Do you believe in cryptocurrency competition?

[brioche]

FTC FTW

[byronbb]

Speaking of alts, someone bought 1m PPC today. http://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/btce/ppcbtc

[alexeft]

Ok, litecoin uses scrypt which needs memory, no asics blah blah blah.

What about its scalability? Doesn't scrypt actually inhibit it?

I mean litecoin-qt (theoretically running on every litecoin user's computer) gets the transactions and verifies them before accepting.
If scrypt is a resource hog, how will litecoin scale to what it claims to do well ie every day microtransactions?
It's a resource hog upon a resource hog.


Anybody knowing better?

[Odrec]

Most libertarians just think they like competition but they really don't...

[Odrec]

Speaking of alts, someone bought 1m PPC today. http://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/btce/ppcbtc

ppc for me is the best cryptocoin for the future. It addresses one of the main problems with bitcoin really nicely. It has bigger strengths than bitcoin that's for sure.

[Zangelbert Bingledack]

There's not much to be impressed by from the altcoins so far except theoretical possible little advantages or hedges. If a good one comes that revolutionizes what Bitcoin can do, I say bring it on! But it would take a few years to establish a track record, and by that time Bitcoin will be so far ahead that it likely won't matter.

A few alt-ledgers will always exist because there are things you can do with two ledgers that you can't do with one. But total inflation will be very, very limited. Just look at http://coinmarketcap.com - all the other coins COMBINED scarcely make up 10% of Bitcoin's market cap.

[traderCJ]

I believe alt-coins will be the gateway drug to Bitcoins.  Although, I can't really say that any of the coins I've seen so far are terribly innovative beyond BTC, which is really surprising.  Exceptions would be NMC (domain name system), XPM (prime number discovery), DVC (contributing to open source development), MSC (distributed exchanges and betting built on top of BTC).  XBT looks extremely promising as well.  I think any coin which has ties to something outside of itself will become highly coveted.  In that respect, Bitcoin is quite lousy.  Then again, so are fiat currencies in general.  It is unfortunate that we have to replace one faith based system with another.  However at least this is an improvement.  Once inexpensive, room temperature superconductivity is cracked, as well as high density power generation and storage, I believe energy will be the next currency.  That's something you can actually put to use.

[notme]

I believe alt-coins will be the gateway drug to Bitcoins.  Although, I can't really say that any of the coins I've seen so far are terribly innovative beyond BTC, which is really surprising.  Exceptions would be NMC (domain name system), XPM (prime number discovery), DVC (contributing to open source development), MSC (distributed exchanges and betting built on top of BTC).  XBT looks extremely promising as well.  I think any coin which has ties to something outside of itself will become highly coveted.  In that respect, Bitcoin is quite lousy.  Then again, so are fiat currencies in general.  It is unfortunate that we have to replace one faith based system with another.  However at least this is an improvement.  Once inexpensive, room temperature superconductivity is cracked, as well as high density power generation and storage, I believe energy will be the next currency.  That's something you can actually put to use.

Good luck with your dreams.  If you want to have any chance of seeing them, first something has to be done about the fact that GE and other major corporations are sitting on all the patents for any form of energy production that can't earn them revenue streams.  There are several technologies that were first demonstrated in the 60s that could generate more power than a home could use for decades with no maintenance or fuel.  Each of the inventors of these technologies met with an offer they couldn't refuse.  As long as the patent system allows this (and they will because the companies will spew B.S. about it not being economically feasible for them to fully develop it yet), we won't see anything that could hurt their bottom line in the light of day.

That said, there are still places on this Earth that believe that you shouldn't be able to own ideas.  Likely, those areas will become advanced enough to reinvent some of these things long before we see patent reform or a company make a move against their bottom line.

[TTBit]

I wonder why is there no real competition to ebay.  $65 billion company. Wouldn't you think that someone could come up with a superior product, maybe chisel away 2% of that and create a billion dollar company? I continue to own bitcoins and lean on the 'ebay' effect -- less than perfect product, but everyone uses it by default.

[Bitarchist]

Litecoin and all other altcoins are a good thing. The whole idea of creating a decentralized crypto-currency is to introduce competition to fiat/government currency. So IMO it would be hypocritical to celebrate the Bitcoin for challenging existing currency while simultaneously bashing altcoins for challenging Bitcoin.

Also, I feel that the issues of security, inflation and speed of transfer are basically unimportant in the grand scheme of things because using crypto-currency is entirely voluntary. No person or group of people is claiming the authority to FORCE anyone to use any specific coin. Therefore, if one is not satisfied with the fundamental characteristics of any coin or class of coin, they can simply refuse to use it. This is not true with the current monetary system which certainly is forced upon us by a central authority through legal tender laws and the like.

Having said that, time will allow the market's preference to weed out the less desirable coins and to gravitate toward the ones it values. We will likely see advancements in the future that could make our current perception of digital money seem weak by comparison. The coin that overtakes Bitcoin my not be dreamed up for many years, or never dreamed up at all, or maybe people will refuse to change and will instead cling to worthless pieces of paper that are created out of thin air by a group of tyrannical psychopaths.

The point is, it's important to have a choice! =)

Great post! Also I like the name "Bitarchist". I might start describing my political position like that, to confuse everybody even more

Thanks! I also thought it was good! =)

[Syke]

Maybe the future belongs to Litecoin, and Bitcoin will simply be remembered as  a beta test.

Not a chance. Bitcoin has its faults, but Litecoin doesn't improve on them in any significant way.

1. Energy costs. If anything, Litecoin's scrypt uses far more energy.
2. Scalable. Litecoin has faster blocks, thus greater overhead and less scalable.
3. Security. Scrypt is less widely used and analysed, thus SHA is likely more secure.
4. Anonymous. Litecoin's blockchain is just as susceptable to tracking.
5. Microtransactions. Litecoins tx are just as heavy.
6. Fast confirms. There's a need for 2 second confirmations, not 2.5 min. Litecoin isn't fast enough to be different.
etc.

Someday another cryptocurrency will play a key in complementing Bitcoin's faults, but it's not going to be Litecoin.

[revans]

Maybe the future belongs to Litecoin, and Bitcoin will simply be remembered as  a beta test.

Not a chance. Bitcoin has its faults, but Litecoin doesn't improve on them in any significant way.

1. Energy costs. If anything, Litecoin's scrypt uses far more energy.
2. Scalable. Litecoin has faster blocks, thus greater overhead and less scalable.
3. Security. Scrypt is less widely used and analysed, thus SHA is likely more secure.
4. Anonymous. Litecoin's blockchain is just as susceptable to tracking.
5. Microtransactions. Litecoins tx are just as heavy.
6. Fast confirms. There's a need for 2 second confirmations, not 2.5 min. Litecoin isn't fast enough to be different.
etc.

Someday another cryptocurrency will play a key in complementing Bitcoin's faults, but it's not going to be Litecoin.

And yet despite all that it is rocketing.

[pand70]

Litecoin is just a guy creating an inferior Bitcoin so he can be an early adopter of something, along with a whole bunch of other people hopping on to be early adopters as well. Why would it do anything except go away?

I'd still love to hear an explanation for that analysis; it's very hard for me to understand its basis.  You might like to do some further research into the differences between the two and the broader implications of those differences.  Without substantiation it's hard not to consider the "Litecoin's just a cheap clone" arguments as anything other than FUD.

I thought that it had been established that the reaper miner was actually used long before it was publicly released and that during the time before it was released there was at least one group mining a coins like mad using gpu's while everyone was getting 20-30 khash/s per cpu.

I don't find that to be wrong. I mean mining is a competitive game anyway and it is competitive on all levels

[KFR]

I wonder how many people actually understand the differences between Scrypt and SHA-256 and what these differences might mean in the long term.  Far too many people dismiss Scrypt without really understanding why they're doing so IMHO.

[cbeast]

Altcoins are like training wheels for people not ready for Bitcoin.

[notme]

I wonder why is there no real competition to ebay.  $65 billion company. Wouldn't you think that someone could come up with a superior product, maybe chisel away 2% of that and create a billion dollar company? I continue to own bitcoins and lean on the 'ebay' effect -- less than perfect product, but everyone uses it by default.

Patents.

No US company can operate an auction site because dead simple things like basic auction mechanics are patented by eBay.

Yes, there is a network effect too, but the reason we have so few huge tech companies is because software patents let them patent processes that any programmer would come up with given the same requirements.

[Crazy]

eBay really has online auctioning patented?

[notme]

eBay really has online auctioning patented?

I'm on my phone so I can't easily swamp you with good references, but a quick Google turned this up: http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/04/20/ebay-wins-patent-online-auction-process/

[traderCJ]

I believe alt-coins will be the gateway drug to Bitcoins.  Although, I can't really say that any of the coins I've seen so far are terribly innovative beyond BTC, which is really surprising.  Exceptions would be NMC (domain name system), XPM (prime number discovery), DVC (contributing to open source development), MSC (distributed exchanges and betting built on top of BTC).  XBT looks extremely promising as well.  I think any coin which has ties to something outside of itself will become highly coveted.  In that respect, Bitcoin is quite lousy.  Then again, so are fiat currencies in general.  It is unfortunate that we have to replace one faith based system with another.  However at least this is an improvement.  Once inexpensive, room temperature superconductivity is cracked, as well as high density power generation and storage, I believe energy will be the next currency.  That's something you can actually put to use.

Good luck with your dreams.  If you want to have any chance of seeing them, first something has to be done about the fact that GE and other major corporations are sitting on all the patents for any form of energy production that can't earn them revenue streams.  There are several technologies that were first demonstrated in the 60s that could generate more power than a home could use for decades with no maintenance or fuel.  Each of the inventors of these technologies met with an offer they couldn't refuse.  As long as the patent system allows this (and they will because the companies will spew B.S. about it not being economically feasible for them to fully develop it yet), we won't see anything that could hurt their bottom line in the light of day.

That said, there are still places on this Earth that believe that you shouldn't be able to own ideas.  Likely, those areas will become advanced enough to reinvent some of these things long before we see patent reform or a company make a move against their bottom line.

Can you show me those patents?  Also, once they expire, anyone can manufacture based on them.  If there is any tech suppression happening, it is well before the provisional patent filing stage.

Also, I do agree that our patent system is incredibly broken (like damn near all laws, bought and paid for by <insert special interest here>).

[Zangelbert Bingledack]

Patents are patently retarded. Let's just a grant MONOPOLY to a single company as, like, a reward for being innovative. You'd have to have the most comic-book notion of how innovation actually happens to go along with this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_PVI6V6o-4