Is CounterParty (XCP) severely undervalued?

[Anotheranonlol]

To answer my own question, I say yes it is:

It's not a clone coin, not a gimmick coin, not a cash grab IPO coin designed to enrich the founders before they had delivered. It is a brand new design from scratch.

Real Value is derived from the CounterParty protocol, a protocol which adds value to the bitcoin network itself by expanding capability of the blockchain beyond simply 'dumb' payments . Whilst the main use of XCP is not intended to act as a currency, the underlying XCP token allows acts as an anti-spam fee (much like ripples XRP) to create your own assets on the blockchain, to engage in p2p bets, run smart contracts and other advanced financial operations on the blockchain. It also to you to own 'shares' in the protocol (just like owning bitcoin allows you to have a stake in the success of bitcoin as a protocol)

Below I will give a brief run-through of the relevant points.

Security

The project has been independently audited by respected Bitcoin Experts, Peter Todd and Sergio Demian Lerner. To my knowledge, it is the only major Bitcoin 2.0 project to have had multiple formal, comprehensive, expert security audits of its codebase.

https://www.counterparty.co/sergio-lerner-peter-todd/
https://www.counterparty.co/sergio-lerner-completes-security-audit/
https://github.com/CounterpartyXCP/counterpartyd/labels/Peter%20Todd%20Audit

Sergio Demian Lerner's words:

Keeping the counterparty source code small and independent of the network client is a great design decision, from the point of view of security. Because of this Counterparty client is the smallest, readable and yet completely usable “alt-coin” I’ve ever seen.

Since counterparty is essentially an abstraction layer on-top of bitcoin enabling advanced crypto-financial utilities to be built, it benefits from bitcoins already established ecosystem (Far and away the largest in the entire cryptocash landscape), Therefore it enjoys nearly 300 Petahash worth of miners diligently securing the blockchain it resides upon.

Launch information
 
Innovative, transparent and fair distribution model
Coins were not released by a proof-of-work model, favoring those with the biggest rigs, nor an IPO which enriched a small group of people before they had actually delivered any work, everybody had an equal chance to profit on equal levels. No entity pocketed a satoshi of the burned funds. BTC was destroyed permanently by being 'burned' (sent to unspendable address) in order to acquire XCP. This had the effect of enriching Bitcoin holders by diminishing total available supply. In addition burn period start/end was clearly defined by a hard-coded block number.

Source: https://www.counterparty.co/why-proof-of-burn/

Limited supply, non inflationary (2,648,755 XCP MAX)
Source: http://blockscan.com/
(coins are deflationary due to being burned in situations like asset issuance- In short the total monetary supply will never be increased, as there is no need for PoW or PoS). This makes it an excellent choice for a long term store-of-value.

On an average basis, each day 12 XCP are permanently removed from circulation by users registering assets and miscellaneous transaction fees. This number is gradually increasing.

Development team

Extensive bug bounty program
Source: https://www.counterparty.co/resources/bug-bounty-program/

Full time, self sufficient core development team.
Community relations manager
5 x  Experienced & public Full time coders (Adam Krellenstein, Robby Dermody, Evan Wagner, Ouziel Sama, Karol Pogonowski)
Marketing lead - Chris Derose

Platform Features

Blockchain based voting

The Bitcoin Foundation recently used CounterParty to hold an on-blockchain vote for election run-off 2015. - http://blog.bitcoinfoundation.org/voting-on-the-blockchain-version-1-0/

Anyone can create their own voting system via CounterParty. http://blockscan.com/votes

Register property titles

Via Szabo's Seminal paper: "Secure Property Titles with Owner Authority"  http://nakamotoinstitute.org/secure-property-titles/

The ideal title database would have the following properties:

*Current owner Alice should be able transfer her title to only a single relying counterparty (similar to the "double spending" problem in digital cash)

* Servers should not be able to forge transfers

* Servers should not be able to block transfers to or from politically incorrect parties.

CounterParty ticks all these boxes.
.
Ability to issue any smart property and pay Dividends directly with BTC as well as any other counterparty asset. (NXT, Bitshares etc, cannot do this natively)

Backup any XCP smart property onto Cold storage Paper wallets You could purchase a token using BTC that represents an OZ of gold, store it into a paper wallet offline, then import it at any time onto the network, you could then choose to receive ownership of that physical gold, or sell it in it's digital form on the decentralised exchange. Since XCP is natively compatible with BTC, you can do this with any counterparty asset.

Additionally Cold storage via Armory offline Wallets is natively supported. Counterparty is the first 2.0 project to support such features.



Innovative projects built on top of the counterparty protocol

• KOINIFY The Decentralized Application Platform - World Class Crypto crowfdunding
  
• GEMZ Gems - Messaging That Pays. Social Meets Cryptocurrency.
  
• FLDCFoldingCoin | Mine Medicine – Not Hashes
  
• SWARM Kickstarter on steroids. Decentralized crowdfunding with due-diligence, voting & benefits for all SWARMCOIN holders.
  
• BETXCP Decentralised sports betting (without ever giving anyone control of your coins)
  
• XBET World's first P2P, trustless & decentralized betting platform.
  
• STORJ P2P dropbox and MAID competitor - Decentralized cloud-storage.
  
• VENND Exchange gateway & Vending machine for XCP, BTC, assets. (Cross-blockchain support possible.)
  
• Spells Of Genesis The first onchain economy game ever made)
  
• Digital Tangible Trust Escape BTC volatility! -  Trade Gold and silver via the Blockchain. Backed by physical holdings
  

Latest News

21 September 2014 Counterwallet 1.5.0 released Read more: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=637645.msg8908148#msg8908148

6 September 2014 Armory offline support now implemented in counterwallet main net Read more: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/counterparty-first-bitcoin-2-0-platform-offer-armory-offline-wallet-support/

26 August 2014 - Multi-sig addresses are now supported on testnet. (Useful for two-factor authorization, escrow, and decentralized organizations.) Read more: http://www.coindesk.com/crypto-2-0-roundup-counterparty-debuts-multisig-ethereums-crowdsale-comedians-go-crypto/

2 August, 2014 The man who would undo Wall Street by offering Overstock.com 'crytposecurities' http://upstart.bizjournals.com/entrepreneurs/hot-shots/2014/08/01/the-man-who-would-undo-wall-street-by-offering.html?page=all

06 October 2014 -- Overstock.com Assembles Coders to Create a Bitcoin-Like Stock Market based on Counterparty
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/overstock-com-assembles-coders-build-bitcoin-like-stock-market/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2iho5p/counterparty_founder_robby_dermody_hired_by/

11 November 2014 --

• Counterparty announced that its developers have successfully ported the Ethereum Project’s programming language over to the Counterparty platform, enabling users to save and execute Turing Complete Ethereum code on the Bitcoin blockchain
  

http://counterparty.io/news/counterparty-recreates-ethereums-smart-contract-platform-on-bitcoin/
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/11/12/bitbeat-bitcoin-2-0-firm-counterparty-adopts-ethereums-software/

12 November 2014 --

• In addition to purchase of blockchain-tradeable precious metals verified owners of physical gold bars and gold coins can now trade their gold for bitcoin (tradeable p2p via CounterParty) using the DigitalTangible’s Web Wallet and network of gold dealers for same day settlement. Partnered with premier precious metals dealer Agora Commodities, DigitalTangible now offers a completely FinCEN compliant precious metals route into bitcoins.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20141112005418/en/DigitalTangible-Launches-Bitcoin4Gold-Service#.VGPOFmSsU4R

• Major milestone reached – the 100,000th transaction on the Counterparty network!
  

http://counterparty.io/news/counterparty-recreates-ethereums-smart-contract-platform-on-bitcoin/

• CounterWallet Chinese translation complete
  

https://counterwallet.io/?lang=zh_cn

• Rick Falkvinge, the author of Swarmwise (inspiration for Ethereum) and founder of the Pirate Party, plans on shaking up the world with his new project called SwarmOps, shares of which are available on CounterParty

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/17956/swarm-1-rick-falkvinges-swarmops-project

[AlexGR]

The problem of some top20 coins is that their characteristics are too advanced for the average buyer.

Buyer wants a coin he can understand what it does.

Litecoin he can understand. It's BTC but faster.
Darkcoin he can understand. It's BTC but faster+"darker" (private)
DOGEcoin he can understand. It's BTC + faster + "funny" + billions of coins for the lulz
Namecoin... wtf is this, yeah well we already have DNS
Protoshares...  
Ripple...  
Mastercoin...
NXT...  
Maidsafe  
Counterparty  

So how is someone to buy if there is no understanding what it does. And those who do understand thinking "oh that's great, has vast potential" etc etc, well, they are waiting for the "simple money" to jump onboard so that they can get appreciation on their early buying. But the simple money doesn't follow the large money / early investors because they don't understand what these coins do.

Cryptomarket is weird. You can sell a simple concept but not a complex one. The more complex the coin is, the better chances it has to get itself buried.

If this post has widened your understanding* of the "complex-coin market" psychology and why some coins tank when "...they shouldn't", tip freely

* This is an expensive lesson that one will figure out only if they've burned their money in "complex coins".

[Anotheranonlol]

The problem of some top20 coins is that their characteristics are too advanced for the average buyer.

Buyer wants a coin he can understand what it does.

Litecoin he can understand. It's BTC but faster.
Darkcoin he can understand. It's BTC but faster+"darker" (private)
DOGEcoin he can understand. It's BTC + faster + "funny" + billions of coins for the lulz
Namecoin... wtf is this, yeah well we already have DNS
Protoshares...  
Ripple...  
Mastercoin...
NXT...  
Maidsafe  
Counterparty  

So how is someone to buy if there is no understanding what it does. And those who do understand thinking "oh that's great, has vast potential" etc etc, well, they are waiting for the "simple money" to jump onboard so that they can get appreciation on their early buying. But the simple money doesn't follow the large money / early investors because they don't understand what these coins do.

Cryptomarket is weird. You can sell a simple concept but not a complex one. The more complex the coin is, the better chances it has to get itself buried.

If this post has widened your understanding* of the "complex-coin market" psychology and why some coins tank when "...they shouldn't", tip freely

* This is an expensive lesson that one will figure out only if they've burned their money in "complex coins".

True.
I'll try to give a quick overview of some of the recent projects being built using CounterParty

Swarm - Crypto-crowdfunding, kickstarter on steroids
http://www.swarmcorp.com/

Swarm is bringing true crowdfunding to the world. Contrary to other crowdfunding platforms, investors in Swarm listed companies will be buying equity in the companies they fund. Swarm does due diligence on every company listed on the platform. More than that, Swarm will be funding coin-powered accelerators to incubate and coach young businesses. Accepted companies will raise more money faster and with reduced costs. Swarm companies will offer investors real equity in turn for investment dollars instead of being limited to gifts or early access to products. When you decide to make an investment, you will be making it through the Swarm app.

CounterSports (soon to become Xbet) – The world's first distributed betting application
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=621560.0

With Xbet you can make anonymous, secure and trustless bets completely p2p. Just like Bitcoin enabled you to not rely on central banks CounterSports leverages CounterParty to ensure you don't need to trust your Bookmaker. Nobody can steal the coins you've deposited to the gambling site because no-one receives these coins! they are completely safe being escrowed by the protocol. You don't have to wait for 'withdrawals to process' or to fax in any documentation or wait until someone announces the sites been hacked! the site can be hacked but your coins can't be stolen!.. it's 2014 and this is just the beginning of betting on Counterparty platform

Vennd - an open source blockchain application
http://www.vennd.io/

With Vennd, potentially you can have a USD backed asset (from coinbase for example) on the DeX
Or, you can convert another Cryptocurrency, like LTC into XLTC  that can be trustlessy traded & escrowed on the Dex!
No more Goxing  
No more central securities exchanges that get closed by US governent (like Bitfunder and BTCT.co) when you can smoothly IPO with vendd and CounterParty

DigitalTangibleTrust - Trade digital Gold tokens backed/secured by custody
http://www.digitaltangibletrust.com/

You can convert BTC into Gold or Silver, then either receive those metals in your physical possession or trade them on the exchange for tokens backed by gold holdings
Easily escape the volatility of BTC and diversify into PM's and back to crypto from comfort of your armchair!

[Its About Sharing]

Glad you posted this thread. I have been curious about XCP.

I wonder how to value the 2.0 coins. I have a few NXT, like what I here but don't really know. Looked at Bitshares but it doesn't ring for me (not yet anyway). Ether looks extremely interesting.
But I have enough sense and where with all to know that most people can't even grasp Bitcoin and so these 2.0 coins are not even on the radar yet, except to a few in the Crypto space.

We can at least say here we are "From the Get Go Early Adopters" with the 2.0 stuff.

Remember, BTC was once pennies as well.

We might just not be able to see what these new coins are. They are like more Black Swan offspring from Mama Black Swan BTC.

IAS

[Djinou94]

The problem of some top20 coins is that their characteristics are too advanced for the average buyer.

Buyer wants a coin he can understand what it does.

Litecoin he can understand. It's BTC but faster.
Darkcoin he can understand. It's BTC but faster+"darker" (private)
DOGEcoin he can understand. It's BTC + faster + "funny" + billions of coins for the lulz
Namecoin... wtf is this, yeah well we already have DNS
Protoshares...  
Ripple...  
Mastercoin...
NXT...  
Maidsafe  
Counterparty  

What Maidsafe is not a shit coin 

[lopalcar]

The problem of some top20 coins is that their characteristics are too advanced for the average buyer.

Buyer wants a coin he can understand what it does.

Litecoin he can understand. It's BTC but faster.
Darkcoin he can understand. It's BTC but faster+"darker" (private)
DOGEcoin he can understand. It's BTC + faster + "funny" + billions of coins for the lulz
Namecoin... wtf is this, yeah well we already have DNS
Protoshares...  
Ripple...  
Mastercoin...
NXT...  
Maidsafe  
Counterparty  

What Maidsafe is not a shit coin 

I agree 100%, but it's true "hope" that some day averague guys which now starts to understand bitcoin will understand next gen systems too, it will take a bit, but there will be more early adopters this time, and we are between them
I have to say too that I became very disappointed with all the DOGE success, this should make us think about most investors and crypto users mentallity  But I believe that common sense will win.

And no, Maidsafe isn't a shitcoin if you are asking seriously, it's a great idea "although could be built on top of nxt, which is the most open system which I know for the moment". The shit are the tokens which had been given to the investors and represent 1 coin each, but they are only tokens, the good thing will come once redeemed.

[Anotheranonlol]

Glad you posted this thread. I have been curious about XCP.

I wonder how to value the 2.0 coins. I have a few NXT, like what I here but don't really know. Looked at Bitshares but it doesn't ring for me (not yet anyway). Ether looks extremely interesting.
But I have enough sense and where with all to know that most people can't even grasp Bitcoin and so these 2.0 coins are not even on the radar yet, except to a few in the Crypto space.

We can at least say here we are "From the Get Go Early Adopters" with the 2.0 stuff.

Remember, BTC was once pennies as well.

We might just not be able to see what these new coins are. They are like more Black Swan offspring from Mama Black Swan BTC.

IAS

I think in the case of CounterParty, which isn't a 'separate' coin, rather an open protocol bootstrapped on top of the Bitcoin network
it's more complimentary, rather than competing to Bitcoin unlike NXT, Bitshares, and the much hyped Ethereum.

CounterParty can be thought of as an API extension to Bitcoin- it adds advanced crypto-financial features to the blockchain. As CounterParty (the protocol) matures, it brings value to the blockchain, the reverse is true in that  the more mature Bitcoin becomes the more people will be looking to add alternative apps which take advantage of it's massive distributed ledger, including but not limited to:


- Decentralised Asset issuance- Assset trading, dividend distribution
- Decentralised Speculation/ Hedging/ Betting (binary options, sports books etc)- Prediction Markets, CFD's
- Decentralised, trustless sentinels via Counterparty's inbuilt Broadcasts and feeds - Warrant Canary, Dead Man's Switch, Heartbeat bcast , Keepalive bcast ,  Watchdog Timer

Think of an intrade that can't be closed, BTCT/Bitfunder that can't be shuttered by SEC, Gox that can't play fractional reserve, and Inputs that can't have it's wallets siphoned. these are some of the things counterparty can enable since it has the security of Bitcoins blockchain backing it. It lacks the attention that Ethereum has gotten, but it's powering steadily on in the background in stealth mode and not making any grandiose promises in exchange for private VC funding rounds.

[nakaone]

the reasoning given by alex is probably not the worst one  

I made a statement regarding counterparty a billion times in this forum: it is without a doubt one of the best projects regarding, capability, fairness, openess, innovation, driven by excellent and intelligent developers. until now it lacked marketing, but I think they now have the right guy for that.

I do not think this needs to become an advertisment thread, the underlying currency xcp is UNTIL NOW only in small use, this is given by the developers dogma what can be done with bitcoins, will be done with bitcoins. xcp can be taken in escrow and until now it was not neccessary - hopefully this will change once decentralized betting starts.

so far it is a promising project with high ethics - let's see where their underlying currency will go.

I hold it ultra long term so I basically do not care for short term pricing.

[AlexGR]

I'll bold some stuff and put some smilies to give you a perspective of the "common" man:

For every imagine a frustrated reader saying "wtf is this shit and why should it interest me to buy it with my precious BTCs?"

CounterParty can be thought of as an API extension to Bitcoin- it adds advanced crypto-financial features   to the blockchain. As CounterParty (the protocol) matures, it brings value to the blockchain, the reverse is true in that  the more mature Bitcoin becomes the more people will be looking to add alternative apps which take advantage of it's massive distributed ledger, including but not limited to:

- Decentralised Asset issuance   - Assset trading   , dividend distribution  
- Decentralised Speculation/ Hedging/ Betting (binary options, sports books etc)- Prediction Markets, CFD's  
- Decentralised, trustless sentinels   via Counterparty's inbuilt Broadcasts   and feeds - Warrant Canary, Dead Man's Switch, Heartbeat bcast , Keepalive bcast ,  Watchdog Timer  

Think of an intrade that can't be closed   , BTCT/Bitfunder that can't be shuttered by SEC  , Gox that can't play fractional reserve  , and Inputs that can't have it's wallets siphoned. these are some of the things counterparty can enable since it has the security of Bitcoins blockchain backing it. It lacks the attention that Ethereum has gotten, but it's powering steadily on in the background in stealth mode and not making any grandiose promises in exchange for private VC funding rounds.

...I think now you get the point why it's going nowhere...

If you can't tell what your altcoin does in one sentence, it's DOA.

[Anotheranonlol]

the reasoning given by alex is probably not the worst one  

I made a statement regarding counterparty a billion times in this forum: it is without a doubt one of the best projects regarding, capability, fairness, openess, innovation, driven by excellent and intelligent developers. until now it lacked marketing, but I think they now have the right guy for that.

I do not think this needs to become an advertisment thread, the underlying currency xcp is UNTIL NOW only in small use, this is given by the developers dogma what can be done with bitcoins, will be done with bitcoins. xcp can be taken in escrow and until now it was not neccessary - hopefully this will change once decentralized betting starts.

so far it is a promising project with high ethics - let's see where their underlying currency will go.

I hold it ultra long term so I basically do not care for short term pricing.

I'm also not particularly concerned with short-term pricing either. This is absolutely a long coin. If someone was concerned only with short term pricing they could of taken the advantage to dump when it was trading 900% higher.

I'm fascinated with the disruptive potential of the technology, exactly what drew me and so many others towards Bitcoin.

The developers have been storming forward on CounterParty, despite lacking the big name backers, or foundation funds of Mastercoin they thrashed them to market with the world's first working decentralised exchange whilst other players were in whitepaper stage. Any time the slightest negative incident has happened the developers have came through (e.g in cases of lost funds they've refunded out of their own pockets) I have not seen this kind of action from any other alt-coin developers

Undervalued refers to 'under-appreciated' as much as refers to the btc/dollar denominated market cap.

[Anotheranonlol]

I'll bold some stuff and put some smilies to give you a perspective of the "common" man:

For every imagine a frustrated reader saying "wtf is this shit and why should it interest me to buy it with my precious BTCs?"

CounterParty can be thought of as an API extension to Bitcoin- it adds advanced crypto-financial features   to the blockchain. As CounterParty (the protocol) matures, it brings value to the blockchain, the reverse is true in that  the more mature Bitcoin becomes the more people will be looking to add alternative apps which take advantage of it's massive distributed ledger, including but not limited to:

- Decentralised Asset issuance   - Assset trading   , dividend distribution  
- Decentralised Speculation/ Hedging/ Betting (binary options, sports books etc)- Prediction Markets, CFD's  
- Decentralised, trustless sentinels   via Counterparty's inbuilt Broadcasts   and feeds - Warrant Canary, Dead Man's Switch, Heartbeat bcast , Keepalive bcast ,  Watchdog Timer  

Think of an intrade that can't be closed   , BTCT/Bitfunder that can't be shuttered by SEC  , Gox that can't play fractional reserve  , and Inputs that can't have it's wallets siphoned. these are some of the things counterparty can enable since it has the security of Bitcoins blockchain backing it. It lacks the attention that Ethereum has gotten, but it's powering steadily on in the background in stealth mode and not making any grandiose promises in exchange for private VC funding rounds.

...I think now you get the point why it's going nowhere...

I get it kinda but it's like reading Bitcoin whitepaper and discussions about byzantine generals problems, most did not understand i

yet it was something special clearly even to a casual reader who didn't understand all the terminology, and empowers the world, it enables things to be done that weren't previously possible. When you get things like that  naturally it's difficult to put the cat back in the bag.  The early adopters lead the way by creating the infrastructure, and then eventually the masses once it's been dumbed down (or matured) enough. You can choose when you want to enter depending on how much time you want to sink into the project and your tolerance to risk.

I know altcoin world is largely specualtive market, and sometimes for obvious reasons it makes sense to jump on pump and hype trains in short term but I'm just not sure why people seem to sleep on genuinely exciting and innovative projects like this as long term buys, yet laud things like a multipool or coinjoin as being a game changer on QT clones.

[nutildah]

If it was undervalued then, its a steal now.

I don't get it either. Their platform is rather beautiful compared to some others, their innovations involve real-world applications and they've got some solid backing.

I still need to learn how to designate feeds for determining bet outcomes.

[kaimannoah]

e and wait again, etc. Small increments, because he might decide to pay you the first and second, to scam a bigger tranche. Always suspect if he doesn't accept to trade in small tranches.

[Its About Sharing]

If it was undervalued then, its a steal now.

I don't get it either. Their platform is rather beautiful compared to some others, their innovations involve real-world applications and they've got some solid backing.

I still need to learn how to designate feeds for determining bet outcomes.

I think it is still ahead of its time, as is BTC and Cryptos in general. So, the 2.0 stuff is really not on anyone's radar. And the Pump & Dump mentality is still strong and perhaps
guiding much of the market.

I've heard using BTC to purchase other Cryptos in the wallet can take one or two hours as they are waiting for 5 or 6 confirmations (due to potential for a blockchain rollback.)
But, when using XCP, the transaction is maybe 5-10 minutes(?)

I think buying a few XCP for future investment, asset purchases, etc. is a wise decision. But only use a very small % of your overall BTC holdings.
I'd like to have maybe 5% of my BTC in NXT, XCP and Ether and another 5%-10% in other Cryptos (e.g. The anonymous XMR, maybe some LTC, and a couple of other up and comers.)

IAS

[nutildah]

I'd like to have maybe 5% of my BTC in NXT, XCP and Ether and another 5%-10% in other Cryptos (e.g. The anonymous XMR, maybe some LTC, and a couple of other up and comers.)

You really like XMR? I have to admit, I am turned off by the mindless borg-like crowds that pump it day and night. To me that's the telltale sign of a coin that doesn't have anything going on for it at the core, but maybe I am wrong from time to time.

It will be interesting to see how much more steam the whole altcoin world has left in it, and to find out exactly what point in the bubble we were at now. I hope its still the first 25%.

[SnakePlisken]

Nice thread, I have been wondering about Counterparty myself for quite some time.

Isn't there some sort of risk involved with the BTC devs not wanting to "play nice" with Counterparty? I remember reading something about a limitation put on the amount of data CP could store.

[Its About Sharing]

I'd like to have maybe 5% of my BTC in NXT, XCP and Ether and another 5%-10% in other Cryptos (e.g. The anonymous XMR, maybe some LTC, and a couple of other up and comers.)

You really like XMR? I have to admit, I am turned off by the mindless borg-like crowds that pump it day and night. To me that's the telltale sign of a coin that doesn't have anything going on for it at the core, but maybe I am wrong from time to time.

It will be interesting to see how much more steam the whole altcoin world has left in it, and to find out exactly what point in the bubble we were at now. I hope its still the first 25%.

We don't understand this space yet, we can't. It is going too fast, the ramifications are too large and the even horizon too near. This is like the internet on steroids and once it really gets going we will look back at these times in disbelief (barring a catastrophe). I think most of the alts will just disappear, and some will be used in small communities (or as local currencies perhaps).

I think there is going to be a subset of alts that are anonymous. Yes, you can use Darkwallet and such, but that technology, from what I understand, is behind ring signatures used in CryptoNote. (And I prefer not to keep all my eggs in one basket. It is nice to have something NOT at all based on BTC.) A few of these anonymous currencies will probably still be around in a couple of years and if you guess/research right, well you know. Rptiela did his HW on it and then I read a bunch and it by far is the best anonymous coin. The best doesn't always win but I'll go with a coin with a very strong development community behind it, taking things slow, no instamine/premine, not getting into marketing (too soon), etc.

Separate people who pump things for sheer profit/trading from those who did their HW and happen to be in the same coin. There are plenty of evangelists regarding BTC and alts but see the truth in the false if need be. You never know where truth finds itself. Not meaning to pump, I have not traded in and out of these coins (though I considered it with the recent rise, but the orderbook has been so thin.) Getting to the point where I hardly even trade, just too tough to call and when I do trade I only use a percentage of my holdings.

And for sure some of the 2.0 coins will succeed, but will their tokens appreciate as BTC does? I believe so, but it is too early to really know, we need to do an in depth analysis here once we see where the space is going (My bet is we will have a very good idea within 6-18 months). I think a little bit of diversity is safe, not to mention exciting. It is a fun space to be in and to look back on it years from now, if it does what the writing on the wall spells out, it would have been a very memorable thing to have taken part in.

Its about sharing

[deliciousowl]

Nice thread, I have been wondering about Counterparty myself for quite some time.

Isn't there some sort of risk involved with the BTC devs not wanting to "play nice" with Counterparty? I remember reading something about a limitation put on the amount of data CP could store.

Counterparty has many ways to store the data, and there is no risk involved in this case whatsoever. It's just that the methods required to store the data will have to become more convoluted... 

I think it has promise because its built for the long term. Just look at the way it was launched. 

[niktitan132]

The problem of some top20 coins is that their characteristics are too advanced for the average buyer.

Buyer wants a coin he can understand what it does.

Litecoin he can understand. It's BTC but faster.
Darkcoin he can understand. It's BTC but faster+"darker" (private)
DOGEcoin he can understand. It's BTC + faster + "funny" + billions of coins for the lulz
Namecoin... wtf is this, yeah well we already have DNS
Protoshares...  
Ripple...  
Mastercoin...
NXT...  
Maidsafe  
Counterparty  

So how is someone to buy if there is no understanding what it does. And those who do understand thinking "oh that's great, has vast potential" etc etc, well, they are waiting for the "simple money" to jump onboard so that they can get appreciation on their early buying. But the simple money doesn't follow the large money / early investors because they don't understand what these coins do.

Cryptomarket is weird. You can sell a simple concept but not a complex one. The more complex the coin is, the better chances it has to get itself buried.

If this post has widened your understanding* of the "complex-coin market" psychology and why some coins tank when "...they shouldn't", tip freely

* This is an expensive lesson that one will figure out only if they've burned their money in "complex coins".

True,some coins are too advanced for some average buyers and they don't understand very well in what they are investing. 

[Anotheranonlol]

Added latest news relating to multisig support being enabled in CounterParty testnet.
With this feature, Counterparty users can include escrow agents, auditors or other third-party certifiers in transactions.