

A Bitcoin Battle Is Brewing - hackerjam
http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/06/a-bitcoin-battle-is-brewing/

======
px1999
I'm not trying to be snarky, but wtf did I just read?

The article:

* people are beginning to take bitcoin more seriously.

* there are multiple cryptocurrencies

* bitcoin is the biggest

* namedropping for blockstream

* namedropping for stellar

* ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

* maybe the real competition between cryptocurrencies is still to come

I'm not sure of the message or the point here. My guess would be to namedrop
blockstream, but the whole thing is unfocussed and confusing to me.

~~~
pearjuice
What, are you saying they publish Bitcoin articles for the sake of publishing
Bitcoin articles? That would upset a lot of people!

------
applecore
Blockstream's eleven (!) founders include the majority of Bitcoin's core
developers—they're also the ones pushing most fervently for a fork of the
Bitcoin protocol. Is there anything to be worried about here? (That is,
besides the perplexing nature of a startup raising a $21 million “seed round”
for its multitudinous founders to develop an entirely new and unproven
technology stack.)

~~~
maaku
No if you mean people with commit bit, we have just two of the five active
developers. The community of Bitcoin developers is much larger though and we
come no where near a majority.

------
adrianwaj
"I suspect most people who have heard of Bitcoin don’t even know alternatives
exist." True.

In a world with fiat, bitcoin is king due to liquidity. In a world without
fiat, it's much easier to consider alternatives. Personally I'd like to see a
wallet that holds many currencies, and can do all the conversion
automatically.

"priced in ___coin? okay"

"You want to pay with ____coin? sure!"

"You only accept ___coin? no probs!"

And apps like [http://shapeshift.io](http://shapeshift.io) can help with
background conversions.

Thus, the long-tail of crypto becomes more relevant.

For me, it's not a battle of bitcoin, rather it's a battle of "either/or"
(now) vs "both/and" (future.)

I also think the future is coming faster than we think. People will want
bitcoin alternatives, especially people that want to make money and think
there are better coins that can do that (and will give them a try.)

add:

to give an example of this war, I placed a link to
[http://snapcard.io](http://snapcard.io) in reddit-bitcoin for a shop owner in
France wanting to accept digital currencies. Result: -1 downvotes, 4 hours
ago. Why? I presume because they are a multi-crypto POS startup.

Bitcoin is full of the same people that were trashing it when it first came
out. Now they are trashing any alternatives. I don't want to be part of that.
They're neither cool, nor smart.

------
elpachuco
>>Lest you think I’m taking sides already, let me stress that it’s not at all
clear that AC is actually better than DC

No, it has been settled for almost a hundred years that AC, for long distance
transmission, is the best. Too bad he included something like this. It
diminishes his credibility and colors the entire article.

Edit: So I seem to be quite wrong. Well, at least now I know. I stand
corrected.

~~~
tormeh
DC is better over long distances than AC. The problem with DC is that
generators and many engines operate on AC and that was more important at the
beginning of electricity use.

~~~
wlesieutre
The other big caveat being that for both AC and DC, you want to do long
distance transmission at very high voltages. DC transmission has been put to
real world use (converted back to AC into the grid), and it tends to be on the
order of 100,000 to 1,000,000 volts.

Historically, AC was much more feasible to do this with because you can change
the voltage with transformers, which are basically paired coils of copper
wire. These days we have the capability to convert between AC and high voltage
DC, but it's still requires comparatively complicated equipment and isn't as
reliable.

------
panhandlr
The story here is: "we have to post bitcoin related articles everyday to keep
the price of BTC up"

------
otoburb
Nothing stops alt-coins from continuing to exist independently as they do
today if sidechains are implemented.

I liked the VoIP analogy, although other examples abound where an initial
network effect was supplanted by competing implementations (e.g. search
engines, social networking).

~~~
imaginenore
> _Nothing stops alt-coins from continuing to exist independently as they do
> today if sidechains are implemented._

Network Effect does.

------
bernardlunn
no comments, yet trending. its a complex subject, i was hoping for some HN
commenters to shed some light

------
pearjuice
Ah, the weekly Bitcoin hype thread. That there is still future for BTC other
than a specific niche. The make believe story. In case there are still people
not fooled yet. Don't get me wrong, I like BTC. But this speculation driven
value investment is not the right way.

~~~
ThomPete
Replace bitcoin in what you just said with internet, VOIP, airplanes, ipod and
you got a pretty solid template for historic underestimations of technology in
the long run.

~~~
danbruc
All the things you mention have value. But what is the value of using Bitcoins
for the average person? Where are Bitcoins so obviously better than a credit
card that switching is a good decision?

~~~
ghshephard
Bitcoin is awesome for anybody who needs to send money to family back home.
And there are a _lot_ of people who do that - and it's very expensive.

~~~
idiotclock
I think this is a great observation. Middle men make big money off of migrant
workers.

