What if Bitcoin Was the Only Cryptocurrency?

[video22]

Bitcoin is indeed the only cryptocurrency in the world. If there is bad news regarding bitcoin, the majority of cryptocurrencies go down. Even when we read news about cryptocurrencies, people refer to bitcoin as a cryptocurrency with the last word (except for Ethereum). I think other cryptocurrencies are there to give us more alternatives.

[CageMabok]

Bitcoin is indeed the only cryptocurrency in the world. If there is bad news regarding bitcoin, the majority of cryptocurrencies go down. Even when we read news about cryptocurrencies, people refer to bitcoin as a cryptocurrency with the last word (except for Ethereum). I think other cryptocurrencies are there to give us more alternatives.

Apart from Bitcoin, everything is an alternative. Now for cryptocurrency itself I think it's a broader scope even though it includes Bitcoin in it and Ethereum is also not much different from other altcoins in the crypto space. But I always differentiate Bitcoin from all the altcoins that exist today because for me Bitcoin is more than just cryptocurrency even though many people still immediately think of Bitcoin when someone says cryptocurrency.

[crunck]

Bitcoin is indeed the only cryptocurrency in the world. If there is bad news regarding bitcoin, the majority of cryptocurrencies go down. Even when we read news about cryptocurrencies, people refer to bitcoin as a cryptocurrency with the last word (except for Ethereum). I think other cryptocurrencies are there to give us more alternatives.

For me, bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, not the only one, nor the last. Although the crypto market is completely dependent on bitcoin, and if bitcoin crashes, all will fail. But if the development continues and further into the future, things will gradually change and bitcoin will no longer be central. I mean, it's still the top coin, but if it crashes, it's unlikely that the market will follow. That is most clearly seen, which is that the dominance of bitcoin is shrinking over time.

[btc78]

Bitcoin is indeed the only cryptocurrency in the world.

wait mate but what are you talking? there are even thousand of cryptocurrency standing after bitcoin so better not to think that it is the only that exist.

If there is bad news regarding bitcoin, the majority of cryptocurrencies go down. Even when we read news about cryptocurrencies, people refer to bitcoin as a cryptocurrency with the last word (except for Ethereum). I think other cryptocurrencies are there to give us more alternatives.

they are all existing currency , and they are helping people from all over the world so either Bitcoin and altcoins? lol they need to be helpful not along with shitcoin.

[Kelvinid]

No competition, I could really imagine that Bitcoin price will never reach what the price it has today, not even $10k I think. And cryptocurrency will just be ignored rather than expecting hype and popularity.

People know cryptocurrency not only because of Bitcoin but also of altcoins. With the existence of these altcoins scam/legit, it brought a huge impact to the community and gaining more interest. And good thing it never happens otherwise, I'd never know Bitcoin as well this time. 

[hZti]

Well, for one thing.... We would not have had all these ICO scams and all these shitcoins tainting Bitcoin's reputation and we would not have to deal with butthurt crypto investors that burnt their fingers with their own bad decisions and turning against Bitcoin and all other Crypto currencies.

We would also not have given governments extra reasons to turn against Bitcoin, as a result of the reasons that I stated above. So, yes... it would have been a much smoother path to mass adoption. 

Maybe the only good regulation for crypto would be to ban all shitcoins except for bitcoin. This would leave so many people not scammed that think they buy bitcoin and instead they buy a worthless shitcoin and eventually get scammed. But if you start to ban stuff it always ends bad so actually I prefer to not ban anything.

[robattfield]

I also have thoughts and problems like this, we are 1. I don't have too much problem separating this market into small things and messing things up myself, maybe a lot of people think everyone's thinking is different but I see we are governed by current life things and have shown themselves differently. Basically what I see here is no difference at all, equal and spread to the wider environment.

[lixer]

They say variety is the spice of life. But what if there were no variety? Won't life keep "lifing" without it? This brings me to the thought that popped in my head today - What if Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency? Would adoption, regulation, been relatively easier? Would the volatility be reduced and the price stable? Would have less centralized exchanges?

Though it's not something that would ever be possible since whenever technology is invented, it is used to create more than one form of what it represents. But, if that would have been the case, a lot of things would have been different, and some wouldn't even exist, like centralized exchanges, there would have been no Binance, Kucoin, OKX, or any of the big exchanges that exist today.

And apart from all the pros and cons it might have had, I believe it wouldn't get as much exposure as it has received because it isn't the only one. Every single cryptocurrency project out there indirectly promotes Bitcoin since it is the number 1 cryptocurrency that ever existed and exists.

[macson]

it never crossed my mind what would happen to bitcoin if there were no altcoins at all, because everything in this world is not one and only ^{(without rivals)} and the world has long walked with that concept.

Altcoins are not rivals to BTC, they would have been rivals if there were many altcoins that is as useful as BTC, not just "useful" for exchanges like Binance to use in manipulating their customers and making money from promoting it to people. If there were a lot of useful altcoins that can be used in the real world today, then there would have been a good competition in the crypto space.

If there were no altcoins, most of the money pumped into altcoins would have flowed into BTC and the value and price will be so higher than the current price it is now, and we would only have to focus on one useful currency and work on its development, not to be distracted by many useless coins.

although not very useful but until now ^{(almost every day)} many altcoins have been created only for ^{(the aim of)} being a rival to bitcoin, unfortunately, they ^{(most altcoins)} failed to do that because in the crypto market, only the first and the most useful can be king and bitcoin has been on that throne since its inception. 

As of today, the market cap of Bitcoin (BTC) is at $538 Billion, representing a Bitcoin dominance of 44.46%. Meanwhile, Stablecoins' market cap is at $133 Billion and has a 11.0% share of the total crypto market cap.

from above we can predict what will happen ^{(the price of bitcoin will definitely be high)} if there are no altcoins in this world because even though there are thousands of altcoins that appear, bitcoin dominates the crypto market by 44.6%.

[KiaKia]

The government and financial institutions under the government can never be comfortable with having Bitcoin around, even if Bitcoin is the only digital currency that exists it still doesn't make it lovable by the government because it's simply a decentralized digital currency, the founder is unknown and this was made for the people only in mind, it's a complete anti-government digital currency, nothing can erase this reality.

[SyndicateLabs]

It seems that chatgpt gives us more insight into this, but I also see the problem of reducing fragmentation of the crypto market, there are now hundreds of different cryptocurrencies, which This leads to market fragmentation and makes the use and management of these currencies more complex. If Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency, this could help reduce fragmentation and make the crypto market more manageable.

[Smartprofit]

I would ask the ChatGPT neural network a slightly different question - what was the (initially) probability that Bitcoin would remain the only cryptocurrency in the world? 

I don't know if modern artificial intelligence is capable of calculating the probabilities of certain historical events.... However, in my estimation, the probability of such an event is not very high. 

Even Satoshi Nakamoto mentioned in his posts on the Bitcointalk forum the possibility of a hard fork in the Bitcoin network. 

People love variety.  In addition, people are very ambitious and self-serving (they seek to repeat someone else's success). 

Therefore, the creation of a large number of alternative cryptocurrencies, in my opinion, was an inevitable event.

[ilovealtcoins]

Well, for one thing.... We would not have had all these ICO scams and all these shitcoins tainting Bitcoin's reputation and we would not have to deal with butthurt crypto investors that burnt their fingers with their own bad decisions and turning against Bitcoin and all other Crypto currencies.

We would also not have given governments extra reasons to turn against Bitcoin, as a result of the reasons that I stated above. So, yes... it would have been a much smoother path to mass adoption. 

Maybe the only good regulation for crypto would be to ban all shitcoins except for bitcoin. This would leave so many people not scammed that think they buy bitcoin and instead they buy a worthless shitcoin and eventually get scammed. But if you start to ban stuff it always ends bad so actually I prefer to not ban anything.

Meanwhile, the government is seeing bitcoin as its biggest enemy rather than shitcoin. Because shitcoins can be controlled but not with bitcoin. Don't forget that bitcoin is only good for us, but for the government, bitcoin is a thorn that needs to be uprooted. So I don't expect any regulation for the whole market.

[Lorence.xD]

No competition, I could really imagine that Bitcoin price will never reach what the price it has today, not even $10k I think. And cryptocurrency will just be ignored rather than expecting hype and popularity.

Same thought about this, Bitcoin alone wouldn't last long without it's foundation. Which is the alternate coins which existed due to Bitcoin. But I think it would still reach thousands since people still invested at it without worth. I remember many people who owned a lot if Bitcoin back in the days, they don't even know that it would worth a lot like today's value which shows the unpredictable market of Bitcoin. It's still been acknowledged before so I think it can be independent but without the huge value. Maybe more promotions will help it to be a long term.

[freedomgo]

You certainly got a wild thought OP and honestly, I did gave it a thought.

But I guess there would be no what ifs in the first place because look at the market now, there's just dozens of cryptocurrencies that exists and there will be more that will be created in the future. To me, that just mean that there's no chance that bitcoin will be the only cryptocurrency even if we turn back the time, not at all. People will always try to imitate what's new especially in-terms of technology with the hopes to make themselves some good clean profits.

[Falconer]

Apart from Bitcoin, everything is an alternative. Now for cryptocurrency itself I think it's a broader scope even though it includes Bitcoin in it and Ethereum is also not much different from other altcoins in the crypto space. But I always differentiate Bitcoin from all the altcoins that exist today because for me Bitcoin is more than just cryptocurrency even though many people still immediately think of Bitcoin when someone says cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin is one of the best performing cryptos in the long term although several other altcoin have followed suit. I wouldn't consider altcoin as competitors although they are gradually altcoin also starting to find ways to get real use cases as a means of payment. Bitcoin is a currency, it is point plus for bitcoin which is then adopted by various entities.

Although the growth of altcoins since then has been unstoppable, none of them have been able to compete with bitcoin over the past decade. This is proof that bitcoin has a wide and large market share, this is how great bitcoin is.

[ajiz138]

Bitcoin is one of the best performing cryptos in the long term although several other altcoin have followed suit. I wouldn't consider altcoin as competitors although they are gradually altcoin also starting to find ways to get real use cases as a means of payment. Bitcoin is a currency, it is point plus for bitcoin which is then adopted by various entities.

Although the growth of altcoins since then has been unstoppable, none of them have been able to compete with bitcoin over the past decade. This is proof that bitcoin has a wide and large market share, this is how great bitcoin is.

Bitcoin will remain the first coin widely used including several other institutions with ongoing adoption as it was quite clear how well it performed after they emerged and we now believe to be a fairly good asset for the long term.

But completely altcoins will never compete with bitcoin as a whole they may have increased in usage but as an entity bitcoin is more, even though it is ETH that is able to create many opportunities for other projects but it is still below it meaning altcoins are only limited to market complements and the usecase is not fully liked by many people.

Yes, the growth of altcoins will not die, they will continue to appear with the same innovations but slightly different concepts, and altcoins always appear when the hype is happening.

[Woodie]

ChatGPT really put out some valid points but if we look back at the days when bitcoin started out almost as a lone crypto it pretty much didnt flourish not until the landscape offered other alternatives.

Btw the original Bitcoin alone can not guarantee crypto adoption as it lacks in certain field's like not having fast transactions despite having the 10 minute block time...and being users of divergent needs, it was always certain that another coin was to be introduced to offer true anonymity or fast transactions.

[ifarted]

That won't happen at all and I understand that it is "What If" situation. My answer to that is, it won't be the same as what it is right now because some people doesn't even know how to use a device unless they find a way for people to be able to own Bitcoin without using any devices or in short, owning a card with QR code of some sort and a machine that will read it and automatically deduct certain amount if a person is buying or getting more BTC (I know you will say that it much like in the movies).

[BitcoinPanther]

ChatGPT really put out some valid points but if we look back at the days when bitcoin started out almost as a lone crypto it pretty much didnt flourish not until the landscape offered other alternatives.

The introduction of new cryptocurrency simply tells that Bitcoin models has been adopted.  With or without these altcoins, the adoption of Bitcoin will push through.  As a matter of fact, these alternatives hampers Bitcoin adoption because it hijacked possible Bitcoin adoptors.  Many altcoins also makes the situation of Bitcoin worst because of these altcoins being used to scam and defrauds investors.  How Bitcoin flourish is already written on its timeline, whether this altcoin is introduced or not, the adoption of Bitcoin will still continue.

Btw the original Bitcoin alone can not guarantee crypto adoption as it lacks in certain field's like not having fast transactions despite having the 10 minute block time...and being users of divergent needs, it was always certain that another coin was to be introduced to offer true anonymity or fast transactions.

Come again?  Did I read it right?  Bitcon alone can not guaranteed crypto adoption?  Then why is Bitcoin greatly adopted than other alternative cryptocurrency?  The fact that Bitcoin adoption proliferates prove that Bitcoin has the capability for adoption.  Besides, by comparing the statistics, Bitcoin is widely used than these altcoins you stated.