Bitcoin trading volume, and the importance of Alts to the Bitcoin Eco-system

[mmitech]

someone on the Wall Observer BTC/USD thread mentioned that Bitcoin price at BTC-e is $100 shorter   comparing to Gox and Bitstamp, so I remembered that I once wanted to deposit some Fiat in order to try arbitrage between Bitstamp and BTC-e (buy at BTC-e and sell at stamp), the surprising thing was that they acquire so much fee and they ask you to mark the deposit as it was meant for advertisement.... when I calculated what I would make of it I found out at the time it would cost me more to buy Bitcoins at BTC-e than at Bitstamp ( price was only $30 shorter than Bitstamp).


the point is that I was checking again, and the BTC-e Bitcoin order book was so small, so I made some research and I was amazed:


BTC-e Volume the last 24 hours combined on all pairs (alts) Is almost equal to Gox and stamp together:




Litecoin Trading Volume is the biggest and most surprising that Today comparing to the last few days is really small




so based on these charts I went and looked for transactions on both networks and again I was amazed when I looked to the last 24 hours Transactions, compare these charts

Litecoin




Bitcoin







now I believe that Strong Alts such Litecoin are really necessary for the long Term health of the eco-system, and even when I start thinking about the block size limit, we would not like to spam Bitcoin with worthless transaction when it goes more mainstream, as Litecoin can handle 4 blocks in 10 minutes it would make more sense to use the smaller transaction with Litecoin and Keep the big ones for Bitcoin.

[beetcoin]

i came to this conclusion a few days ago too. i will be looking into litecoin. bitcoin isn't big enough to stand on its own, and with longer block confirmations, many services and retailers would prefer LTC over BTC.

[hotsurfing]

i came to this conclusion a few days ago too. i will be looking into litecoin. bitcoin isn't big enough to stand on its own, and with longer block confirmations, many services and retailers would prefer LTC over BTC.

Don't buy into the hype. In 3 years time btc and ltc will be yesterdays news

[beetcoin]

i came to this conclusion a few days ago too. i will be looking into litecoin. bitcoin isn't big enough to stand on its own, and with longer block confirmations, many services and retailers would prefer LTC over BTC.

Don't buy into the hype. In 3 years time btc and ltc will be yesterdays news

or maybe i shouldn't listen to some random guy making statements with no arguments to back it up. either or.

oh, and if i buy coins now and sell before your projected "3 years," i could still make a profit.

[Melbustus]

... and with longer block confirmations, many services and retailers would prefer LTC over BTC.

There are few (if any) use-cases where waiting 2.5mins is fine but waiting 10mins isn't. Physical retailers are going to have to be ok with 0-conf (possibly with some sort of double-spend detection scheme) transactions either way.

[tvbcof]

The biggest value of a stronger alt-coin space is, to me, that it would expose the futility of trying to crack down on Bitcoin if the powers that be took a mind to try.  Thus, it is less likely that they would.

Further, alt-coins provide a good test-bed for inventing and developing new ideas since it is increasingly difficult to do in Bitcoin as the system matures and becomes more critical.

Both alt-coins and off-chain structures could help reduce the burden on bitcoin's global blockchain for less consequential transactions, and I see that as a big win.  And something that has gotten us this far without ballooning the blockchain in fact.

My hope is that Bitcoin can remain the 'gold standard' in distributed crypto-currencies.  It either will or it won't I guess.  In my mind it depends mostly on whether it can remain free of subversion in the form of monopolization which would be an end effect of attacks on it's

 - quasi-anonymity (e.g., Guo address mapping PII attack)
 - fungiblility (e.g., Waters/Hearn x-list attack)
 - infrastructure distribution (e.g.,: Hearn unlimited growth attack.)

A combination of these attacks will open the door for governments to control Bitcoin utilization in much the same way they have largely been able to control privacy on the global Internet in spite of the development and availability of high quality cryptography.  Or at least would allow the dominant government to do so, and to the detriment of the global citizenry.

[tutkarz]

The biggest value of a stronger alt-coin space is, to me, that it would expose the futility of trying to crack down on Bitcoin if the powers that be took a mind to try.  Thus, it is less likely that they would.

Further, alt-coins provide a good test-bed for inventing and developing new ideas since it is increasingly difficult to do in Bitcoin as the system matures and becomes more critical.

Both alt-coins and off-chain structures could help reduce the burden on bitcoin's global blockchain for less consequential transactions, and I see that as a big win.  And something that has gotten us this far without ballooning the blockchain in fact.

My hope is that Bitcoin can remain the 'gold standard' in distributed crypto-currencies.  It either will or it won't I guess.  In my mind it depends mostly on whether it can remain free of subversion in the form of monopolization which would be an end effect of attacks on it's

 - quasi-anonymity (e.g., Guo address mapping PII attack)
 - fungiblility (e.g., Waters/Hearn x-list attack)
 - infrastructure distribution (e.g.,: Hearn unlimited growth attack.)

A combination of these attacks will open the door for governments to control Bitcoin utilization in much the same way they have largely been able to control privacy on the global Internet in spite of the development and availability of high quality cryptography.  Or at least would allow the dominant government to do so, and to the detriment of the global citizenry.

we should focus on making bitcoin global even if it would mean heavy regulations. Why? Because moving from fiat to bitcoin is hard but moving from bitcoin to any other crypto is very easy. That means we can make as many crypto as we like and governments wont be able to track them all. Bitcoin would be our trojan horse that way. And it would remain as crypto gold standard thanks to regultions because companies could use it.

[dadach]

i came to this conclusion a few days ago too. i will be looking into litecoin. bitcoin isn't big enough to stand on its own, and with longer block confirmations, many services and retailers would prefer LTC over BTC.

Don't buy into the hype. In 3 years time btc and ltc will be yesterdays news

just another hater who missed the btc bus...notihing to see, move along

[Lauda]

Well if we had less alts, but more quality ones we would have the perfect Eco-system.

[kwest]

Well if we had less alts, but more quality ones we would have the perfect Eco-system.

I say it's up to the users to abandon the trash and adopt the quality. If nobody bothered to trade the trash coins, nobody would have an incentive to make them.

[tvbcof]

we should focus on making bitcoin global even if it would mean heavy regulations. Why? Because moving from fiat to bitcoin is hard but moving from bitcoin to any other crypto is very easy. That means we can make as many crypto as we like and governments wont be able to track them all. Bitcoin would be our trojan horse that way. And it would remain as crypto gold standard thanks to regultions because companies could use it.

I see some logic to this philosophical construct.  The only minor hang-up is that appropriate control means that the government(s) monitor and control how Bitcoin is utilized so it may not be as trivial to use it as a value transfer mechanism between alternates as we might wish.

That said, very few things are controlled completely.  Even if Bitcoin ended up being fairly tightly controlled, there would still probably be ways for a fraction of the more enterprising users to utilize it for their needs.

[mmitech]

Todays chart





BTC-e Volume compared to other Exchanges, makes me wonder how people deposit money on there? is it smooth ?

[beetcoin]

it's all speculative, but that doesn't mean that there is no good reason to believe these alt cryptocurrencies will not make the light of day. at this point i think litecoin is definitely overvalued, as there isn't enough infrastructure to justify the price.. but who knows?

i don't think bitcoin will be the lone member at the party.

[kerogre256]

someone on the Wall Observer BTC/USD thread mentioned that Bitcoin price at BTC-e is $100 shorter   comparing to Gox and Bitstamp, so I remembered that I once wanted to deposit some Fiat in order to try arbitrage between Bitstamp and BTC-e (buy at BTC-e and sell at stamp), the surprising thing was that they acquire so much fee and they ask you to mark the deposit as it was meant for advertisement.... when I calculated what I would make of it I found out at the time it would cost me more to buy Bitcoins at BTC-e than at Bitstamp ( price was only $30 shorter than Bitstamp).


the point is that I was checking again, and the BTC-e Bitcoin order book was so small, so I made some research and I was amazed:


BTC-e Volume the last 24 hours combined on all pairs (alts) Is almost equal to Gox and stamp together:




Litecoin Trading Volume is the biggest and most surprising that Today comparing to the last few days is really small




so based on these charts I went and looked for transactions on both networks and again I was amazed when I looked to the last 24 hours Transactions, compare these charts

Litecoin




Bitcoin







now I believe that Strong Alts such Litecoin are really necessary for the long Term health of the eco-system, and even when I start thinking about the block size limit, we would not like to spam Bitcoin with worthless transaction when it goes more mainstream, as Litecoin can handle 4 blocks in 10 minutes it would make more sense to use the smaller transaction with Litecoin and Keep the big ones for Bitcoin.

Where is BTC China?

[WillBit]

These altcoins have been seeing outrageous gains lately, even compared to bitcoin.

http://coinmarketcap.com/

This screams bubble to me, people are pumping these things up like crazy.

[bitcoinpsftp]

Nowhere to spend coins except buy and sell to people who are also buying and selling.  What's the use of alt coins?  How many services accept them?  I think it's a huge bubble.

[tyolite]

Nowhere to spend coins except buy and sell to people who are also buying and selling.  What's the use of alt coins?  How many services accept them?  I think it's a huge bubble.

yes it is.

just get (lost) money in few time.

[bitcoinpsftp]

Nowhere to spend coins except buy and sell to people who are also buying and selling.  What's the use of alt coins?  How many services accept them?  I think it's a huge bubble.

yes it is.

just get (lost) money in few time.

I love how bubbles work... It just takes one person with a large volume to start selling to panic everyone else.  People keep buying hoping they'll sell before the bubble, but not too early.  Human psychology is funny, everyone knows it's overpriced, but buy anyway hoping ti gets even more overpriced!

[Lauda]

Could someone provide a link to those charts?

[mmitech]

Could someone provide a link to those charts?

http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/v2/coins/graphicalComparison