Is Ethereum "their" response to Bitcoin?

[sri19]

Facts:

-- Bill Gates / Microsoft actively backs it
-- Gets featured in prominent hollywood TV series
-- Receives a disproportionately more attention and mainstream media hype when compared to other alts

I have a (worthless?) conspiracy that goes like this:

-- The powers that be have propped up Ethereum as a response to Bitcoin.
-- They are the one's who're also creating the scaling debate.
-- They want to retain control of the alternate financial system.

[loreRex]

Yes, but it is not a conspiracy, it's simply today law of survival. Innovate or get killed by innovation.

[benthach]

The conspiracy is like this, when this billionaire dump his ethorium it will be bloodbath,
http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/20/investing/mike-novogratz-bets-big-on-bitcoin-ether-blockchain/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_latest+%28CNNMoney%3A+Latest+News%29
Remember he have his eth at $1 each.

First conspiracy is IBM already abandoned this vaporware eth, R3 have abandoned this eth, the DAO is dead, jp morgan has abandoned this eth. Their only hype now is some slow turtles company like Microsoft which usually 1 decade behind everyone, soon it too will abandon this vaporware. This scam vaporware eth is a death trap waiting to happen which going to sucks hundreds of millions or even billions out of dumb company/fund management.

[btbrae]

It's a dumb name. I don't really care about the rest. Smart contracts are coming on top of Litecoin and Bitcoin eventually.

Just buy it though init. Everything's going up.

[randomdude]

-- The powers that be have propped up Ethereum as a response to Bitcoin.

I cannot know for sure, but it sounds unlikely. I don't think Ethereum is aiming to replace Bitcoin, as much as it is aiming to complement it by creating an ecosystem of distributed apps. This ecosystem will effectively translate the novel ideas of Bitcoin into a new evolutionary phase of the web apps as we currently know them. Think p2p web apps instead of client-server web apps.

-- They are the one's who're also creating the scaling debate.
-- They want to retain control of the alternate financial system.

These are separate topics and, although they deserve a lengthy discussion, I don't see any relation with Ethereum whatsoever.

[alani123]

My view is that bitcoin is already around for a while but Ethereum is it's "cooler" new alternative. People might not know all that much about bitcoin, but they sure have heard about it here and there. Ethereum fits the narrative many mainstream media want to showcase about innovation while in reality is might not ever have a practical application.

[testerx]

I don't think there's any conspiracy, Gates also likes Bitcoin, but I could see a computer scientist wanting a platform to run software over.
I wanted to put a couple bitcoin into Ethereum during the ICO but got busy with my IRL work and missed it.  I remember reading the Ethereum thread and seeing people who wanted to immediately flip it for 50 cents and I decided it wasn't worth it, lol.  Kinda wish I had rethought that.  Reality is that I would have never put a big portion of my portfolio into it, but man, if I had I'd be pretty damned well off now lol.

[European Central Bank]

nope.

if 'they' wanted bitcoin squashed flat do you think they'd come up with something so incredibly convoluted and hard to understand?

if 'they' went all out they would come up with something that your grandparents could use. lots of friendly colors and big buttons and very public reassurance of backing from somewhere.

ethereum is quite clearly overreaching computer science with a big dollop of greed on top.

[dinofelis]

nope.

if 'they' wanted bitcoin squashed flat do you think they'd come up with something so incredibly convoluted and hard to understand?

if 'they' went all out they would come up with something that your grandparents could use. lots of friendly colors and big buttons and very public reassurance of backing from somewhere.

ethereum is quite clearly overreaching computer science with a big dollop of greed on top.

But that's part of crypto.  In my mind, crypto gets its value from the megalomania of the project it carries.  Bitcoin was already a totally deluded idea: "replace money world wide".   How can you beat such a deluded mega-projection ?  Well, ethereum is going to replace all law, judges, lawyers contracts and agreements world wide, (and yes, as a side effect, can also replace that small thing, money, if it wanted to).

If you want people to throw value at a token that doesn't mean, in itself, anything, you need irrational exhuberance, and you have to promise something mindbogglingly great.  "replacing money" sounded big.  Replacing law and contract, sounds bigger.  The bigger, and the more deluded, the better. 

But the next delusion is already in the making in crypto: "replacing social contacts" and "replacing knowledge". 

I guess the next layer, after that, is: "replacing life".

[pereira4]

nope.

if 'they' wanted bitcoin squashed flat do you think they'd come up with something so incredibly convoluted and hard to understand?

if 'they' went all out they would come up with something that your grandparents could use. lots of friendly colors and big buttons and very public reassurance of backing from somewhere.

ethereum is quite clearly overreaching computer science with a big dollop of greed on top.

But that's part of crypto.  In my mind, crypto gets its value from the megalomania of the project it carries.  Bitcoin was already a totally deluded idea: "replace money world wide".   How can you beat such a deluded mega-projection ?  Well, ethereum is going to replace all law, judges, lawyers contracts and agreements world wide, (and yes, as a side effect, can also replace that small thing, money, if it wanted to).

If you want people to throw value at a token that doesn't mean, in itself, anything, you need irrational exhuberance, and you have to promise something mindbogglingly great.  "replacing money" sounded big.  Replacing law and contract, sounds bigger.  The bigger, and the more deluded, the better. 

But the next delusion is already in the making in crypto: "replacing social contacts" and "replacing knowledge". 

I guess the next layer, after that, is: "replacing life".

Bitcoin could successfully replace gold, not so sure about actual currency where you can make fast and cheap decentralized payments as satoshi wanted.

So bitcoin is no delusion if you approach it as a way to store value out of the reach of the banks.

Ethereum on the other hand is incredibly ambitious and this may be his pitfall.

But who doesn't regret buying Eth when it was 1, 10, 20... dollars? What if it goes to 100?

Im ok with whatever makes me more money.

[European Central Bank]

But that's part of crypto.  In my mind, crypto gets its value from the megalomania of the project it carries.  Bitcoin was already a totally deluded idea: "replace money world wide".   How can you beat such a deluded mega-projection ?  Well, ethereum is going to replace all law, judges, lawyers contracts and agreements world wide, (and yes, as a side effect, can also replace that small thing, money, if it wanted to).

i don't recall satoshi ever claiming it was going to replace every penny, dinar and cent on the entire planet.

and if ethereum thinks they're going to replace every legal apparatus on the planet, well, that legal apparatus just might have something to say about that.

most people in crypto are hopelessly unworldly and somehow believe the rest of the world is gonna bend to its will. they're gonna get a rude awakening.

the tech will be bought, neutered and fed back to people by the old guard.

[dinofelis]

But that's part of crypto.  In my mind, crypto gets its value from the megalomania of the project it carries.  Bitcoin was already a totally deluded idea: "replace money world wide".   How can you beat such a deluded mega-projection ?  Well, ethereum is going to replace all law, judges, lawyers contracts and agreements world wide, (and yes, as a side effect, can also replace that small thing, money, if it wanted to).

i don't recall satoshi ever claiming it was going to replace every penny, dinar and cent on the entire planet.

and if ethereum thinks they're going to replace every legal apparatus on the planet, well, that legal apparatus just might have something to say about that.

most people in crypto are hopelessly unworldly and somehow believe the rest of the world is gonna bend to its will. they're gonna get a rude awakening.

the tech will be bought, neutered and fed back to people by the old guard.

I agree totally with that.  This is a deja-vu with the dot-com bubble, I had some people in my environment totally bezerk, talking all day about the "new economy" and how all old kinds of jobs were for the silly and future poor, while dot-com tech was for the new elite.
Now, after the bubble crashed, there were a few good things coming out of that.  But not pets.com.   

I admit having been enthusiastic about it too, because of my anarchist dreams - but these are in any case destroyed with the speculative dominance of crypto.  I do think that there are interesting underground applications of crypto, and that there may be interesting stuff coming out of all of this.  But not as it is sold now to the gullible. 

[mining1]

and if ethereum thinks they're going to replace every legal apparatus on the planet, well, that legal apparatus just might have something to say about that.

Ethereum never tried to replace "legal aparatus". Only random people claimed that. Automation and machines can't do law. So, ethereum or something similar will never replace anything law related. Best case it will be an instrument. For example, in the future there will be enforceable smart contracts in places where they'll be legal and officially implemented in the system.

But even then, people will be still the ones who decide wether the outcome of a smart contract is true or not, because computers can be programmed with flaws. If, let's say, we make a smart contract between us, and smart contracts are legal. But the outcome of the smart contract will not be the desired one because we suck and programmed it wrong, in that case, LAW will be the one who will arbitrage and set things straight.

But smart contracts not officially recognised as an enforceable legal contract will still be in a grey area.

And, there's no such thing as "code is law". Only maximalists believe in that crap.

[ChinkyEyes]

nope.

if 'they' wanted bitcoin squashed flat do you think they'd come up with something so incredibly convoluted and hard to understand?

if 'they' went all out they would come up with something that your grandparents could use. lots of friendly colors and big buttons and very public reassurance of backing from somewhere.

ethereum is quite clearly overreaching computer science with a big dollop of greed on top.

But that's part of crypto.  In my mind, crypto gets its value from the megalomania of the project it carries.  Bitcoin was already a totally deluded idea: "replace money world wide".   How can you beat such a deluded mega-projection ?  Well, ethereum is going to replace all law, judges, lawyers contracts and agreements world wide, (and yes, as a side effect, can also replace that small thing, money, if it wanted to).

If you want people to throw value at a token that doesn't mean, in itself, anything, you need irrational exhuberance, and you have to promise something mindbogglingly great.  "replacing money" sounded big.  Replacing law and contract, sounds bigger.  The bigger, and the more deluded, the better. 

But the next delusion is already in the making in crypto: "replacing social contacts" and "replacing knowledge". 

I guess the next layer, after that, is: "replacing life".

Bitcoin could successfully replace gold, not so sure about actual currency where you can make fast and cheap decentralized payments as satoshi wanted.

So bitcoin is no delusion if you approach it as a way to store value out of the reach of the banks.

Ethereum on the other hand is incredibly ambitious and this may be his pitfall.

But who doesn't regret buying Eth when it was 1, 10, 20... dollars? What if it goes to 100?

Im ok with whatever makes me more money.

Yeah would make sense bitcoin replacing gold, litecoin silver and ether replacing law and contracts. Medium level law firms near where I live are already looking into Bitcoin and blockchain because they know things will change in the future.

Now only the question is what coin will replace fiat money...