Reddit: Why not bitcoin?

[Casdinyard]

I know a lot of you guys already know what's going on with Reddit taking on ethereum based tokens integrated with the platform. They are currently experimenting a point system where communities can give extra benefits to their users. Apparently they are using ERC-20 based tokens, obviously they are going to make it possible with Ethereum and most of you guys might ask why not bitcoin?

Here is my personal opinion about it.

1.It's not because Bitcoin is not fast enough for confirming transactions like ethereum, so if it happens that the experiment goes well then millions of users are going to receive monetary benefits that will only take a seconds.

2. Ethereum Integration is the best fit for the platform simply because Ethereum was made for facilitating smart contracts and applications under its own currency.

3. Ethereum has a brighter future than bitcoin, since ethereum is used to run applications there will be time in the future that we will be making payments using ethereum and not bitcoin.

[hatshepsut93]

Ethereum was created for making dapps and issuing tokens, and just like Bitcoin has a first-mover's advantage in being a cryptocurrency, Ethereum has strong first-movers advantage in its own field. There are systems for creating tokens on Bitcoin's blockchain too, I even owned some such tokens in the past, but Bitcoin is less suitable for it.

So, does this mean that ETH will overtake Bitcoin? No, because Bitcoin is much more secure and resilient. It's a better currency and it will not change in the future. Coins like Ethereum might have cool features, but because of their poor security they are not in the same cathegory as Bitcoin, so they are actually not direct competitors to each other.

[pixie85]

3. Ethereum has a brighter future than bitcoin, since ethereum is used to run applications there will be time in the future that we will be making payments using ethereum and not bitcoin.

I'm not bashing Ethereum here, but isn't it they have a lot of competition? They can't even stay above those competitions and now you think that it can overtake bitcoin as means of payment system? And afaik, Ethereum price is dependent on bitcoin as well.

Most altcoins are and usually those that don't react to Bitcoin's pumps and dumps are worthless shitcoins that pump and dump at random and with those coins you can be sure to experience great volatility completely out of the blue.

Bitcoin is fast enough for payments especially if you're making online purchases. These days with the virus in the air online shopping is booming. Bitcoin with its value and transaction cost probably won't be used to buy beer or coffee but the markets are much bigger than that. Buying a car or a house with your bitcoins will always be an option.

[mk4]

1. Sure Bitcoin isn't fast enough. But if you think Ethereum will be able to handle the stress, I don't know. Remember crypto kitties?

2. Reddit can implement such feature without using smart contracts. What's the point in using smart contracts anyway? It's not like Reddit is trying to be decentralized or non-custodial or something.

3. Continue trying to convince yourself that. Dig deeper and you'll immediately realize that Ethereum isn't even decentralized hence pointless.

[lepbagong]

-snip-

2. Ethereum Integration is the best fit for the platform simply because Ethereum was made for facilitating smart contracts and applications under its own currency.

I strongly agree that ethereum can indeed be relied upon to facilitate each contract, because they are better prepared for this, and are already very trustworthy.

3. Ethereum has a brighter future than bitcoin, since ethereum is used to run applications there will be time in the future that we will be making payments using ethereum and not bitcoin.

is it true that ethereum has a better future? still a question too when compared to bitcoin. but it is one of the best and promising, it cannot be denied. comparing with bitcoin still needs more analysis.

[squatter]

Vitalik thinks it could decentralize subreddit moderation.

Coins like Ethereum might have cool features, but because of their poor security they are not in the same cathegory as Bitcoin, so they are actually not direct competitors to each other.

Regarding poor security, are you referring to proof of work? Or censorship and rollbacks, like the DAO hard fork?

My theory about any Bitcoin hard fork is they would become increasingly difficult to implement over time, as stakeholders become increasingly entrenched in the ecosystem and as usership exponentially grows. Vitalik or no Vitalik, I believe this applies to Ethereum too. This is why the the community rejected a hard fork to recover the frozen Parity wallet funds, even though the losses were triple the size of the DAO. As time goes on, I'm less worried about that kind of security -- rollbacks and such.

[pooya87]

they used to accept bitcoin but they (like some others) removed this option during the 2017 ridiculous fee rises. it is yet another damage that the 2017 spam attack inflicted on bitcoin adoption.

1.It's not because Bitcoin is not fast enough for confirming transactions like ethereum, so if it happens that the experiment goes well then millions of users are going to receive monetary benefits that will only take a seconds.

bitcoin confirmations are fast, even faster than ethereum. your mistake is comparing 1 bitcoin confirmation with 1 etherum confirmation which would be wrong because the security that 1 confirmation has in bitcoin doesn't exist in any altcoin. that is why exchanges always require a lot more confirmation to credit your account for all the altcoins specially those with faster confirmation speeds. not to mention that ethereum is not immutable so you can never truly call a transaction "finalized" because they can roll it back at any time.
besides if the confirmation time and fees is the only reason then ethereum is 10 times worse than bitcoin. remember 2017? ethereum fees weren't supposed to be higher than a couple of cents, but they reached as high as $10-$20. and that's for a blockchain with 1 second blocks!!! not to mention that a lot of services such as exchanges had to shut down their deposits/withdrawals for weeks due to the network not functioning properly because of traffic.

2. Ethereum Integration is the best fit for the platform simply because Ethereum was made for facilitating smart contracts and applications under its own currency.

actually ethereum was made to make profit with its premin + ICO and the hype with the pump and dumps. otherwise to this day there has not been any decent smart contract created. there are some works done in DEX areas but none of the platforms do anything more than token trading.

3. Ethereum has a brighter future than bitcoin, since ethereum is used to run applications there will be time in the future that we will be making payments using ethereum and not bitcoin.

ethereum is centralized and the worst smart contract platform out there. there are at least 4 other similar platforms that are easier, more decentralized, cheaper to use and immutable blockchains that do it better than ethereum. the only reason that ETH has any popularity is the massive pumps that it has.

Vitalik or no Vitalik, I believe this applies to Ethereum too. This is why the the community rejected a hard fork to recover the frozen Parity wallet funds, even though the losses were triple the size of the DAO. As time goes on, I'm less worried about that kind of security -- rollbacks and such.

i disagree. the only reason why they rejected this fork is because they (the ethereum foundation and Vitalik) haven't been affected by this. that is unlike DAO where the big part of the loss was from them. which is why they pushed the fork although most of the community was against the roll back.

[NeuroticFish]

As time goes on, I'm less worried about that kind of security -- rollbacks and such.

All right, Ethereum is growing, it may be out of its infancy. But those still remain black spots in its history and many won't rule them out as easily as you do (I don't say that you or others are wrong, history will tell).
And Vitalik still has a way too strong hand in deciding this or that.

Sure Bitcoin isn't fast enough. But if you think Ethereum will be able to handle the stress, I don't know. Remember crypto kitties?

This is imho the best explained problem.
So many come and call this and that altcoin be the next Bitcoin. But those altcoins have no (or bad) history of stress over the network.
From what I know Ethereum had such difficulties after the crypto kitties boom too.
OK, the truth is that Bitcoin had its problems too during the 2017 spam attack, but I think that we are past such problems.
In the past people claimed that Ethereum code is quite a mess. I don't know if it also got better in time. Bitcoin was always an example of better code.

Bitcoin is not perfect, I won't deny it. But claiming this or that on altcoins is unfair and useless for now. Make better ones first.
(And probably the same applies in the Ethereum vs other token/dApp platforms "war".)

[hatshepsut93]

Regarding poor security, are you referring to proof of work? Or censorship and rollbacks, like the DAO hard fork?

Proof-of-stake, to which Ethereum wants to switch to, it theoretically unsecure. Vitalik is till a dictator and a single central point of failure, though it indeed might be not as critical as some may think. Also their scaling solution will only further centralize the network, which is already becoming more and more centralized with their 3 TB blockchain as of now.

[davis196]

Here is my personal opinion about it.

1.It's not because Bitcoin is not fast enough for confirming transactions like ethereum, so if it happens that the experiment goes well then millions of users are going to receive monetary benefits that will only take a seconds.

2. Ethereum Integration is the best fit for the platform simply because Ethereum was made for facilitating smart contracts and applications under its own currency.

3. Ethereum has a brighter future than bitcoin, since ethereum is used to run applications there will be time in the future that we will be making payments using ethereum and not bitcoin.

First,if you wanna praise ethereum,then your post belongs to the Altcoin discussions forum.

Ethereum HAD a bright future back in 2017,with all the ICO projects using their platform.The ICO scam bubble got busted and now,it seems to me that ethereum is going nowhere.It is more oriented towards applications and usability,in comparison with bitcoin,but it's still way more centralized and not so secure.
Back in 2016-2017,people were talking that Ethereum is the cryptocurrency of the future and that ETH will beat Bitcoin in terms of price,market cap,user base,adoption among companies.
3 years later,Bitcoin is still king.
I don't care about Reddit implementing altcoins.They can implement whatever token they want.

[Phili6p]

Coins like Ethereum may have cool highlights, but since of their poor security they are not in a similar class as Bitcoin, so they are really not immediate contenders to one another My Lowes Life.

[PaySpace]

My opinion - it's also a little bit of promotion.
Bitcoin has already took the place in the market of payment methods. It seems, Reddit just want to show its users all the perks of ETH.

[XCANA]

3. Ethereum has a brighter future than bitcoin, since ethereum is used to run applications there will be time in the future that we will be making payments using ethereum and not bitcoin.

I'm not bashing Ethereum here, but isn't it they have a lot of competition? They can't even stay above those competitions and now you think that it can overtake bitcoin as means of payment system? And afaik, Ethereum price is dependent on bitcoin as well.

Although ethereum has so much to fight when it come to competition as many projects have shown up before now and seen as a strong competitor. Even at that, the platform ethereum was built also make it different from others. The fastness of their transactions also put them forward ahead of others, this might be what they use to choose their partner at reddit. We'll know that, the price of Other coins sorely depends on Bitcoin and wasn't a yardstick for reddit to choose over others.

[ViralNation]

Bitcoin doesn't really do anything or add anything new.

Its 12 year old tech, and outdated, slow and has no utility.

Blockchain technology though is here to stay.

For example, look at coins like Creditcoin, building a decentralized credit network.

ACtualy use case.

[Wexnident]

I'm more opt to the fact that they are just currently experimenting I suppose? It's kind of a small test, and they probably want to reduce the workload for the long term, hence the usage of smart contracts of the ETH. As for why ETH and not other cryptocurrencies they probably based it on its current market price and/or it's current popularity in the community. Also for ETH having a brighter future than BTC? We're what? 5 years since ETH was made and 5 years of fighting against BTC, and yet who stands as the king as of yet? BTC is it not? Though tbh, I don't neglect the fact that ETH may exceed BTC, heck every other coin out there has a chance tbh, but really, just comparing the 5 years that have passed, you can see who currently stands as the better coin.

[vipuljainism]

And Ethereum has a better shade in press like btc nowadays has a darker reputation for majority

[ViralNation]

Ethereum has no real purpose though.

look at coins like Creditcoin , building a decentralized credit network.

These are the type of coins that have an actual purpose and can be have a potential.

especially once the product launches it will bring blockchain usage to the masses

[squatter]

Vitalik or no Vitalik, I believe this applies to Ethereum too. This is why the the community rejected a hard fork to recover the frozen Parity wallet funds, even though the losses were triple the size of the DAO. As time goes on, I'm less worried about that kind of security -- rollbacks and such.

i disagree. the only reason why they rejected this fork is because they (the ethereum foundation and Vitalik) haven't been affected by this. that is unlike DAO where the big part of the loss was from them. which is why they pushed the fork although most of the community was against the roll back.

Gavin Wood's project, Polkadot, lost about $100 million worth of ETH. He's an Ethereum co-founder and Foundation CTO.

I think it had more to do with this. I recall both the DAO and Parity incidents well. The second time around, there was distinctly more awareness of the moral hazard and a stronger resolve against any sort of bailout. We'll see what happens the next time around. I don't particularly care either way, but my hunch is that things will continue in that direction.

As time goes on, I'm less worried about that kind of security -- rollbacks and such.

All right, Ethereum is growing, it may be out of its infancy. But those still remain black spots in its history and many won't rule them out as easily as you do (I don't say that you or others are wrong, history will tell).
And Vitalik still has a way too strong hand in deciding this or that.

I'm not ruling anything out. I'm just saying it will become harder and harder to do over time, and that Vitalik has less control every day.

There are lots of technical reasons to rail on Ethereum -- lack of scalability, pipe dreams about proof-of-stake. The political arguments about the DAO fork have gotten so tired. I used to repeat them too, circa 2016 or so. To continue repeating them now would feel disingenuous.

[forbesmining]

At the moment, no crypto transaction can happen instantly, and if you consider that bitcoin has the highest value on the market, the choice is obvious.

[buwaytress]

2. Reddit can implement such feature without using smart contracts. What's the point in using smart contracts anyway? It's not like Reddit is trying to be decentralized or non-custodial or something.

This. Why can't reddit just use its own centralised accounting system and a good old database to do this? It's really no different than their current system of upvotes, silver coins, gold coins etc. Why the need to newfangle their shit when it is what it is, and we accept that as users?

So, why not Bitcoin? Because Bitcoin least fits with reddit ideals in this instance.