Why private ecurrencies will fail.

[cbeast]

What scenario would allow big corporations to create a cryptocurrency that could compete with Bitcoin?
1. A console game manufacturer creates a crypto currency. They could even seed it with millions of dollars worth of credit.

• If it was not open sourced, why would anyone trust it?
• If it is open source, it could be adapted to superior mining systems that would crash the economy and alienate the console gamers.

2. A social networking site creates a crypto currency that runs on cpu.

• If it is not open source, why would anyone trust it?
• If it is open source, people would constantly fork the blockchain for their own purposes.

The trust issue stems from the fact that at any time, they could inflate the economy.
Why spend the money developing something that already exists. Why not just spend millions on Bitcoin miners and adopt a strong network?

[chsados]

Well the likely big companies to do this are probably Facebook/itunes store 2.0 and I doubt they would ever even go the CPU cryptocurrency route.  It would likely be in the form of giftcards or points. 

[caston]

I think we will see proprietary digital coins and there are groups working on them (or at least reference standards for them) such as opencoin, faircoin and e-dinar.

You may see a hybrid between fiat and crypto currency where only central banks can issue coins. Governments will likely back these as "standards" but only because they are lackies for people that own banks.

[cryptoanarchist]

I try not to pay attention to FaceBook but it seems I saw an ad for their own currency already, and yeah, its in the form of gift points.

[koin]

What scenario would allow big corporations to create a cryptocurrency that could compete with Bitcoin?

are you assuming this private currency would be also be a proof-of-work based currency or are you also considering currencies based on a centralized authority?

[Valalvax]

Yea, Facebook has .. um.. Facebook... whateverthefuck I think Credits? That you spend on games, basically it's a way for Facebook to get it's 30% cut, if they were smart they would have started that BEFORE allowing games, because doing that wound up pissing off lots of developers

[herzmeister]

• If it is not open source, why would anyone trust it?

sheeple 


(but Apple's iCoin does look nifty, doesn't it? it's so well designed! a real eye-catcher!)

[hugolp]

Bitcoin is a private currency.

I think you meant a corporate backed currency.

[terrytibbs]

Bitcoin is a private currency.

Looks fairly public to me!

[hugolp]

Bitcoin is a private currency.

Looks fairly public to me!

It should not but in western culture public usually means government backed or controlled. Bitcoin is neither.

It is public in the sense that anyone can participate, its private in the sense that its not government backed or controlled.

[herzmeister]

both

Code:

private string key;

public string blockchain;

[cbeast]

Bitcoin is a private currency.

Looks fairly public to me!

It should not but in western culture public usually means government backed or controlled. Bitcoin is neither.

It is public in the sense that anyone can participate, its private in the sense that its not government backed or controlled.

If you define government as of, by, and for The People, then Bitcoin is 100% government controlled. We The People can make Bitcoin anything we will it to be. Oh wait, that's not what THEY want the Gubbermint to be.