If Bitcoin never existed, what would be dominating the crypto space today?

[lionheart78]

I can imagine a Universe where someone in the position of Satoshi would have done a poorer job than Satoshi, and create an incomplete cryptocurrency. I still don't think that would be catastrophic. As more cryptocurrency ideas were implemented, the market would gradually move to the next most complete one.

But thank God Satoshi implemented cryptocurrency with fixed supply, proof-of-work, softfork compatibility and optional privacy-- all at once.

Yeah, true. Even if it wasn’t perfect at first, crypto would’ve evolved, but Satoshi Nakamoto really nailed the fundamentals from the start, and that’s why Bitcoin is still on top.

It was the reward system that made Bitcoin successful.  Although predecessors have thought of such implementation. Only Bitcoin implemented all theories in one, where the trust system is not centralized, unlike the one proposed before it.  Satoshi really saw the strength of its predecessors and combined those in one go.

If Bitcoin is not implemented, I think we can have cryptocurrency today but its reward system would be centralized and not automated created through mining blocks.

[moneystery]

It’s highly likely that there will be popular digital currencies that people use, but I don’t think the crypto market will exist in its current form. I believe the crypto market exists as it does today because of Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies emerged to offer solutions and various other features, and as they grew in popularity, more coins appeared, leading to the crypto market we see today. So if Bitcoin didn’t exist, there might still be digital currencies, but they wouldn’t be as sophisticated as what Bitcoin offers.

[Luzin]

It’s highly likely that there will be popular digital currencies that people use, but I don’t think the crypto market will exist in its current form. I believe the crypto market exists as it does today because of Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies emerged to offer solutions and various other features, and as they grew in popularity, more coins appeared, leading to the crypto market we see today. So if Bitcoin didn’t exist, there might still be digital currencies, but they wouldn’t be as sophisticated as what Bitcoin offers.

There are two possibilities, I think there will never be other coins like today or other currency technologies will emerge with different types. But we have to understand that before Bitcoin we had Ecash, E-Gold, Bit Gold, Hashcash, Liberty Reserve, Q Coin. All of these technologies even had their heyday, but centralization systems destroyed them because these centralization systems had centralized authority and easily faced problems and closure targets. Thus, the arrival of Bitcoin with its new system made Bitcoin resistant to centralization systems. So Bitcoin is also an improvement because it turns out Digital has developed. So Bitcoin also became an example for other crypto projects so that crypto continues to exist until today.

Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/id/sebelum-bitcoin-4-mata-uang-digital-awal-dan-mengapa-mereka-runtuh/

[Bryan jessy]

If Bitcoin never existed in today's crypto space there would have been emersion of lots of other cryptocurrencies, and with the way the world revolves now no doubt someone might develop something similar even if it is not up to the standard of Bitcoin but it will definitely be similar to and serving related purposes, specially with the current level of advancement of technology presently. After the creation of Bitcoin there are other cryptocurrencies that has been created too but none met the decentralized nature of Bitcoin, believe me if I say there are people out there working tirelessly to develop a coin that can top Bitcoin in every aspect. It is someone's research project.

[noorman0]

I doubt CBDCs are even crypto. If I remember correctly, every country that has issued one has had a technically different version.
If they are to become dominant, it won't come from awareness initiatives, but most likely regulatory pressure. Honestly, if I had to choose, I think cash gives users more freedom than CBDCs.

[sleepfirefly]

It’s highly likely that there will be popular digital currencies that people use, but I don’t think the crypto market will exist in its current form. I believe the crypto market exists as it does today because of Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies emerged to offer solutions and various other features, and as they grew in popularity, more coins appeared, leading to the crypto market we see today. So if Bitcoin didn’t exist, there might still be digital currencies, but they wouldn’t be as sophisticated as what Bitcoin offers.

if nothing is able to match what bitcoin is, it’s hard to imagine that any digital cash would reach the multitude of what bitcoin has achieved. bitcoin is not perfect but i feel that anything less than that would be difficult to get popular

[Zaguru12]

I doubt CBDCs are even crypto. If I remember correctly, every country that has issued one has had a technically different version.
If they are to become dominant, it won't come from awareness initiatives, but most likely regulatory pressure. Honestly, if I had to choose, I think cash gives users more freedom than CBDCs.

If we even look at it although CBDCs were brought on before bitcoin the evolution of bitcoin as decentralized currency actually was the reason why most countries took their CBDCs seriously. Personally I don’t think anyone would have actually considered such a great deal because ideally physical currency actually even edges it’s in most categories and that’s why even in the light of decentralization today many still do not regard it that much. Something which its program can twerk easily, in terms of anonymity it’s also bad too

[henmark]

I would say maybe ETH? I am not entirely sure but there must be a reason why it's the second coin in the rankings, so that means there must be a reason why people like this place and I think they do like eth, and that is why it's that high. So that means, if bitcoin did not existed, ETH would not change much, it's the same eth that we always had, and bitcoin existing did not make eth better or worse, so I would say it makes sense for it to be better at this point and I am sure that we would see something that would be working for them as well.

[AsvXrin]

I would say maybe ETH? I am not entirely sure but there must be a reason why it's the second coin in the rankings, so that means there must be a reason why people like this place and I think they do like eth, and that is why it's that high. So that means, if bitcoin did not existed, ETH would not change much, it's the same eth that we always had, and bitcoin existing did not make eth better or worse, so I would say it makes sense for it to be better at this point and I am sure that we would see something that would be working for them as well.

Yeah, I also think ETH is the closest answer if we're talking about which project could take the top spot without bitcoin around. It's already the second biggest ofcourse, so naturally most people will look at it first because it has the strongest positions after bitcoin and a huge ecosystem behind it. A lot of people stay with ETH because it offers more than just simple transfers, smart contracts, tokens, DeFi, all it helped it grow a lot over the years.

Of course the whole crypto space would probably look different if bitcoin never existed, but if we only compare what we have today, ETH is the one that makes the most sense. So yeah, I agree with your point. If one coin had the best chance to dominate in that scenario, ETH would probably be the main candidate.

[crwth]

If there's no BTC, then there's no crypto. It might be in a way inevitable just because of what it is solving. There might be some consideration with the PoW type of thing; maybe it's different in that way.

This is discussed in a way that makes it easy to replace; it's different if there are additional parameters to consider. It's just "What ifs" and doesn't really bring much value IMO.

As long as it's open-source as well, it would be great to be developed.

[uneng]

If Bitcoin never existed, the current altcoins we know wouldn't exist too. At same time, it doesn't mean we wouldn't have something like Bitcoin. I guess it would be just a matter of time until a developer launched a coin with same characteristics of Bitcoin, but with another name. Actually, there were attempts before Bitcoin, but they didn't get popularized, maybe due to internet access being limited and technology less evolved back then.

So, Bitcoin was inspired on those past projects until it became the currency we know nowadays. The same would have happened if Bitcoin didn't exist, with minor differences.

[Felicity_Tide]

Since the creation of Bitcoin by satoshi nakamoto it has entirely changed how we think about money,  trust,  and decentralization.  I would like us to step outside reality for a moment,  what if Bitcoin was never created?  Would something else have taken Bitcoin place?  Or are we still going to be stuck in a fully centralized financial system?

Cases of the other parallel side of reality are always uncertain.
What if this... What if that?. No matter how we try to picture it, I guess we would never know. Previous digital forms of moneys all had their own flaws, or let's say, problems that were never addressed. The idea behind Bitcoin was to solve those key problems, and turn them into a single solution that we see today. So, if Bitcoin had not existed,.I can't certainly tell what the other parallel side of reality would have offered.

The truth is, it is very difficult to tell. It's just like asking... What if a smart phones were never invented.
So, the most important thing is that it is already exists, and it has been a motivation/starting point for the invention of other things.

[d5000]

It was the reward system that made Bitcoin successful. [...] If Bitcoin is not implemented, I think we can have cryptocurrency today but its reward system would be centralized and not automated created through mining blocks.

I think that's correct. And that's also the reason why I think it's a blessing that Satoshi found the PoW blockchain (Nakamoto consensus) before someone came up with the idea of Proof of Stake.

PoS cannot be used to distribute coins. It can only be used to pay people to validate with existing coins, because there is no "stake" without "ownership". This means that if PoS came first, the first cryptocurrencies would all have been premined, just like NXT or XRP. They would thus have been much more centralized than Bitcoin.

We would have very much a "shitcoin space" with all consequences - probably the first ICO scams would have come very early after the first PoS cryptos, and it's possible that the whole thing would have been dismissed as a fraudulent Ponzi system and it's even possible most countries would have banned them.

I would say maybe ETH?

Vitalik Buterin, the main developer of ETH, was an ardent Bitcoiner before he conceived ETH, and if I remember correct he first tried to convince Bitcoin developers to implement his ideas into Bitcoin itself (but I'm not sure ...). So I think ETH wouldn't have come into existence if Bitcoin wasn't invented. ETH in its original form was very close to Bitcoin, with PoW and mining rewards (PoS came later), but the main difference was the premine which made it centralized from the start on.

[Itz-prisigold]

If Bitcoin never existed, the current altcoins we know wouldn't exist too. At same time, it doesn't mean we wouldn't have something like Bitcoin. I guess it would be just a matter of time until a developer launched a coin with same characteristics of Bitcoin, but with another name. Actually, there were attempts before Bitcoin, but they didn't get popularized, maybe due to internet access being limited and technology less evolved back then.

So, Bitcoin was inspired on those past projects until it became the currency we know nowadays. The same would have happened if Bitcoin didn't exist, with minor differences.

I get what you are saying about it being a matter of time,  but I think it’s a bit more complicated than just saying someone else would have made Bitcoin with another name. The previous attempts you mentioned did not just fail because of the timing or the lack of internet,  they failed because they also did not solve the trust and decentralization issues that the people wanted.

What made Bitcoin different is the way everything came together, the incentive model,  the difficulty adjustment, the fixed supply, and the most important of all is that Bitcoin was launched without the control of central authority.

Even if someone else had created something similar later,  there was no actual guarantee that it would have made it neutral. It could have been controlled, pre mined, or even backed by a company,  all of which would have completely shifted the direction of crypto from the beginning.

What a lot of people do not also seem to realize is that timing was very important, Bitcoin was launched immediately after the 2008 crisis that caused people to lose trust in banks along with rapid growth of internet access. So that was actually what helped it to spread in a way that would have not been possible in any other time.

[Agathamay]

“I don’t believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can’t take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can’t stop.” – F.A. Hayek 1984

I was in an argument with a friend just yesterday and the argument was totally about the government and how the citizens in one accord can take power from government and I couldn't help but laughed so hard and aired out my opinion because I personally believe in this very era, taking power from government is suicidal or even running a cope would be a suicidal mission as well and I also told him that the government has always used hunger as their weapon which has always worked for them and the only way people can take away power from government is being able to control our own finance and not solely depend on government issued currency which they control and use it to cause hunger by making it scare and available at their will.

As we speak, bitcoin is the solution and I agree so much about the fist response on this thread because I inline the world would definitely change for the best someday, maybe not today, not in our generation but certainly someday.

[Supreme Donvic]

Bitcoin was the origin of cryptocurrency if bitcoin was not created I’m not sure we would’ve had something like cryptocurrency. We need to remember that bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency that was created and after it was created, it’s now started giving birth to order cryptocurrency so if Satoshi Nakamoto did not create bitcoin. I don’t think any other person would have the idea of cryptocurrency so for me if bitcoin was not in existence, cryptocurrency wouldn’t have also been in existence. I always respect Satoshi Nakamoto for creating bitcoin because he was the origin of cryptocurrency and for the fact he decided to make himself anonymous is the reason I respect him the more not everyone can decide to keep themselves anonymous after creating something as successful as bitcoin, but he did it for bitcoin to get more value.

[test2026]

Any different name like zcoin or so. It would have made no difference in the growth of crypto.

[Queen uloma]

 Firstly, let us appreciate satoshi Nakamoto, because his idea of creating bitcoin has really change how we see money, trust and power. If bitcoin was never created, I believe that digital money will still exist but it would have being the government or well known institution that will control it fully. Just as you have stated. Central Bank Digital currency would’ve dominated more. This kind of system will give government more power to monitor, control transactions and even restrict how people use his or her money. I agreed with you, without bitcoin the word won’t be this centralized, with less privacy and less financial freedom. Bitcoin has really saved people from going to the bank to stand in the queue, or facing embarrassment from bank staff.

[HelliumZ]

Let's say Bitcoin doesn't exist today, then what coin would you replace Bitcoin with? But maybe it's a currency that doesn't have a third party controlling it like Bitcoin. If there is no such currency, then maybe the crypto world will slowly cease to exist.
Moreover, if Bitcoin did not exist, then perhaps they would have tried to create something similar within Bitcoin, and perhaps the governments of all countries would have jointly created a digital currency.

[Hamza2424]

I doubt CBDCs are even crypto. If I remember correctly, every country that has issued one has had a technically different version.
If they are to become dominant, it won't come from awareness initiatives, but most likely regulatory pressure. Honestly, if I had to choose, I think cash gives users more freedom than CBDCs.

Yep, cash gives more freedom than you can imagine, but CBDCs were a failure in some countries, they did not work, but in some they were forced. Anyway, if there were no Satoshi at all, or BTC, then CBDCs would never have taken its place, it would be something else, maybe a little less attractive and reliable than the BTC we have now, or maybe better, we never know.

But we just have the best version of decentralized money that can't be double spent, that has no loopholes at all, no middleman, automatic reward system to keep the system attractive. This is just the best version ever, no matter how many hard forks are created later.