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Why Ethereum Is Outpacing Bitcoin (venturebeat.com)
Even as Bitcoin hits its all-time high, people's interest in other cryptocurrencies hasn't waned, especially Ethereum. But what makes Ethereum popular among some? From an article on VentureBeat: Despite its recent appreciation in value, as a technology, Bitcoin has stagnated over the last three years. Two rival factions have emerged with violently opposing views on what should be done to allow the Bitcoin network to handle more transactions than it can right now. While Bitcoin has been paralysed by indecision, Ethereum has raced ahead with technology that not only does everything Bitcoin can do faster, in higher volume, and at lower cost -- it does a lot more besides. [...] Bitcoin is really only useful as a store of value. Even then, its usefulness for actually transacting value is limited. In a world where people are used to online payments being confirmed instantly, Bitcoin transactions can take anywhere from tens of minutes to several hours, depending on how busy the network is. It's also expensive -- especially if you're only sending small amounts. The average transaction currently costs about $1.50. Ethereum, on the other hand, was never intended as a Bitcoin competitor. Ethereum is actually a platform for new kinds of decentralized (often financial) applications (dApps) that run on a peer-to-peer network of computers. These dApps are designed to disintermediate the kinds of relationships and transactions for which we have traditionally required things like banks, public registries, and the legal system. For technologists, this is exciting stuff, and a vibrant community of software developers has enthusiastically embraced it. Hundreds of projects, startups, and companies at every scale -- including the likes of Intel, Microsoft, and Samsung -- are building software using Ethereum.
Seriously, please stop the virtual currency spam.
Yes, I get it: 1% of /.ers had high end gaming rigs back when Bitcoin first started, so some old /.ers are Bitcoin Millionaires and want to dump their coins. But the other 99% of us aren't Bitcoin Millionaires, and we're getting really tired of this shit on the frontpage all the time.
#FuckThe21stCenturyTulipFarmers
Can we stop reposting press releases verbatim? VentureBeat has been a shill site since its inception.
Despite its recent appreciation in value, as a technology,
Bitcoin has stagnated over the last three years.
- 3 years ago I think the price was about 640USD or so, today it's about 2640USD.
Bitcoin is really only useful as a store of value.
- value of what? Bitcoin cannot keep value, it can move by 20% up or down in a single day.
Even then, its usefulness for actually transacting value is limited.
- all speculative crypto-currencies are of limited value of transacting, as they appreciate they become more expensive to deal with and nobody actually wants them, people want to get some money that is more stable (even though AFAIC USD is inherently flawed and failing as money, it is still more stable in intraday trading so far, it doesn't jump up and down by 20% in a day)
Ethereum, on the other hand, was never intended as a Bitcoin competitor.
- of-course not. All crypto-currencies that are not backed by anything exist for the reason of creating inflation in the crypto-currency world (expansion of the money supply), the only real difference is who gets their hands on the newly created coins first. So people who are interested in mining Bitcoins but are too late in that game come up with a different currency of their own, then this repeats. Bitcoin itself may be limited in total number of coins that can be created but the supply of crypto-currencies in general is absolutely limitless. A new one can be started every day (or more often than that).
Hundreds of projects, startups, and companies at every scale -- including the likes of Intel, Microsoft, and Samsung -- are building software using Ethereum.
- until they all jump ship to another one.
You can't handle the truth.
Never change, slashdot. Never change.
Disclosure: I am a contractor at the Ethereum Foundation. We have no marketing department and almost everyone there are researchers and developers.
Ethereum is simply growing. Who cares if it is outpacing Bitcoin? Bitcoin might be as big as it needs to be, and if not, more people will adopt it. Forget all of the hype, price discussions, its position vs. bitcoin or other technology. Just check out what it can do for you, either as a technologist or just someone using technology.
Basically, Ethereum offers a vast, shared memory and computation space, secured by cryptography and economics, and this enables smart contracts to run without interference or modification. There are clients enabling users to interact with Ethereum smart contracts, either on their phone or on their desktop. That is all functioning now, and busily powering and even funding dozens of startups.
Under active development by Foundation devs and the community are some new pieces: sharding, faster and cheaper transactions with state channels, off-blockchain file/data storage, real-time signaling, and a decentralized name service.