Is Bitcoin just a stepping stone to something better?

[acoindr]

Bitcoin is the Beta app.

Make no mistake about it, there will come a time to change out your Bitcoins for another currency.  Right now though, it's all Bitcoin & Litecoin.

TCP/IP is a beta protocol.  Make no mistake about it, there will come a time to rip out all the internet infrastructure and replace it with something new.

Perfect answer  

What people don't seem to realize is widely adopted technology doesn't have to be best, just good enough and first.

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[Klestin]

I don't think Bitcoin will not be around in 5 years

Agreed, although I don't think that's what you meant to write.

[ChuckBuck]

Bitcoin is the Beta app.

Make no mistake about it, there will come a time to change out your Bitcoins for another currency.  Right now though, it's all Bitcoin & Litecoin.

TCP/IP is a beta protocol.  Make no mistake about it, there will come a time to rip out all the internet infrastructure and replace it with something new.

Perfect answer  

What people don't seem to realize is widely adopted technology doesn't have to be best, just good enough and first.

So if TCP/IP is Bitcoin, does that make IPX/SPX Dogecoin?  Appletalk must be like Reddcoin or iCoin.

[crazyoddman]

I don't think Bitcoin will not be around in 5 years as most people will switch to a new gold standard yet to be made. Bitcoin is too short sighted and limited to 21 million coins and is still a Beta technology so are all crypto coins at this time. some people wasting time and money on trying to buy gox is stupid and it's a lesson in how we need more then 3 major exchanges.   learn what the faults are and then replace bitcoin with an improved crypto with that knowledge. I think BTC is just a huge stepping stone to what will be next. I have some ideas as to what the requirements for the next big coin will need to have in it's design but then i'm not a programmer. Right now it just seems like cryptos are just being thrown to the wall and see what sticks. We need to start thinking whats next. Just my thoughts want to know what you folks think.         

How about NO

[Chemistry1988]

I don't think Bitcoin will not be around in 5 years as most people will switch to a new gold standard yet to be made. Bitcoin is too short sighted and limited to 21 million coins and is still a Beta technology so are all crypto coins at this time.

Which bitcoin features do you think are faulty and need to be replaced? 

[whtchocla7e]

The technology underlying Bitcoin may survive for a pretty long time. Bitcoin itself, will probably be replaced by something better. Don't confuse one with the other.

You upgrade your Apple phone every year even though the underlying technology stays pretty much the same.

The TCP/IP comparison is dumb...

[Peter R]

Bitcoin is the Beta app.

Make no mistake about it, there will come a time to change out your Bitcoins for another currency.  Right now though, it's all Bitcoin & Litecoin.

TCP/IP is a beta protocol.  Make no mistake about it, there will come a time to rip out all the internet infrastructure and replace it with something new.

Perfect answer  

What people don't seem to realize is widely adopted technology doesn't have to be best, just good enough and first.

I think we can do even better.  

What many people fail to realize is that bitcoin is both a payment network and a public ledger.  The payment network is the nodes, miners and source code.  The public ledger is the blockchain.  

If, at some distant point in the future, a vastly better payment network was found, then we would just integrate the new technology around the blockchain ledger using for example the spin-off technique.  

The blockchain ledger will be preserved.  
  

[michael_vw]

Hi all,

Why not merge bitcoin with bitcoin-scrypt? Then we have doubled the coin total.
BTC-sCrypt has a voting system wich can be used too vote on all important development for the coin.

No serious, just think about it 

Cheers,

Michael

[CoinDiver]

Bitcoin was first to market. You can't duplicate that. No one has come up with anything that outweighs that. There is a need for faster transactions of lower values. None of those will surpass bitcoin, because there isn't the need.

[CoinDiver]

What bitcoin may be a stepping stone towards... is world peace. Stephen Molyneux just did a talk in Amsterdam regarding bitcoin. Basically, a transition to bitcoin makes those responsible for war, also responsible for the bill.

[wormbog]

Remember Y2K and COBOL code? Even when bitcoin is considered ancient it will still be in wide use.

[Bit_Happy]

I don't think Bitcoin will not be around in 5 years as most people will switch to a new gold standard yet to be made. Bitcoin is too short sighted and limited to 21 million coins and is still a Beta technology so are all crypto coins at this time. some people wasting time and money on trying to buy gox is stupid and it's a lesson in how we need more then 3 major exchanges.   learn what the faults are and then replace bitcoin with an improved crypto with that knowledge. I think BTC is just a huge stepping stone to what will be next. I have some ideas as to what the requirements for the next big coin will need to have in it's design but then i'm not a programmer. Right now it just seems like cryptos are just being thrown to the wall and see what sticks. We need to start thinking whats next. Just my thoughts want to know what you folks think.         

What are the 3 major exchanges ?

Coinbase, Bitstamp and btc-e maybe? Though coinbase is technically not an exchange...

Bitstamp and btc-e plus he mentioned trying to revive Gox.

[Bitcoin Magazine]

to PPcoin (failcoin)

[Nagle]

More and more, Bitcoin looks like a Pink Sheet stock. Trading continues, even though there's no asset value behind it.

The fundamental problem with Bitcoin is that unidirectional money transfers to remote anonymous parties are the con man's dream. Most "Bitcoin enterpreneurs" seem to be con men. Over half the Bitcoin exchanges have gone bust, even though that should be a low-risk business. Most of the sellers of mining hardware seem to be unable to reliably make, sell, and deliver ordered hardware. The "Bitcoin stock markets" are a joke, and the "Bitcoin Ponzis" are just embarassing.

Bitcoin has become the clown car of money because of all this.

The underlying technology isn't bad. We're about 2/3 of the way there to something that might work. The first generation of crypto-currency was Chaum's DigiCash in the early 1990s. This had protection against double-spending, like Bitcoin, but it relied on a centralized ledger system. Bitcoin is basically DigiCash with a distributed ledger, the block chain. DigiCash failed because of Cham's differences with his backers, and because it was too early. 

With Bitcoin, you still have to trust the receiving party when you order something. From recent experience, that doesn't work. The protocol could in theory be extended to support escrow and arbitration, but it hasn't been.  That's the remaining 1/3 of the problem.

What we have now is too slimeball-friendly.

[jabo38]

I think bitcoin will be around for a while and the price will go up a lot and then yes, eventually another "coin/platform/tech" will have addressed all of bitcoins flaws and become more widely accepted. 

What are these flaws?

One guys owns 10% of the economy.
Block times are 10 minutes.
If I want it to be secure, I have to load linux on a computer not ever connected to the internet and then make a cold wallet and then store that safely.  (are you kidding me??? like .01% of the population is even capable of doing this. seriously 0.01%)
Mining bitcoin uses lots of energy and computing power which ultimately makes bitcoin prices much higher than they need to be for the service actually performed. (yes, I know some of you like this, but really it is a flawed system)
Mining is becoming heavily centralized and moving forward if the pools don't okay something, it won't happen.  (do you think they will okay things against their interest, even if it is in the average person's interest.  sounds like the government we have now controlling fiat)
The language is confusing.
It's start has grown out of shady industries tainting its image.
There are lots of services being provided by or planned by 2.0 platforms that bitcoin just can't do or at least isn't doing.

Yes, bitcoin is adaptable and yes it can address many of these faults and adapt, but will it address all of them?  Some of these flaws are pretty serious flaws.  A new platform that wipes the slate clean and addresses these issues and more, could be much more successful and overtake bitcoin.  I gather bitcoin will still be around when that happens; just as fiat surpassed gold, it didn't make gold irrelevant. 

[MegaHustlr]

To bitpop:

-TX time

-Confirmations needed

- Mining times

- Unequal distribution of mining power.

[Bit_Happy]

Is Bitcoin just a stepping stone to something better?
Crypto will be one of the biggest things in our lifetime.
Bitcoin has a big head start as the leader. No one knows for certain regarding something better.

[BunsenBurner]

To bitpop:

-TX time
-Confirmations needed
- Mining times

I guess you mean the block time (*expected* 10 min in bitcoin) should be shorter, right?

A short block time (some altcoins use a very low block time) will lead to more orphans blocks and more likely to have natural forks.
IMO it is pretty safe to accept zero-confirmation tx as long as 1) The inputs are confirmed 2) The tx pays min fee 3) No double spending attempts detected after 30s.

[gamersglory]

I think bitcoin will be around for a while and the price will go up a lot and then yes, eventually another "coin/platform/tech" will have addressed all of bitcoins flaws and become more widely accepted. 

What are these flaws?

One guys owns 10% of the economy.
Block times are 10 minutes.
If I want it to be secure, I have to load linux on a computer not ever connected to the internet and then make a cold wallet and then store that safely.  (are you kidding me??? like .01% of the population is even capable of doing this. seriously 0.01%)
Mining bitcoin uses lots of energy and computing power which ultimately makes bitcoin prices much higher than they need to be for the service actually performed. (yes, I know some of you like this, but really it is a flawed system)
Mining is becoming heavily centralized and moving forward if the pools don't okay something, it won't happen.  (do you think they will okay things against their interest, even if it is in the average person's interest.  sounds like the government we have now controlling fiat)
The language is confusing.
It's start has grown out of shady industries tainting its image.
There are lots of services being provided by or planned by 2.0 platforms that bitcoin just can't do or at least isn't doing.

Yes, bitcoin is adaptable and yes it can address many of these faults and adapt, but will it address all of them?  Some of these flaws are pretty serious flaws.  A new platform that wipes the slate clean and addresses these issues and more, could be much more successful and overtake bitcoin.  I gather bitcoin will still be around when that happens; just as fiat surpassed gold, it didn't make gold irrelevant. 

Part of my point exactly. Bitcoin is not a fair coin. Now we have been seeing this with rich people buying all the mining power they can find and chewing through the network while those of us who can't afford to mine on a large scale are stuck with the Bitcoin equivalent of trickle down economics. Which we know does not work in the real world. We need a coin that can do a few neet tricks. I would like to share

1. The coins mined earn interest while in your wallet or on an exchange Wallet. Don't know what would be an appropriate rate though. But the best thing i think would be the rate would very based on how much hashing power would be on the whole network ex. more hash = more interest . This would help little guys who don't have a lot of hashing power. makes it more like banking

2.No interest made when your not mining. Not putting in the work anymore why should you earn.

3.The biggest part a coin that can adjust with inflation and deflation. If the value goes down everyone should feel it in there wallet no mater how big or how small. Amount of coinage in your wallet would decrease or Inflate based on value think for example if the coins value got really high it would split like a stock 1 coin becomes 2 coins and so on a split would happen after it reaches a fixed doller value.

4. Some sort of new hashing algorithm that puts everyone no matter how much hashing power they have on equal footing. Difficulty increasing should not be able to be cheated by having more hashing power.

5.Mined block size will vary based on all of the above. Each block will have the interest to pay out to everyone's active mining wallets.

I would love for others to add there ideas and comment on my ideas           


     

[genjix]

Is Bitcoin just a stepping stone to something better?
Crypto will be one of the biggest things in our lifetime.
Bitcoin has a big head start as the leader. No one knows for certain regarding something better.

bitcoin is probably here to stay, but off this stepping stone so much is now possible.