CoinMarketCap can find more than two thousand cryptocurrencies on the popular cryptocurrency browser website and new projects appear almost every day. Such diversity is explained by the fact that in the future every country, company, application and almost every person will have their own cryptocurrency.
But there is an opposite point of view, according to which all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin are only temporary. And now we are not talking about some little-known coins, but about top Altcoins, for example Ethereum, Litecoin or Ripple.
In the opinion of Bitcoin-maximalists, all Altcoins are rubbish, which exists only for speculation on their price. One of these bitcoin maximalists is the well-known trader Tony Weiss, who has repeatedly said that all alternative cryptocurrencies are nothing more than an attempt to print and sell their money to someone.
Therefore, today we decided to find out. Is bitcoin really better than all other cryptocurrencies? And can it be that no other cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin is simply needed?
Real money
Gold and
Bitcoin Bitcoin was created as a payment system for the circulation of electronic cash. The legendary and unknown Satoshi Nakamoto planned to free people from the financial oppression of states and the banking system and to offer the world to abandon fiat notes in favor of real money.
What is real money? This is primarily an asset with a fully understandable and transparent emission, such as that of Bitcoin. The rules for creating new coins are written in the code and cannot be changed. The maximum number of bitcoins and the time of appearance of each of them is known in advance and it is impossible to influence this process.
The second quality of real money is the possibility of their use around the world and at the same time it will keep the same value. So universal asset today is gold. But the precious metal itself is not the most convenient option for storage and settlement, and this problem has already been tried to be solved with the help of fiat money. Once they were actually certificates of ownership of real gold, but first the states monopolized gold in their banks, and then untied the money from the precious metal, thereby turning it into printed paper. As you can see, physical gold did not pay off, but it can be replaced with digital gold, which is Bitcoin.
And the third quality of real money is decentralization, which really only Bitcoin has. There are other cryptocurrencies on the market, which are also not managed by private companies, do not have a single point of failure, and where each user can choose the complete node and ensure network operation. But this is not enough for true decentralization.
We do not know whether Satoshi Nakamoto planned to leave his project or he did it because of coincidence, but his departure brought benefits to Bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto's anonymity gives Bitcoin an advantage over the same lightcoin or ethereum. We can recall the case when the fake news of death in a car crash by Vitalik Buterin significantly dropped the price of the cryptocurrency Ethereum.
Or think about how indignant the lightcoin community was when Charlie Lee announced the sale of all his coins. Thus, he tried to get closer to Satoshi Nakamoto, to give his project even more independence. But as long as a cryptocurrency has a leader, it is the point of failure that can significantly affect its future.
Other cryptocurrencies are evil
Cryptographic speculations
Well, suppose Bitcoin is the best cryptocurrency, but does this mean that there should be no other coins? Agree that there is no special logic in this, for example, besides gold there is also silver. And the same lightcoin, does not position itself as a replacement for Bitcoin, but is willing to be content with the modest role of digital silver. This is not hardfork, like Bitcoin Cash, which separated from the bitcoin blockchain and called itself real. Why do Bitcoin maximalists not even want to take lightcoin?
The thing is that all Bitcoin forks are only officially trying to improve its technology by adding anonymity, increasing transaction processing speed, reducing commissions and so on. All intentions are good, but as Tony Weiss says, they simply print their money.
See for yourself. It is enough for one person to release a new cryptocurrency, as ten more will want to do the same. It's so easy, you run the program and the tokens it generates start to grow in price and can be exchanged for Fiat. And this is no different than paper money, and maybe even worse. Because states even exist and by this fact they provide some kind of security for their fiat currency. But the Altcoins were simply created out of thin air and then received a price, since there are many easy money lovers on the market and they use all these tokens for speculative trading. And if you dig a little deeper, then at least 90% of all cryptocurrencies appeared only because their developers needed to raise money into their own payroll, these tokens do not perform any other useful function.
Sidechains can all
Smart contract
One more question remains, namely, now there are a lot of cryptocurrencies that are faster, cheaper, more anonymous and easier to work than Bitcoin. And what about Ethereum and other platforms that support smart contracts, do you really need to give up all this, just because Bitcoin maximalists do not like altcoins?
Absolutely not! The fact is that there is no need to abandon smart contracts, anonymous transactions, instant payments and other nice buns. All these functions can and should be implemented in Bitcoin, because its basic blockchain is only a foundation on which you can build anything.
See what's up. What is needed for the operation of any smart contract, decentralized application or a whole blockchain platform? No, cool mining algorithms, huge scalability and unique functions are all the wrong answer. First of all, you need a stable financial support for the project, the so-called initial capital. Which you can effortlessly freeze in the Bitcoin blockchain, and add all the necessary and cool features via the sidechain, that is, the add-on above the blockchain, and you can implement anything in this auxiliary layer.
Right now, Sidestream Liquid from Blockstream, with which you can release your own tokens and ensure their value is not promises, but real money in the form of Bitcoin. And for those who want instant payments, welcome to the Lightning Network. And according to this analogy, a system of any complexity can be implemented on the basis of Bitcoin, while the basic protocol of the first cryptocurrency continues to be improved.
To summarize
What do we have in the end? However, the advocates of Altcoins would not defend their favorite cryptocurrencies, but only Bitcoin has the right to be called a true decentralized repository of value. Moreover, only the first cryptocurrency has gone the way of becoming from an idea for a narrow circle of people to a currency that people recognize around the world. At that time, the rest of the projects simply entered this market and immediately received a certain price in dollars, taking advantage of speculative market sentiments and the achievements that Bitcoin had already made.
At the same time, all attacks on Bitcoin for its poor scalability or high commissions are nothing more than an attempt to put their own projects in the best light. You do not criticize gold for the fact that it is rarely found in nature, otherwise it would not be gold. This rule also applies to Bitcoin, besides its characteristics can be improved and constant work is being done in this direction. And all the fashionable features, such as instant transactions, anonymous addresses and smart contracts of varying complexity, can all be implemented on the basis of Bitcoin without the need to create other cryptocurrencies.