Is competition healthy for Bitcoin?

[HappyScamp]

Maybe it's not so much competition as mutual support ... or it will become that way.

I keep thinking that there will presently be a whole spectrum of meme-coins: JesusCoin, AllahCoin, Marxistcoin. ArtCoin, GreenCoin, etc ... so that people will tend to use the coin that fits their belief systems, supposing that others who do the same are somewhat like themselves.

All these currencies will float against each other, reflect the real vitality of different aspects of society, and be offered also in mutual bundled coin products.

How could it NOT go that way?

[1714030075]

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[1714030075]

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[Meatpile]

Competition is bad.

The reason being with something as copy and tweakable as open source software, its way too easy to make clones. In fact someone should programatically generate every possible combination of coin generation time, block size, hash size, coin limit, deflation, and inflation rate etc, just to prove the point.

If there were 10,000 different slightly varied bitcoins they would all be worthless. The only thing that gives bitcoin worth right now is that sufficient people are using just one version of it.

[Mjbmonetarymetals]

https://btc-e.com/exchange/ltc_btc

All in all litecoins rise from a couple of cents to over $1 over the last couple of weeks has been the most amazing ride, every bit as exciting as its big brother Bitcoin. Well done LTC  

Sure there could be some heart wrenching volatility as we saw in Bitcoin but hey what a ride
Ps. more litecoin Dev. Updates coming in may !!  

Long live crypto coins.

[Mjbmonetarymetals]

The crypto trains getting a little crowded 

[Mjbmonetarymetals]

From mt gox Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MtGox - point 6 of interest in relation to Litecoin.

Dear Mt. Gox Customers and Bitcoiners,

The reaction since yesterday’s statement regarding the temporary suspension of U.S. dollar withdrawals has had mixed reactions, and raised more than a few questions about why we had to take this step right now. Rather than be subject to inaccurate speculation we’d like to clarify some points here. Due to pending matters we are unable to get into everything in great detail, though we’d certainly love to and are looking forward to the opportunity.

1) The problem with the U.S. withdrawals (and even other currencies for that matter) is that our bank can no longer handle the volume of withdrawals. They struggled in the last two months, and the increase due to the Dwolla separation has made it increasingly more difficult. The pressure we brought onto the bank’s resources finally gave in, and we are now working with them to find an alternative method (hence the suspension). We would have preferred to give notice if we were able to, but it was sudden for us as well.

2) We are now working with new banks and alternative methods for transmitting money to our customers. This does not mean we are stopping entirely within the next two weeks, but it will be slower than we would like. We are literally going to use our manpower to process withdrawals ourselves, manually. This will take more time, but we are dedicated to doing as many per day as possible. We announced a suspension in order to manage expectations while we deliver at a temporary reduced rate. Our goal is to have a new system set up in the next weeks with clarity for both the banks and for our customers.

3) Our previous release was rather vague, but for a reason. Mainly, we don't want to upset our bank! They do great work, but our kind of business is completely new to the banking industry. Processing international wires does not just involve pushing a button. It requires real manpower processing everything individually, even in this modern computer age. While Bitcoin's power lies in its ability to transfer fast and securely through software, the rest of the financial world does not operate like that (contrary to popular opinion). Money is surprisingly analog in many ways, and scarily digital in others.

4) Every customer’s funds are safe, sound, and accounted for. In fact, in our dealings with the Japanese financial regulators we have been assured that we are not under local pressure or suspicion and can operate as usual within normal legal frameworks.

5) Mt. Gox is certainly not a martyr, but it would be hard to argue that we aren’t "taking one for the team" as far as Bitcoin is concerned. We are a big target, and are absorbing the frustrations of Bitcoiners, regulators, banks, and a media that still doesn't quite understand what Bitcoin is. This is a job we are happy to fill, and not just because we are compensated for it. Our hope is that, once Bitcoin finds its place, we will be able to say that we made a difference in sorting it all out in the early days. New exchanges, business models, merchants, traders, and consumers are rising up to innovate and create a whole new way of doing business. A lot of lawyers are getting new cars in the meantime too.

6) As risky as it is to invoke the name of Litecoin (LTC???), we must apologize for not keeping everyone up to date. The fact is that the current situation means a continued delay, but for good reasons. We’re looking at July right now, though that depends on a few things. Mainly, we want to do things correctly from the beginning.

7) The new trading engine is finished, is smokin’ fast, and is currently undergoing bench tests. We’re looking forward to deploying it very soon.

While not the most in-depth update we'd like to give, we hope that it has at least clarified a few things. In the next few weeks we are planning to do another AMA on Reddit when we’ll hopefully be able to answer many more questions and also shed some light on what’s been going on at Mt. Gox these past months. Thank you for your patience and support.

[acoindr]

From mt gox Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MtGox - point 6 of interest in relation to Litecoin.

Yes, I've been waiting for Mt.Gox to add Litecoin as it will move it into the mainstream (for cryptocurrency) I believe. I don't think people realize how much support there is for Litecoin. Many think it's only a speculative play fueled by speculators late to the Bitcoin party. However, I've often tried to point out why I think it has fundamental value and a big support role to play for cryptocurrency. The number of users with LTC is huge due to its 4x faster inflation rate and that only means lots of market pressure for adoption.

I think it's also worth pointing out point #5:

5) Mt. Gox is certainly not a martyr, but it would be hard to argue that we aren’t "taking one for the team" as far as Bitcoin is concerned. We are a big target, and are absorbing the frustrations of Bitcoiners, regulators, banks, and a media that still doesn't quite understand what Bitcoin is. ...

There are a lot of Gox bashers, but that company has been hugely key in Bitcoin's progress to date (core devs, often unpaid, of course are another story!).

[Factory]

Competition is almost always a healthy thing.

[franky1]

competition is always good. even if there are 100 different alt coins competition is always good.

what is not good is people sitting on forums WAITING for critical mass, as if it magically will happen naturally. the whole point of competition, much like sports competition... is alot of sweat and hard work.

if your just going to stand there at the start line and think your going to win purely because you have alot of backers, means nothing.. you have to actually respond and do something to ensure you win..

its never about how much money is thrown at a champion, its about how hard they work to succeed. we need a proper focus on infrastructure such as simplifying merchant tools, developing easy methods to incorporate bitcoin technologies into existing business models, and to actually get out of the basements and actively promote bitcoin outside of forums and you tube videos which are only seen by the already initiated.

[Vlad2Vlad]

Then again, considering social barriers, it could be possible; one nation speaking language X would prefer XCoin, while another nation speaking language Y would prefer YCoin...

No, competing crypto currencies will rather split nations on demographics, politics and even religion, based on different solutions of the initial distribution problem. E.g. CatholicCoin, with initial distribution by the Roman Catholic Church to each of its members (maybe not the best example when I come to think of it, as they are very conservative....

Why wait for the Catholic Church to launch such a monster coin when we can do it.

Is anybody interested in launching a catholic coin?  I don't have much money but I do won all the catholic coin domains.  Let me know.  Such a coin would be a huge benefit to so many needy people and it would be an instant hit given the coin would automatically have a huge following.

Mormon coin would work too but I'm not Mormon. 

Anybody interested?  Any programmer with spare time?  Anybody with spare cash?  Lol, the latter is a touch one.

[Mjbmonetarymetals]

[khabaro]

whether or not competition is healthy seems to me to be a bit of a pointless question.  the open source nature of bitcoin means there will ALWAYS be competition.  that was pretty much a given from day one of bitcoin, as long as it didn’t turn out to be a total flop.  it was just a matter of time before people started compiling the original source code and tweaking it before new block chains were started. 

of course competition is good.  if crypto currencies become mainstream bitcoin won’t be able to handle the transaction volumes all by itself.  we need multiple crypto currencies.  we’re already seeing clear leaders and laggers in the crypto currency race.  so i wouldn’t worry about bitcoin being watered down too much.  the bad crypto currencies actually accentuate the benefits of the good ones.

various security strategies mean a single attack method would not be successful in bringing down all crypto currencies.  different development teams mean it would be near impossible for them all to succumb to bad government influences (transaction tracking, etc.) or just bad programming mistakes. 

the old saying “don’t keep all your eggs in one basket” applies to crypto currencies just like anything else.  no one wants a single attack or programming error to make their favorite crypto currency worthless.  it’s best to spread the wealth around.

[Vlad2Vlad]

To say competition is healthy is silly.  It's only good for consumers not for the companies involved.  Pretty common sense.

But it looks like bitcoin is now going walstreet which will be mainstream USA after that sometime next year.  If that happens all alt coins will skyrocket.  All of them cause there would be a shortage of alt coins for about 1 year.



ETF for Bitcoin coming which will change the whole idea or alt coins which will bring in the masses and wallstreet.  Hang on, it's gonna all start very soon:



http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/first-name-in-the-first-fund-for-bitcoins-winklevoss/?_r=0

[Endgame]

Is competition healthy for bitcoin? Yes, in the same way that we want competition in the exchanges, competition in mining pools, competition in crypto discussion sites, and just about everything else. Competition is absolutely essential. It is what drives innovation. And whether we like it or not, it is here to stay.

[Vlad2Vlad]

Competition in the Eco system is good and all competition is good for consumers.  But competition for any coin is not good.  I'm not sure why anyone would think having 1,000 competing coins would be better than having say 3 total coins for people to choose from.  Bad for them good for the coins.  Since we're buyers of coins we don't want too much competition.

[JoelKatz]

Competition in the Eco system is good and all competition is good for consumers.  But competition for any coin is not good.  I'm not sure why anyone would think having 1,000 competing coins would be better than having say 3 total coins for people to choose from.  Bad for them good for the coins.  Since we're buyers of coins we don't want too much competition.

I think for driving use and adoption of Bitcoin over the medium to long term, price stability is what you want. Increasing prices make hoarders happy and drive speculation, but if you want Bitcoins to be adopted as a means of exchange (the gold standard for broad adoption) you need a fairly stable value. If nothing else, rising prices drive fear of a sudden drop which stunts adoption as a means of exchange.

[LiteCoinGuy]

https://btc-e.com/exchange/ltc_btc

All in all litecoins rise from a couple of cents to over $1 over the last couple of weeks has been the most amazing ride, every bit as exciting as its big brother Bitcoin. Well done LTC  

Sure there could be some heart wrenching volatility as we saw in Bitcoin but hey what a ride
Ps. more litecoin Dev. Updates coming in may !!  

Long live crypto coins.

Nice photo

[Mjbmonetarymetals]

[fattypig]

Is per the title, competition is always healthy for everything...

[Mjbmonetarymetals]

What effect will scrypt ASIC's have? Will scrypt ASIC's farms mine out alts and sell for btc boosting its price and hold litecoin or simply dump all the alts including litecoin in favour of Bitcoin.

Was bitcoins sharp rise anything to do with the introduction of ASIC mining or simply a happy coincidence.

[ljudotina]

Competition is healthy, but Litecoin is no competition to BTC in any way. It offers NOTHING new or different from moment when they allowed ASIC's to enter their lands. Real competition will come from others like Darkcoin etc.