money in Blockchain technology. They have the financial power, the influence in politics, media and a huge customer base to manipulate to use their own coming crypto schemes.

Also put into things to be feared that might actually interferer with bitcoin's growth: regulations and the governments of different countries. Crypto-crypto competition won't exist as bitcoin is proven to be the best among them, that's why we label other coins as an "altcoin" because it is an alternative of bitcoin, sometimes heavily-based on bitcoin's functionality and design. What I'm worried about is the governments imposing regulations and restrictions on the use of bitcoin to make it hard for people to steer it towards its growth. Banks are fine, they are putting too much money on the technology (blockchain) and we know that a centralized blockchain won't work out well.

I completely agree with you. Governments can issue laws and regulate so much that it might be really difficult to use Bitcoin.
Regarding the banks it might not work out with Blockchain technology as we know and define it. But this doesn't mean they can not figure out way to use that technololy to their advantage. And I believe they will. Furthemore they will brainwash, influence the average joe and the politicians to continue using their schemes.They have done this last 100 years.Banking will change yes. But I'm really concerned that Bitcoin might not disrupt them.

[Hugroll]

there's plently of other coins similar to bitcoin, but they all lack the support bitcoin has, theres barely any people using these other coins, and theyre being pumped and dumped till they die 

[mallard]

Everyone is recommending Monero and Ethereum, Monero being ~0.50 US cents while Ethereum being ~0.80 US cents.
I think everyone is forgetting Litecoin. 2 USD per coin. Monero and Ethereum both have potential, but litecoin is much more per coin than both Eth and Monero.

I think the price per coin is irrelevant.
What if I made a Bitcoin fork that had a limit of only 10 coins? One coin would probably be worth a lot, but the overall market cap low.

[BitcoiNaked]

The startups are disrupting markets including: Cloud Storage; Smart Contracts; Social Networking; Anti-Conterfeiting; Governance; Digital Identity; Supply Chain; Art & Ownership; Prediction Markets; and Internet of Things.

The companies are: Applied Blockchain, Augur (@AugurProject), Bitnation (@MyBitNation), Bitproof.io (@bitproofio), BlockVerify (@BlockVerify), Chimera, Colu (@coluplatform), Etherparty (@etherparty_io), everledger (@everledgerio), Filament (@FilamentHQ), Filecoin (@MineFilecoin), FollowMyVote (@FollowMyVote), Gems (@getgemsorg), Monegraph (@Monegraph), Onename (@onename), Otonomos (@Otonomos), ShoCard (@getShoCard), Storj (@storjproject), Swarm (@swarmfund), Synereo (@Synereo) thingchain (@thingchain), Tierion (@Tierion), Tradle (@tradles), Trustatom (@trustatom), and Verisart (@verisart).

Nice list, didn't know some of these.

[n3o111]

I understand there are 600 other coins and that banks might be involved in trying to put in place there own mechanisms based on the blockchain but now that bitcoin has become as big as it has is there even a 10% chance that anything could replace bitcoin in the next few years.

There's always a competition between currencies in history. Digital currencies have no difference. Remember Satoshi's words about Bitcoin's value:

"I'm sure that in 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume." -- Satoshi

Very large transaction volume = Bitcoin win the competition
No volume = another currency win the competition

[maokoto]

It has no competition right now, and I do not see how that could change. But certainly it could change.

Just remember msn messenger or Internet explorer. There was a time they had "no realistic competition".

[Amph]

no i believe none of those other coins offers something genuinely new like bitcoin was since its begining, they offer something valuable in some cases, but it can still be implemented in the future if consensus is reached, they are not groundbreaking changes

[MicroGuy]

I understand there are 600 other coins and that banks might be involved in trying to put in place there own mechanisms based on the blockchain but now that bitcoin has become as big as it has is there even a 10% chance that anything could replace bitcoin in the next few years.

Yes, bitcoin has competition. I think it's probably in the most competitive emerging technology space since the early 90's and the days of early internet.

And unless bitcoin can get its development house (aka core dev team) in order it will be left behind in the dust.

[twister]

I understand there are 600 other coins and that banks might be involved in trying to put in place there own mechanisms based on the blockchain but now that bitcoin has become as big as it has is there even a 10% chance that anything could replace bitcoin in the next few years.

Bitcoin's competition is not with other currencies and coins that came after but the currency which came before it, which is fiat and so far fiat is winning but you can say that it had an early start but if bitcoin can manage to keep it's head steady for some more  years it'll definitely become the second currency used worldwide.

[belcher]

There's no reason to use Monero given that JoinMarket exists.

[dothebeats]

This will have never chance to be true. Not because bitcoin is different or better than the others (maybe it is). Nor because it is the first in market and as such have slot and open this kind of market. But because behind it exist a technology, a disruptive technology, which have only him and will change to many others actually in market and will do story. This technology will support always bitcoin as a currency and bitcoin will be always a winner.

Not so sure about the bold part, knowing that at the time of this writing, bitcoin is mainly driven by whales and shorters/long-term traders and not the actual masses. Also, governments and banks are keeping a keen sense of watching things develop on bitcoin, and they might interfere sooner or later seeing how bitcoin's concept could destroy them in the future. Sure, bitcoin brought many firsts in this world, economically, politically and technologically, but that doesn't mean that it will remain robust and strong forever. In an ecosystem full of manipulators and power-hungry creatures, it is not possible to have continuous growth even in a slow pace.

[ashour]

Not yet, unless a new development team develops a completely innovative coin that makes bitcoin useless, then no bitcoin doesn't have any competition. In order for a coin to compete with bitcoin it needs innovative technology and a huge marketing budget.

[coinpr0n]

Altcoins can't really compete with Bitcoin. The head-start and network effect of Bitcoin is too large at this point. Improvements in altcoins could for the most part, theoretically, be implemented into Bitcoin.

[johnyj]

If you want to get the maximum effect of monetary deflation, you would only invest in one cryptocurrency that is most mature and widely accepted. That's the reason other coins, no matter how technology advanced, are monetarily disadvantaged, since they are essentially inflation in cryptocurrency world

[maokoto]

The startups are disrupting markets including: Cloud Storage; Smart Contracts; Social Networking; Anti-Conterfeiting; Governance; Digital Identity; Supply Chain; Art & Ownership; Prediction Markets; and Internet of Things.

The companies are: Applied Blockchain, Augur (@AugurProject), Bitnation (@MyBitNation), Bitproof.io (@bitproofio), BlockVerify (@BlockVerify), Chimera, Colu (@coluplatform), Etherparty (@etherparty_io), everledger (@everledgerio), Filament (@FilamentHQ), Filecoin (@MineFilecoin), FollowMyVote (@FollowMyVote), Gems (@getgemsorg), Monegraph (@Monegraph), Onename (@onename), Otonomos (@Otonomos), ShoCard (@getShoCard), Storj (@storjproject), Swarm (@swarmfund), Synereo (@Synereo) thingchain (@thingchain), Tierion (@Tierion), Tradle (@tradles), Trustatom (@trustatom), and Verisart (@verisart).

Nice list, didn't know some of these.

This is a really cool image, it helps to understand it all at a glance.