Is Bitcoin so valuable just because it was first?

[tmlee]

Bitcoin being the fast brought with it couple of advantages :-
- Well-known, the word "Bitcoin" has been thrown around for almost 10 years now, and it is still alive and one of the most valuable digital asset
- Network effect... most cryptocurrency adopters started with bitcoin and also attracts the most serious audience and holders
- When Bitcoin was launched it influenced a lot in terms of philosophy and economics of a digital asset, spawning new ideas and setting the tone for decentralization

In terms of value, money is very much a function of its network effect.
For a new cryptocurrency to pose a serious contender to Bitcoin, not only the alternative needs to be better but Bitcoin probably would need some defects
Simplicity of Bitcoin purpose also reduces the possibility of defects which makes it less popular than the alternatives

[hatshepsut93]

Bitcoin is valuable because it's reliable - it's much more tested than any other coins, it has more PoW, it has better and more developers, it has a good track record of not majorly screwing up, unlike other coins. Most importantly, PoW is proven to be secure and unlike alternatives, and smaller blocksize, which causes expensive transactions, is a guarantee that no one will take control of the network. Meanwhile, altcoins like EOS and XRP are just payment companies masquerading as cryptocurrency, because there's a small number of nodes controlled by big players - it's not a peer-to-peer network.

[LeGaulois]

The fact is that Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, but it is also fact that it is first decentralized cryptocurrency.

Perhaps for the decentralization but for the cryptocurrency, I'm not sure if we can say Bitcoin is the first (since cryptocurrency = currency using cryptography). There are hascash, bitgold, bmoney and a dozen of others, maybe the older was started 20 or 30 years ago. As for BTC success (if it's what you wanted to say) yes I agree it's the first one.

[vintages]

It is the best not just because it is the first.
It didn't just take the quality of being valuable, instead it earned it. Take a long look at every altcoins which are been developed now, it is aimed for profit purpose. Satoshi by far is the only developer who probably didn't have profit in mind when drafting out Bitcoin code; I am presuming he didn't even know that it will be this popular. Looking around, only few developers are on this path too.

In the future, I do hope there will be a coin strong enough to compete with Bitcoin.

[shoreno]

Bitcoin is valuable because it's reliable -

but reliable means you can relly on it all times but btc isnt reliable at all times because sometimes its value is down

it's much more tested than any other coins,

yes its because its the oldest or the first one to come out but even other coins thats next to btc such as eth , are also been tested and proven to be a good coin ,

it has more PoW,  unlike alternatives, and smaller blocksize, which causes expensive transactions,

i dont what is pow but i heard that pow is also available on other crypto coins   . other coins do also have a less expensive fees but bitcoin isnt especially if its value is pumping

[rdluffy]

The fact BTC is the first coin is important, because more people trust
And not only the fact of first coin, BTC is the most supported coin (devs, wallets, blockchain etc), and we have one more: BTC is the the coin of all exchanges, the pair number 1, all coins have their value in BTC
So, it's not just because it was first

[kingpin4321]

Bitcoin being first can never be down played so yet it is part of the reasons bitcoin is respected but this is not the whole reason as to that. Bitcoin had a wonderful team all this making it very credible

[pixie85]

It could be a similar story to the development of cars.. In the beginning there was only Ford and then came other manufacturers but Ford was dominating for many years. There were better and cheaper cars and other manufacturers found something other people wanted and Ford couldn't give them.

The difference is that there was not enough cars for everyone and more people wanted them with every year. There is already enough bitcoins for everyone.

[bkbirge]

It could be a similar story to the development of cars.. In the beginning there was only Ford and then came other manufacturers but Ford was dominating for many years. There were better and cheaper cars and other manufacturers found something other people wanted and Ford couldn't give them.

The difference is that there was not enough cars for everyone and more people wanted them with every year. There is already enough bitcoins for everyone.

That is arguable. There are enough satoshis for everyone to have a taste, but even now not everyone who wants a bitcoin can get one even if they have the fiat to pay for it.

Imagine if every millionaire in the world wanted just one bitcoin. What do you think that would do to the price? There are roughly 36 million people in the entire world that are millionaires. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin, and estimates that at least 4 million of those are gone forever already due to lost keys.

If you want btc, the time to get it is before mass adoption. If you think mass adoption will never happen then maybe you are right, but I think it will.

https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-have-at-least-one-bitcoin

[Aero Blue]

It could be a similar story to the development of cars.. In the beginning there was only Ford and then came other manufacturers but Ford was dominating for many years. There were better and cheaper cars and other manufacturers found something other people wanted and Ford couldn't give them.

The difference is that there was not enough cars for everyone and more people wanted them with every year. There is already enough bitcoins for everyone.

That is arguable. There are enough satoshis for everyone to have a taste, but even now not everyone who wants a bitcoin can get one even if they have the fiat to pay for it.

Imagine if every millionaire in the world wanted just one bitcoin. What do you think that would do to the price? There are roughly 36 million people in the entire world that are millionaires. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin, and estimates that at least 4 million of those are gone forever already due to lost keys.

If you want btc, the time to get it is before mass adoption. If you think mass adoption will never happen then maybe you are right, but I think it will.

https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-have-at-least-one-bitcoin

Interesting points, as for my belief on mass adoption: "I have no idea." However, whether it happens or not I still enjoy learning about and using cryptocurrency as a hobby. I think all of us here on BT have at least some faith in mass adoption though, we are all in this together!

It's crazy all of the stories about lost keys, it's like that one guy who was the owner of an exchange (I lost the article) who had a heart attack and no one knew the password to his wallet. Unfortunate, but with full sovereignty comes the inventible risk of losing your money: this is very easily preventable though.

Do you have any ideas on what mass adoption would even look like? I guess when you are able to tap a guy on the shoulder in a crowd and send him some Bitcoin? Or when even Joe's Coffee Shop accepts Bitcoin, idk it's kind of crazy to think about since it's all so limited now?

[gwestcot]

The nature of its launch is an immaculate conception can never be repeated. There was no such thing as miner. Anyone could do it with any machinery. It was open to all. The fact that no one knew about it is kind of unfortunate but it couldn't have been any other way.

Contrast that with the insta frenzy or loathsome scamminess of most coin launches.

The first means the longest lived. It's the most developed, the most thoroughly explored, the most battered, the most used, it's endured the most attempts to hijack it and they all failed.

All of that adds up to trust and too few people can be bothered to take that into account. It's the only thing that backs a coin's value and desirability. All of it's intangible code. What you're investing in is the giant web of trust and consensus created around it.

You can't buy trust. You can't create it. You can't fake it. The only way to gain it is by earning it. I can't see how anything else will ever be able to earn the same amount of trust.

It's pointless comparing it to companies or Facebook/Myspace. They're nothing other than disposable services that people will drop as soon as something better comes along. There's zero downside getting a better phone or hopping to another social network.

If millions of people are involved in something like BTC all of them are heavily incentivised to stay within it and work to improve it.

Grin probably qualifies for this ridiculous notion of an immaculate conception. It has an anonymous founder that also stepped away. It had a fair launch is decentralized and has many of the same conditions as Bitcoin's founding. This notion that Bitcoin is somehow perfect in its conception and that it is the only crypto that will survive is extremely and laughably false.

[gwestcot]

It is the best not just because it is the first.
It didn't just take the quality of being valuable, instead it earned it. Take a long look at every altcoins which are been developed now, it is aimed for profit purpose. Satoshi by far is the only developer who probably didn't have profit in mind when drafting out Bitcoin code; I am presuming he didn't even know that it will be this popular. Looking around, only few developers are on this path too.

In the future, I do hope there will be a coin strong enough to compete with Bitcoin.

No he literally had profit in mind as a mechanism for adoption but I think now it was a flawed design relying on bubble after bubble for adoption. It brings people to crypto for the wrong reasons of monetary profit and not for freedom from governments and central banks.

[pixie85]

It could be a similar story to the development of cars.. In the beginning there was only Ford and then came other manufacturers but Ford was dominating for many years. There were better and cheaper cars and other manufacturers found something other people wanted and Ford couldn't give them.

The difference is that there was not enough cars for everyone and more people wanted them with every year. There is already enough bitcoins for everyone.

That is arguable. There are enough satoshis for everyone to have a taste, but even now not everyone who wants a bitcoin can get one even if they have the fiat to pay for it.

Imagine if every millionaire in the world wanted just one bitcoin. What do you think that would do to the price? There are roughly 36 million people in the entire world that are millionaires. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin, and estimates that at least 4 million of those are gone forever already due to lost keys.

If you want btc, the time to get it is before mass adoption. If you think mass adoption will never happen then maybe you are right, but I think it will.

https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-have-at-least-one-bitcoin

You don't have to own 1 bitcoin to own bitcoin and I did not say there's enough of full bitcoins for everyone but enough bitcoins. You literally say that you are using dollars to pay even if all you have is 50 cents because dollar is the name of the currency.

 There is enough satoshis for everyone and this is the important part. Even if one day half of all bitcoins is lost there will be enough for everyone. The value that is now held by 1 BTC will one day be equal to 0.01 BTC or less.

[partysaurus]

I have thought about this a lot, especially more recently as I question why I'm using Bitcoin. Since cryptocurrency began, there have been so many new and improved versions of the "Bitcoin blockchain", one of the most notable probably being Ethereum.

It's always painful to use Bitcoin in comparison with sometimes up to $5 transaction fees for sending even $10, not to mention the amount of time transactions take. It kind of feels like Bitcoin is a sinking ship in some ways, because of the increasing problems that occur with a blockchain system. However, this doesn't seem to faze many, as the price keeps rising again and hitting new records.

My ultimate question is: "Is Bitcoin so valuable just because it was first?" As technology progresses it's inevitable that new and better ways of doing things will be discovered. But is it really about just being first in today's world? What are your guy's thoughts on this? Do you think there will be a breaking point aka, amount of inconveniences people will put up with before moving on?

yes i believe so it was first and is the most talked about crypto coin, if you ask a person not into crypto they will most likley have heard about bitcoin , if you ask them about eth they have no idea what you are talking about, so that has to push the price alot compare to the rest of the market, if it will always be the most valuble is another question becuse as you say the fees for small transactions are abit on the expensive side.

[ramsdaj28]

I have thought about this a lot, especially more recently as I question why I'm using Bitcoin. Since cryptocurrency began, there have been so many new and improved versions of the "Bitcoin blockchain", one of the most notable probably being Ethereum.

It's always painful to use Bitcoin in comparison with sometimes up to $5 transaction fees for sending even $10, not to mention the amount of time transactions take. It kind of feels like Bitcoin is a sinking ship in some ways, because of the increasing problems that occur with a blockchain system. However, this doesn't seem to faze many, as the price keeps rising again and hitting new records.

My ultimate question is: "Is Bitcoin so valuable just because it was first?" As technology progresses it's inevitable that new and better ways of doing things will be discovered. But is it really about just being first in today's world? What are your guy's thoughts on this? Do you think there will be a breaking point aka, amount of inconveniences people will put up with before moving on?

Unless there's really an altcoin or crypto that can challenge it, bitcoin will remain the most valuable crypto in the world. And yes, being the first crypto is one factor that makes BTC valuable. The trust of people is already built on bitcoin, and you can't blame them esp. that bitcoin has already established its position in the crypto world.

But just like what I've said, if there's an altcoin or crypto that can really give a great competition against the bitcoin, then there's a possibility that bitcoin will be dethroned. An example of this is ETH and LTC being overtaken by ThoreCoin and Maker in value/price. Another good comparison is how Nokia and Samsung beat Motorola (first company to make mobile phones) in terms of most popular phone brands.

[Mulann2]

Yeah! I think partially yes base on people's perception towards btc and other alts, among the reason why most people see btc as king of the jungle is because of it's been the first to set foot in crypto space, if you look at all the post in this forum about btc and other alts possibly dethroning btc, the argument in each post always contains btc is first and will remain so,
There you have it, btc is hold in high esteem just because it pop out first

[BitcoinPanther]

This is just my personal opinion. Bitcoin is not valuable because it was first but being the first Cryptocurrency is an advantage. It is a fact the Bitcoin is the mother of all coins and Altcoins is measured with reference to Bitcoin.

One good thing about Bitcoin is its popularity . We all know that Bitcoin is accepted to different establishment or businesses as an alternative mode of payment. This is not yet really evident to other coins which result to difficulty of transaction. Sometimes need to convert to BTC first.

[pooya87]

no bitcoin is valuable because it is useful. the utilities it is providing and the way it is providing them (decentralized and secure) is giving it the high value and is the reason why it keeps on growing.

it is so much more valuable than others because others are pretty terrible projects. there has been not that many decent projects and unfortunately the top altcoins are all crappy coins that are either heavily centralized and get pumped and dumped or are manipulated bubbles that are about to burst. in such a diseased altcoin market no good coin can thrive which is why they are going to be far behind.

[Vishnu.Reang]

The basic concept of a decentralized cryptocurrency using blockchain platform was first used for Bitcoin. All the coins that came after Bitcoin used the same basic concept, with some modifications. Some of these coins may be more advanced than Bitcoin as far as their technology is concerned. However, the purpose and intention is the same and the differences are not big enough to replace BTC.

[darklus123]

It can be one big factor to why bitcoin is more valuable than any other crypto. Because bitcoin is the first one most of the other crypto supporters such as Ethereum still supports bitcoin while all btc supporters does not support it. What Am I saying is that it has the largest user based crypto as of the moment.

If I am not mistaken bitcoin right now is still the most secured crypto as it offers the highest privacy feature than any other coin.

Lastly, the bitcoin structure was the just followed by any other crypto which means that eth itself  will never be created because of BTC.