Altcoins are a mess, but Bitcoin looks vulnerable to being dethroned

[sdersdf3]

Altcoins are a mess, but Bitcoin's looking pretty vulnerable to being booted from the #1 spot. Which coin do you think has a chance to emerging as a serious threat to bitcoin in 2015 (or 2016/2017)? Ethereum, NEM, Counterparty, NectarCoin? Something else?

[unusualfacts30]

Bitcoin has its purpose. It's almost impossible to get your hands on altcoins if BTC isn't there because it's sole purpose is to convert itself to fiat and vice versa. I don't think anything can take its place unless we get something as well adopted as BTC but I'm pretty sure we are years away from it.

[thedok]

pow is failing for btc and ltc (too much sell pressure), wont be long till they are fully monopolized. I think PoS will play a big part in 2015

[unusualfacts30]

pow is failing for btc and ltc (too much sell pressure), wont be long till they are fully monopolized. I think PoS will play a big part in 2015

very good point. I think you might be right

[BitcoiNaked]

Bitcoins strenght right now compared to others is it's network effect, but that's hugely overrated. Bitcoin only has around 500k to 1m users, that's very poor for a 6 years time scale. I believe it shouldn't be that hard for another project to overcome this, how? I believe by smartphone appplications. More and more people are using a smartphone with lot of interest to applications and less people are using a personal computer, a semi successful app these days crushes bitcoins network effect in a pretty short time because it's fun, consists social networking and is simple to use.

Look at some 2015 crypto 2.0 projects http://www.coindesk.com/crypto-2-0-2015-turning-bitcoin-theory-big-business/, which have a decent chance to compete with bitcoin, a couple of them aim for the bold part i mentioned.

[inBitweTrust]

Bitcoin only has around 500k to 1m users, that's very poor for a 6 years time scale.

This is blatantly false.
Coinbase follows KYC and thus most of these wallets are unique:

19 Countries Fully Supported
2,100,000 Consumer Wallets
38,000 Merchants

They represent a fraction of the bitcoin economy because the chinese have invested more than the US and few of them use coinbase.

Additionally, there are many new people who have accepted changetips from strangers and thus are holding onto bitcoin within changetip or elsewhere.

Conservatively, there are at least 5-8 million people who own bitcoin.

Despite, Bitcoin decreasing in value relative to fiat, even the strongest alts like Nxt and Bitshares have fared worse and have been weakening against bitcoin. The original claims lack merit.

[thedok]

pow is failing for btc and ltc (too much sell pressure), wont be long till they are fully monopolized. I think PoS will play a big part in 2015

ASCI's for the win ! Ye but who is going to pay for the miners ? Well investors of course.

[smalltimer]

i think i launched my thread about it 2 minutes after you opened this one  

The solution is: Unobtanium

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=913751.0

pow is failing for btc and ltc (too much sell pressure), wont be long till they are fully monopolized. I think PoS will play a big part in 2015

pow doesn't fail - high inflation/constant bleeding fails
needs faster halving - 4 years is way, way too long

[tokeweed]

it's a good time to use ripple and convert some btc to usd then store it in your ripple wallet. nubits is also good, as both options make it easy to convert back to crypto.

[BitcoiNaked]

Bitcoin only has around 500k to 1m users, that's very poor for a 6 years time scale.

Conservatively, there are at least 5-8 million people who own bitcoin.

Probably 80% inactive users, bitcoins has a very poor accessibility. It's very hard or even impossible for the average person to get access to, it's even harder to do this with altcoins. 5 million is nothing compared to a semi successful app which are very easy to get access to, a revolutionary appcoin with great marketing and devs with some deep pockets can overthrow bitcoins nr 1 position in user base.

[unusualfacts30]

Bitcoin has its purpose. It's almost impossible to get your hands on altcoins if BTC isn't there because it's sole purpose is to convert itself to fiat and vice versa. I don't think anything can take its place unless we get something as well adopted as BTC but I'm pretty sure we are years away from it.

Thats so wrong i can't stop laughing. There are altcoin which you can buy with Fiat money.

it's not easy I've tried. You always end up paying more than market price because of volatility. For example: Coinbase. I have yet to find a website similar to coinbase for any other altcoin. If you know any let me know.

Paybase is one of them but that was just introduced few days ago and they have yet to add debit card

[inBitweTrust]

a revolutionary appcoin with great marketing and devs with some deep pockets can overthrow bitcoins nr 1 position in user base.

Its already being tested with paycoin2, revolutionary extension, hyperflex technology , millions of dollars in marketing and investment, PoS with no PoW overhead , ect...
How is that working out?

Any new feature that your appcoin can come up with can be implemented in bitcoin or a bitcoin sidechain easily. http://www.blockstream.com/
There is some incredible innovation happening within bitcoin which is happening all the time that users just fail to see because they are so wrapped up in their own altcoin project or
they prefer to get in at the ground floor on some new blockchain because they missed the opportunity with bitcoin.

Even innovative currencies that I respect like ethereum will have an uphill battle because they will be competing with oracles , sidechains and stacks that depend upon Bitcoin like counter-party.

[unusualfacts30]

a revolutionary appcoin with great marketing and devs with some deep pockets can overthrow bitcoins nr 1 position in user base.

Its already being tested with paycoin2, revolutionary extension, hyperflex technology , millions of dollars in marketing and investment, PoS with no PoW overhead , ect...
How is that working out?

Any new feature that your appcoin can come up with can be implemented in bitcoin or a bitcoin sidechain easily. http://www.blockstream.com/
There is some incredible innovation happening within bitcoin which is happening all the time that users just fail to see because they are so wrapped up in their own altcoin project or
they prefer to get in at the ground floor on some new blockchain because they missed the opportunity with bitcoin.

that's very true. Why own 1 Bitcoin when I can own 50,000 altcoin that have so much room to grow.

[BitcoiNaked]

a revolutionary appcoin with great marketing and devs with some deep pockets can overthrow bitcoins nr 1 position in user base.

Its already being tested with paycoin2, revolutionary extension, hyperflex technology , millions of dollars in marketing and investment, PoS with no PoW overhead , ect...
How is that working out?

pay coin is a scam nobody cares

[sdersdf3]

Bitcoin only has around 500k to 1m users, that's very poor for a 6 years time scale.

Conservatively, there are at least 5-8 million people who own bitcoin.

Probably 80% inactive users, bitcoins has a very poor accessibility. It's very hard or even impossible for the average person to get access to, it's even harder to do this with altcoins. 5 million is nothing compared to a semi successful app which are very easy to get access to, a revolutionary appcoin with great marketing and devs with some deep pockets can overthrow bitcoins nr 1 position in user base.

+1

Shame altcoins have been a mess. Hopefully this scene cleans up its act in 2015. It's time for a viable alternative to bitcoin.

[sdersdf3]

Bitcoin has its purpose. It's almost impossible to get your hands on altcoins if BTC isn't there because it's sole purpose is to convert itself to fiat and vice versa. I don't think anything can take its place unless we get something as well adopted as BTC but I'm pretty sure we are years away from it.

That's true, in which case BTC's decline is doubly troubling - it's the latest sign people may be souring on the entire crypto thing. In any case, system clearly needs a compelling user-friendly killer app.

[sdersdf3]

pow is failing for btc and ltc (too much sell pressure), wont be long till they are fully monopolized. I think PoS will play a big part in 2015

Is it settled that POS is a viable, secure alternative. Isn't their talk about POS being the reason Mintpal was vulnerable to having its VRC stash hacked?

[sdersdf3]

Bitcoin only has around 500k to 1m users, that's very poor for a 6 years time scale.

This is blatantly false.
Coinbase follows KYC and thus most of these wallets are unique:

19 Countries Fully Supported
2,100,000 Consumer Wallets
38,000 Merchants

They represent a fraction of the bitcoin economy because the chinese have invested more than the US and few of them use coinbase.

Additionally, there are many new people who have accepted changetips from strangers and thus are holding onto bitcoin within changetip or elsewhere.

Conservatively, there are at least 5-8 million people who own bitcoin.

Despite, Bitcoin decreasing in value relative to fiat, even the strongest alts like Nxt and Bitshares have fared worse and have been weakening against bitcoin. The original claims lack merit.

Are there any solid estimates on just what btc's (active) user base really is? One thing's certain, the demand for bitcoin is lagging behind supply, or the price wouldn't be falling as it has for the past year.

[inBitweTrust]

Are there any solid estimates on just what btc's (active) user base really is?

There is no way to know for sure, but I and many of my freinds buy things all the time with bitcoin, receive payments in bitcoin and pay employees in bitcoin.
Bitpay and coinbase are growing in transactions month after month as well.

http://blog.bitpay.com/2014/12/09/bitcoin-black-friday-2014-recap.html

This year we saw an 82% increase in the number of merchants who completed transactions compared to last year’s BBF.

Every alt out their is almost entirely being used as a risky speculative investment , unlike bitcoin which is now a mix.

[unusualfacts30]

Bitcoin has its purpose. It's almost impossible to get your hands on altcoins if BTC isn't there because it's sole purpose is to convert itself to fiat and vice versa. I don't think anything can take its place unless we get something as well adopted as BTC but I'm pretty sure we are years away from it.

That's true, in which case BTC's decline is doubly troubling - it's the latest sign people may be souring on the entire crypto thing. In any case, system clearly needs a compelling user-friendly killer app.

it's reaching new low which also means trend reversal soon but I can't confirm it on the chart YET