Introduction
Recently there has been a lot of talk about something which people call the "flippening" where people think that Ethereum could end up being worth more than Bitcoin.
This has been prompted at least in part by all the issues with full blocks, rising transaction fees and the growing civil war within the Bitcoin community over the block size issue.
However ethereum has been having it's own scaling issues - anyone who has participated in any of the recent ICOs, or has tried to make any kind of transactions at the same time will have experienced that.
I don't know if a price "flippening" for Bitcoin and Ethereum will happen for sure (personally I find it unlikely). From a functional standpoint ethereum is quite different from bitcoin.
It is much more of a straight currency (when it works as intended) and there is something to be said for simplicity.
I think it is therefore unlikely that ethereum will actually replace bitcoin even if they swap places in terms of valuation.
Given time, I think the main competitor to Bitcoin is Litecoin and this is at least partly due to how similar the two coins are.
(NB. I'm not saying it will - I just think it is a possibility to consider.)
Why Might it Happen?
There are a few reasons people may believe this to be a possibility :
The Litecoin community is not constantly at war.
Litecoin does not have any scaling issues at present.
Thanks to point 1 it has already upgraded to Segregated Witness and so should be protected against scaling issues for the foreseeable future.
The ability of the LTC community to agree on Segwit also sets a precedent that should bode well for future upgrades - it was not controversial.
Litecoin has block times of 2.5 minutes - four times faster than Bitcoin - that actually makes a huge difference in terms of practical utility.
Charlie Lee (the creator of Litecoin) recently left Coinbase to dedicate his full time to Litecoin.
Litecoin is a useful testing ground for new Bitcoin technology - it is not too much of a stretch for frustrated developers to just shift their focus to LTC if they get tired of the current issues.
Will LTC replace BTC?
Whilst Litecoin has the best chance of doing this I personally do not feel anything will replace Bitcoin.
Don't get me wrong.
Using bitcoin right now is a painful experience particularly when you compare it to newer currencies like Steem, but even compared to Litecoin it is torture.
It is expensive and incredibly slow. If you get the transaction fee wrong then you could end up waiting for days for your transaction to clear - assuming it ever does.
We also have the looming UASF (User Activated Soft Fork) upcoming on August the 1st 2017. This is increasing polarisation within the community and there is fear of what exactly will happen.
Some parts of the community are supporting it, others are vehemently opposing it. There are also alternative options being pushed by mining cartels and other vested interests.
It is natural for people to be uncertain in these circumstances.
Whilst these issues are troubling I think they will be overcome.
I think that once the first scaling agreement/consensus is reached further upgrades and improvements will be easier to accomplish.
Like many things in life the first time can be the most difficult and fear provoking.
Conclusion
In my personal opinion Litecoin will continue to grow but it will not supplant or replace bitcoin.
I may be completely wrong though and I would love to hear other opinions.
In view of this (and since we don't have Steempolls yet) I have created a Twitter poll here:
https://twitter.com/Soul_Eater_43/status/877914860536725504
- Soul_Eater_43
Please vote on it and also let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Thank you for reading
