all those features are available right now in CounterParty
They're not really.
I never invested in XCP because I see it as a third party brokering service. For example XCP got a rise last month because it brought Etherium together with Bitcoin which on the face of it seems like a match made in heaven - the biggest technology of the future wedded to the biggest technology of the past.
But think about it. By investing in Counterparty, you're not gaining any stakeholding in either of the two original technologies - just the broker. So I left it alone because we have limited funds for hedging.
On the other hand Bitbay / Backcoin / Halo etc are original technologies and involve the original developer of those technologies. You DO get a stakeholding in them plus if you're technical like me, it can be quite interesting following the whole project development and trying new stuff out regardless of its valuation.
Bitbay also has a potentially killer market by directly targeting a specific sector the way it does. That's always a very powerful lever in software development because you don't have to generalise all the solutions to solve every possible problem - the business logic that has to be supported is always well defined. This makes for rapid progress towards both project and marketing milestones and should not be tossed away lightly.
That's why I'd like this work to continue because it does have some authentic aspects to it who's merits potentially far outweigh the nonsense politics of the IPO.
You do get stakeholding with CounterParty though; even if CounterParty is an abstraction layer on-top of bitcoin rather than it's own blockchain (which is a great thing, because you have full compatability with that protocol= can send and retrieve assets on normal BTC addresses, export to BTC paper wallets or armory cold-storage etc and benefit from hundreds of PetaHash worth of security protecting nearly 5 billion $ )
XCP is the token required to use some features of the CounterParty protocol. Just like BTC is required to use some features of the Bitcoin protocol. It's the protocol that's the real valuable thing, the token is just the share of ownership of the value in the protocol. Aside from the ethereum features CounterParty
was completely developed from scratch, not just another junk scrypt clone with features tacked on top like many of the offerings on this forum today.
Ethereum created a smart contract framework written in the serpent language; which is essentially python. These serpent smart contracts do not exist on any main-net only on ETH testing grounds, where they will plan to be executed when ethereum is ready.
CounterParty essentially ported this turing complete language to be able to run on Bitcoin just as a bonus- that is completely a side feature to it's initial offerings . It was never promised, never advertised just silently added one day. So now you have a choice to spend XCP to run smart contracts on the proven battle tested Bitcoin blockchain or spend ETH to run it on Ethereum blockchain. XCP spent on smart contracts gets distributed amongst all holders, and XCP is already not only inflationary but actively deflationary (asset issuance & tx fees all consume small amounts of XCP) . You obviously wouldn't be getting a stake in ETH since there is no requirement for ETH, that doesn't mean you are investing in a broker however.
Just looking at the features BitBay is supposedly offering in the flashy graphics in OP:
Decentralized marketplace- CounterParty was the first to release a decentralized crypto exchange, with deterministic order matching -
https://counterwallet.io/Decentralized, trustless sports betting CounterParty, was the first to release -
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=645322.0Bartering - (commodities exchange) - CounterParty enabled this a long time ago too, here is one example:
http://www.digitaltangibletrust.com.
- Buy gold or silver with cash (USD, GB, EURO) or bitcoins from our reputable Gold & Bitcoin trading partners
- Receive and trade gold or silver tokens on your bitcoin address at an exchange or sell your gold tokens for bitcoins
- Secure all your gold or silver under bonded and insured custody with daily Proof of Custody
Same story with derivatives, smart property, IOT, although all are in such nascent stages right now. Trustless international trade is a given, same with banks. employment contracts are possible with smart contracts although a bit of a pipe dream outside of die hard crypto fetishists, same with lawyers.
Maybe it sounds like I have a hard on for XCP, but it's just an example- Everything offered here is just re-hypothecation of existing tech, with marketing pizzaz on top so the noobs lap it up. These kind of scams have been going of for so long it's incredible there is still a supply of suckers left to bleed dry.. after the countrycoins and anoncoins now it's the turn of smart contract scams and shitcoins..
