Realistically does bitcoin have any competition ?

[Pab]

 Fortunetly bitcoin has competition, Bitshares is implementating graphen technology and is creating his network of exchanges,there are some other coming,btc can be still very good if will be no more surprises like last xt fork
Btc network must improve security and decantrelised exchanges needed

[Herbert2020]

there always is going to be competition for any technology that is good and new. but as far as bitcoin and all the other altcoins are concerned i don't see any near competition going on.

i mean there are a couple of altcoins that are considered TOP Altcoins but they are week competitors for bitcoin.

[chennan]

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.

I noticed that all the reasons why you think that the financial institutions are going to "manipulate" the blockchain in some way, are all the reasons why bitcoin is still powerful today.  Bitconers have financial power because of the price of a btc/usd, we already have a pretty large customer base as of right now (I know it's not as big as the banks), and the media are still talking about us and politics are influenced because of us because of the possible use of using the blockchain for voting systems.  Idk, I have a feeling the bitcoin community has a larger say so than what we give our selves credit for.  If the banks are going to try and use the blockchain for their own online "coin" they copy, regular people out there would have no idea what they are trying to do and probably pull out of that bank.

As for potential competitors for bitcoin with other altcoins, there is another possibility for this... but that's not entirely a bad thing.  Monero offers more security and fungibility which could become a thing that governments and big businesses use because of the anonymity and the amount of security that comes from that, but also allows people to view the transactions with a view key that allows taxing, there fore, mass adoption.

And it's not like one coin would "take over" another coin for mass adoption... I believe that there can be multiple crypto currencies out there that offer different capabilities.  Monero for security, maybe litecoin for fast(er) everyday transactions (?), and bitcoin for the standard currency that pretty much everyone will use... Not to say that there won't be another coin in the next year or two that offers something completely different and then that will be on that list as well.

Just my two cents though

[adamstgBit]

altcoins will remain a bit of a joke as long as bitcoin continues to improve itself, maybe one day when bitcoin is processing 50K TPS with a healthy distributed full node count there won't be any more major improvements to be had, but until that day comes, it's important for bitcoin to stay ahead of the curve with continued dev. right now there is this scaling problem, if an altcoin clams to solve it... bitcoin better be not far behind. also look at ETH a coin with a built in scripting language, bitcoin was originally designed to have the same capability, but was left out because there wasn't time to make damn sure it wouldn't expose bitcoin to a security risk. Maybe it would be a good idea to get this feature up and running soon?  MySpace could have changed its itself to compete with facebook, but it didn't so it died. this crypto currency war thing isn't much different. If bitcoin thinks it's the biggest strongest and therefore unsinkable no matter what decisions it makes, it will most definitely suffer the same faith as the titanic.

[Mickeyb]

altcoins will remain a bit of a joke as long as bitcoin continues to improve itself, maybe one day when bitcoin is processing 50K TPS with a healthy distributed full node count there won't be any more major improvements to be had, but until that day comes, it's important for bitcoin to stay ahead of the curve with continued dev. right now there is this scaling problem, if an altcoin clams to solve it... bitcoin better be not far behind. also look at ETH a coin with a built in scripting language, bitcoin was originally designed to have the same capability, but was left out because there wasn't time to make damn sure it wouldn't expose bitcoin to a security risk. Maybe it would be a good idea to get this feature up and running soon?  MySpace could have changed its itself to compete with facebook, but it didn't so it died. this crypto currency war thing isn't much different. If bitcoin thinks it's the biggest strongest and therefore unsinkable no matter what decisions it makes, it will most definitely suffer the same faith as the titanic.

I tend to agree with all that you have written. It's very important to continue improving Bitcoin. It's not like Bitcoin is already as big as Facebook for example, has a share of users as Facebook and it's developed as Facebook is.

We are still in the beginnings of this crypto project in general. And having first mover advantage doesn't make you a winner for life. On contrary, being the leader means that you need to continue developing since everybody wants your skin. It's as simple as that.

[maokoto]

I think that altcoins have its place. What would all trade exchanges do without them? 

It is always good to have an alternative to Bitcoin that is of the same kind (i.e digital currency). I agree that probably they will never be used to buy and sell directly ... but still there is an use if only educational in trading and being something like a "backup" for Bitcoin.

[gentlemand]

No. No other coin is anywhere near it and every corporate and government 'blockchain' project is basically a completely different beast.

Overall though it's still a delicate time. Bitcoin's flaws are becoming more apparent by the day and it's still small enough to be usurped by something that addresses all of these issues straight out of the box. It's far from being out of the woods yet.

[americanpegasus]

Monero should rise in time to become the yang to Bitcoin's yin.  
  
There is a need in every 'game' for both public and private moves.  
  
It would be silly to think global finance won't follow the same rules.  
  

[Nagle]

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.

Probably not. Here's the full list of known altcoins, with market caps and trading volume. Other than Bitcoin, none of them could handle a $100K sell without crashing the market.

Some of those coins with large market caps started with a big cut for insiders, so the "market cap" is inflated. Like Paycoin. It's still on the list, but you'll have to scroll down a long way.  Remember their "guaranteed $20 floor"?  Current price is $0.016583.

[Mickeyb]

Monero should rise in time to become the yang to Bitcoin's yin.  
  
There is a need in every 'game' for both public and private moves.  
  
It would be silly to think global finance won't follow the same rules.  
  

Can somebody please summarize the main difference between Monero and Dash? These are pretty much 2 main stealth competitors, right? And why should Monero be so much superior? I see people mentioning Monero a lot.

Thanks

[Nagle]

Monero should rise in time to become the yang to Bitcoin's yin.

Monero. It's had its day. Daily volume $10,878.

[tonycamp]

monero its like litecoin and doge coin to be sable to 10 dollars into the next 2 years but not replacing 10% the btc

[mallard]

Can somebody please summarize the main difference between Monero and Dash? These are pretty much 2 main stealth competitors, right? And why should Monero be so much superior? I see people mentioning Monero a lot.

This post explains it well.

[cjmoles]

In my humble opinion, it is easy to see.  There are many new directions that some of the alternative technologies are taking in recent times....So, if bitcoin can't get over its governance issues and if its elite group of market manipulators can't clean up their images, then bitcoin may very well have some competition in the near future.

[gripflierGO]

In my humble opinion, it is easy to see.  There are many new directions that some of the alternative technologies are taking in recent times....So, if bitcoin can't get over its governance issues and if its elite group of market manipulators can't clean up their images, then bitcoin may very well have some competition in the near future.

Exactly, and it totally depends on the adoption level of bitcoins by the people, if the adoption level is high than bitcoin would survive, but that doesn't guarantee the success of bitcoin in a long run as the technology keeps on advancing and new innovations are part and parcel of technology So I believe that it would definitely face a competition from new entrants in the future.

[americanpegasus]

Monero. It's had its day. Daily volume $10,878.

 
 
Think of now as beta testing.  The core has just recently become sleek and rock solid, and after that is taken care of the GUI should be trivial.  I would expect a GUI before 1st quarter 2016, after which we will likely experience a full on Monero-rush. 
 
 
 
Looking at this logarithmic chart we can see that since birth Monero has slingshotted around a reasonable true value of about 60 cents each.  And I think that's horribly undervalued for what is basically the only cryptocoin out there with a real chance to overtake bitcoin.  Once the GUI comes out and 2016 hits there will be no reason at all for them not to be 1:1.

[americanpegasus]

Can somebody please summarize the main difference between Monero and Dash? These are pretty much 2 main stealth competitors, right? And why should Monero be so much superior? I see people mentioning Monero a lot.

Thanks

 
 
The other guy posted a more in depth link, but let me give you the layman's version:  Monero uses Cryptonote and ring signatures to provide true anonymity: it's a mathematically complete solution.  Dash uses something called "masternodes" to create a trick with an illusion of privacy.  The entire masternode idea is totally flawed though.  You are basically promoting some users to "mega" users which have the power to break anonymity... it's like declaring you've discovered the secret to seducing beautiful women and then taking your pants off and putting them on your head.  It's literally pants-on-head retarded. 
 
It's made worse by the fact that the launch had some extremely sketchy business going on with an alleged instant pre-mine. 
 
Dash is not a privacy solution at all, and in many ways is inferior to regular bitcoin: if privacy can be broken by *any* actor, then it's better than no one has privacy by default.  If a system guarantees privacy, then all nodes need to be regarded as equals in that aspect. 
 
Monero is what you want.  But don't believe me; keep reading and researching. 
 
It might be the most important research you ever do.

[LiteCoinGuy]

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.

not really. the second biggest crypto is Litecoin. you can see it as a backup for bitcoin. (blocksize...?)

people say that Bitcoin is like Gold and Litecoin is like Silver.

[chennan]

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.

not really. the second biggest crypto is Litecoin. you can see it as a backup for bitcoin. (blocksize...?)

people say that Bitcoin is like Gold and Litecoin is like Silver.

But since Litecoin is pretty much like a replica of bitcoin and doesn't have any features that really make it stand out from bitcoin in general... doesn't that make it have the same potential flaws of block size when it gets higher and higher in price and when more people start to use it?

I've been really looking into merging my bitcoins with another coin that I like that has the best chances of success due to offering something a lot different from btc; and as of right now, I just really like monero... but idk, people can speculate all they want about which coin is going to "make it", but in reality btc can fall in an instant tomorrow and then everyone will lose.

Investing a lot of money in cryptos have always been sort of a gamble, but I like gambling.. so it fits right up my ally

[LiteCoinGuy]

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.

not really. the second biggest crypto is Litecoin. you can see it as a backup for bitcoin. (blocksize...?)

people say that Bitcoin is like Gold and Litecoin is like Silver.

But since Litecoin is pretty much like a replica of bitcoin and doesn't have any features that really make it stand out from bitcoin in general... doesn't that make it have the same potential flaws of block size when it gets higher and higher in price and when more people start to use it?

I've been really looking into merging my bitcoins with another coin that I like that has the best chances of success due to offering something a lot different from btc; and as of right now, I just really like monero... but idk, people can speculate all they want about which coin is going to "make it", but in reality btc can fall in an instant tomorrow and then everyone will lose.

Investing a lot of money in cryptos have always been sort of a gamble, but I like gambling.. so it fits right up my ally

it has value because it is the second biggest and most secure blockchain after Bitcoin.

i very optimistic that Litecoin can adapt faster than bitcoin because there are only 2-3 main Devs + C. Lee who is the creator of Litecoin.