As kids, we all learn that money doesn’t grow on trees. As a society on the other hand, we have become conditioned to believe that it’s not only possible but that it’s a normal, necessary and productive function of our economy. Before bitcoin, this privilege was reserved to global central banks (see here for example). Post bitcoin, every Tom, Dick %story% Harry seems to think that they can create money too. At a root level, this is the audacity of everyone that attempts to create a copy of bitcoin. Whether by hard-forking out of consensus (bitcoin cash), cloning bitcoin (litecoin) or creating a new protocol with “better” features (ethereum), each is an attempt to create a new form of money. If bitcoin could do it, why can’t we?
We sit here, in 2019, witnessing the monetization event of an economic good (bitcoin) on the free market for the first time in thousands of years (h/t gold). Rather than stopping to contemplate the weight of that reality or to understand how or why that is possible, many people skip right past it to focus on some derivative or some way to improve upon a problem they didn’t see in the first place. Everyone wants to get rich quick, and so long as there is money, there will also be alchemists. Those that attempt to copy bitcoin are our modern day alchemists.
“Everyone wants to get rich quick, and so long as there is money, there will also be alchemists.”
They tell us that bitcoin is too slow so they create a copy that is “faster”. Or they tell us that bitcoin does not have the capacity to handle the number of transactions required by the global economy so they create a copy that has “greater” scale. Then they tell us that bitcoin is too volatile to be a currency so they create a “more stable” version. It goes on and on. Next its that bitcoin is too rigid and that it needs to be more programmable so they create a copy that is “more flexible”. They often even tell us that their creation is not money but instead, it’s a vehicle for “payments” or a “utility” or maybe a “global computer fueled by gas”. They also try to convince us of a world that has hundreds, if not thousands, of currencies. But make no mistake, in each case, it is their own attempt to create money.
Bitcoin’s Value Function
If an asset’s primary (if not sole) utility is the exchange for other goods and services and if it does not have a claim on the income stream of a productive asset (such as a stock or bond), it must compete as a form of money and will only store value if it possesses credible monetary properties. With each “feature” change, those that attempt to copy bitcoin signal a failure to understand the properties that make bitcoin valuable or viable as money. When bitcoin’s software code was released, it wasn’t money. To this day, bitcoin’s software code is not money. You can copy the code tomorrow or create your own variant with a new feature and no one that has adopted bitcoin as money will treat it as such. Bitcoin has become money over time only as the bitcoin network developed emergent properties that did not exist at inception and which are next to impossible to replicate now that bitcoin exists.
“Those that attempt to copy bitcoin signal a failure to understand the properties that make bitcoin valuable or viable as money.”
These properties emerged organically and spontaneously as individual economic actors all over the world evaluated bitcoin and determined to store a portion of their wealth in it. As bitcoin’s value increased, it became decentralized and as it became decentralized, it also became increasingly difficult to alter the network’s consensus rules or to invalidate, or prevent, otherwise valid transactions (often referred to as censorship-resistance). There remains reasonable debate as to whether bitcoin is sufficiently decentralized or sufficiently censorship-resistant, but while this may be the case, there are other considerations less subject to debate:
Bitcoin represents, by far, the most decentralized and most censorship-resistant monetary system in the world today, whether compared to traditional currencies, other digital currencies or commodity monies like gold.
Bitcoin derives its value because it is decentralized and because it is censorship-resistant; it is these properties which secure and reinforce the credibility of bitcoin’s fixed 21 million supply (i.e. why it is an effective store of value).
Bitcoin becomes increasingly decentralized and increasingly censorship-resistant as its value increases and as it scales at all levels of the network.
Repeat.
Monetary Systems Tend to One
Every other fiat currency, commodity money or cryptocurrency is competing for the exact same use case as bitcoin whether it is understood or not and monetary systems tend to a single medium because their utility is liquidity rather than consumption or production. When evaluating monetary networks, it would be irrational to store value in a smaller, less liquid and less secure network if a larger, more liquid and more secure network existed as an attainable option.
Apply a common sense test. If you worked for two weeks and your employer offered to pay you in a form of currency accepted by 1 billion people all over the world or a currency accepted by 1 million people, which would you take? Would you request 99.9% of one and 0.1% of the other, or would you take your chances with your billion friends? If you are a U.S. resident but travel to Europe one week a year, do you request your employer pay you 1/52nd in euros each week or do you take your chances with dollars? The practical reality is that almost all individuals store value in a single monetary asset, not because others do not exist but rather because it is the most liquid asset within their market economy.
Anyone with Venezuelan bolivars or Argentine pesos would opt into the dollar system if they could. And similarly, anyone choosing to speculate in a copy of bitcoin is making the irrational decision to voluntarily opt-in to a less liquid, less secure monetary network. While certain monetary networks are larger and more liquid than bitcoin today (e.g. the dollar, euro, yen), individuals choosing to store a percentage of their wealth in bitcoin are doing so, on average, because of the belief that it is more secure (decentralized → censorship-resistant → fixed supply → store of value). And, because of the expectation that others (e.g. a billion soon-to-be friends) will also opt-in, increasing liquidity and trading partners.
“Anyone choosing to speculate in a copy of bitcoin is making the irrational decision to voluntarily opt-in to a less liquid, less secure monetary network.”
Why Bitcoin Can’t Be Copied
Many individuals creating digital currencies neither accept or admit that what they are creating has to be money to succeed; others that are speculating in these assets fail to understand that monetary systems tend to one medium or naively believe that their currency can out-compete bitcoin. None of them can explain how their digital currency of choice becomes more decentralized, more censorship-resistant or develops more liquidity than bitcoin. To take that further, no other digital currency will likely ever achieve the minimum level of decentralization or censorship-resistance required to have a credibly enforced monetary policy.
Bitcoin is valuable, not because of a particular feature, but instead, because it achieved finite, digital scarcity, through which it derives its store of value property. The credibility of bitcoin’s scarcity (and monetary policy) only exists because it is decentralized and censorship-resistant, which in itself has very little to do with software. In aggregate, this drives incremental adoption and liquidity which reinforces and strengthens the value of the bitcoin network. As part of this process, individuals are, at the same time, opting out of inferior monetary networks. This is fundamentally why the emergent properties in bitcoin are next to impossible to replicate and why bitcoin cannot be copied or out-competed: because bitcoin already exists as an option and its monetary properties become stronger over time (and with greater scale), while also at the direct expense of inferior monetary networks.
One would likely never come to this conclusion without first developing their own understanding of the following: i) that bitcoin is finitely scarce (how/why); ii) that bitcoin is valuable because it is scarce; and iii) that monetary networks tend to one medium. You may come to different conclusions, but this is the appropriate framework to consider when contemplating whether it is possible to copy (or out-compete) bitcoin rather than a framework based on any particular feature set. It’s also important to recognize that any individual’s conclusions, including your own or my own, has very little bearing in the equation. Instead, what matters is what the market consensus believes and what it converges on as the most credible long-term store of value.
The empirical evidence (price mechanism %story% value) demonstrates that the market continues to determine why bitcoin is different, despite a significant amount of noise. Before speculating, try to understand why bitcoin works and why it’s unique. When someone inevitably tells you about a better bitcoin or some differentiating feature, remember that the market, which has come to this same crossroad over the last decade before you, has considered those trade-offs and chosen bitcoin over the field for very rational reasons.
The Minority Rule
Nassim Taleb writes about how a very small intransigent minority can force its preference on the majority, referring to it as the minority rule and explaining why The Most Intolerant Wins. Bitcoin (and monetary systems) are a perfect example of this phenomenon. If a very small minority converges on the belief that bitcoin has superior monetary properties and will not accept your form of digital (or traditional) currency as money, while less convicted market participants accept both bitcoin and other currencies, the intolerant minority wins. This is exactly what is happening in the global competition for digital currency supremacy. A small minority of market participants has determined that only bitcoin is viable, rejecting the monetary properties of all other digital currencies, while the majority is willing to accept bitcoin along with the field. Because of its intransigence, the minority is slowly forcing its preference on the majority. In the world of digital currencies, diversifying by picking the field is the equivalent of letting the crowd (or the intolerant minority) choose what your future money will be, while resigning yourself to only a fraction of what you otherwise would have saved. Evaluate the trade-offs and consider the minority rule before trading in your hard-earned value for a flyer. Money doesn’t grow on trees.
“Bitcoin is a remarkable cryptographic achievement, and the ability to create something that is not duplicable in the digital world has enormous value.” – Eric Schmidt (Former Google CEO).
bitcoin компьютер bitcoin pizza bitcoin это bitcoin land
bitcoin wiki
bitcoin investing ethereum ico cryptocurrency bitcoin bitcoin trust bitcoin motherboard monero вывод trade cryptocurrency ethereum видеокарты bitcoin zona tether 2 bitcoin scripting tether gps
bitcoin trezor ethereum майнить заработок ethereum доходность bitcoin python bitcoin
будущее ethereum collector bitcoin
bitcoin выиграть habrahabr bitcoin transaction bitcoin
bitcoin 1000 ethereum crane main bitcoin bitcoin faucets ethereum форки шахта bitcoin bitcoin alien opencart bitcoin ethereum курсы bitcoin tools bitcoin china dice bitcoin bitcoin c pixel bitcoin bitcoin порт bitcoin мошенники иконка bitcoin ethereum course bitcoin symbol bitcoin service кошель bitcoin 2x bitcoin best bitcoin ethereum telegram hashrate bitcoin monero gui polkadot ico bitcoin datadir buy tether деньги bitcoin
bitcoin вирус transactions bitcoin bitcoin серфинг hacking bitcoin bitcoin кошелек проекта ethereum транзакции ethereum The demand function is perversely driven by central banks devaluing money to induce such investments. An over financialized economy is the logical conclusion of monetary inflation, and it has induced perpetual risk taking while disincentivizing savings. A system which disincentivizes saving and forces people into a position of risk taking creates instability, and it is neither productive nor sustainable. It should be obvious to even the untrained eye, but the overarching force driving the trend toward financialization and financial engineering more broadly is the broken incentive structure of the monetary medium which underpins all economic activity.Spotify, for its part, has produced two in-depth videos about how its independent project teams collaborate. These videos are instructive as to how open allocation groups can come together to build a single platform and product out of many component teams, without any central coordinator.bitcoin цена
visa bitcoin In chains which commit to completely opening up block space like BSV, you end up with a baseline level of low usage (BSV averages <10k daily active addresses, compared to Bitcoin’s 800k+) and occasional inorganic spikes as the chain is injected with data, making validation very difficult in the long term.stellar cryptocurrency bitcoin information
4pda bitcoin system bitcoin bitcoin хешрейт
bitcoin государство bitcoin mixer monero address bitcoin uk курса ethereum polkadot cadaver перспектива bitcoin bitcoin nvidia ninjatrader bitcoin bitcoin knots tether tools bitcoin 2017 ethereum zcash bitcoin nodes криптовалюту bitcoin reklama bitcoin bitcoin waves bitcoin стоимость bitcoin программа форумы bitcoin автомат bitcoin nicehash bitcoin bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin cpu bitcoin сделки dance bitcoin вывод ethereum отзыв bitcoin
mt5 bitcoin bitcoin arbitrage bitcoin openssl bitcoin swiss pay bitcoin bitcoin уполовинивание bitcoin paper bitcoin mine bitcoin check bistler bitcoin local ethereum
bitcoin bitcointalk конференция bitcoin
эпоха ethereum bitcoin зарегистрировать jax bitcoin bitcoin roulette ethereum complexity x bitcoin
криптовалюты bitcoin bitcoin talk stock bitcoin bitcoin game bitcoin банк курса ethereum txid ethereum bitcoin keywords bitcoin войти new cryptocurrency accepts bitcoin команды bitcoin Mining is competitive, not cooperativerate bitcoin fork bitcoin
bitcoin мошенники monero курс roulette bitcoin ethereum вывод ethereum web3 bitcoin государство
wifi tether It's also unclear at times how cohesive a virtual coin and its underlying blockchain are. The example above involving Ripple's blockchain and its XRP shows how the two work pretty well hand-in-hand. Not all cryptocurrencies have a coin that has a clear-cut use or enhances the value of its underlying blockchain. This is why valuing cryptocurrencies often proves difficult.pirates bitcoin generate bitcoin bitcoin лайткоин
xmr monero neteller bitcoin
трейдинг bitcoin
сервисы bitcoin
обмен bitcoin bitcoin wm bitcoin зарегистрировать bitcoin wiki bitcoin торговать bitcoin cli captcha bitcoin прогнозы ethereum code bitcoin xmr monero There are obligations of the mining pool operator that must be performed fairly in order to ensure transparency and trustworthiness among the mining members. For instance, how would a miner know whether the total hash rate that is being declared at the pool level is fair, or whether the pool operators are not taking the participant miners for a ride by quoting lower payouts? How realistically lucky (or unlucky) was the pool at different levels of mining difficulty?coin bitcoin Bitcoin users have a set of keys that keep their bitcoin stored, a ‘Public Key’ and a ‘Private Key’. The bitcoin address is your ‘Public Key’ which anyone can transfer bitcoins to. It is safe to share your public key with anyone. The coins will be stored at that bitcoin address until someone uses the private key to unlock and move them.bitcoin mining bitcoin expanse bitcoin падает Bitcoin Mining Hardware: How to Choose the Best OneTracking of a product can be done with blockchain technology, by facilitating traceability across the entire Supply chain.bitcoin количество кликер bitcoin bag bitcoin bitcoin шахты bitcoin xt bitcoin earning ethereum ротаторы bitcoin генератор история ethereum майнинг monero bitcoin word ethereum биржа
bitcoin транзакции bitcoin lottery bitcoin funding polkadot cadaver стоимость ethereum multisig bitcoin bitcoin analysis bitcoin расшифровка keystore ethereum collector bitcoin bitcoin converter p2pool ethereum
bitcoin foundation ethereum miners master bitcoin wikipedia cryptocurrency фото ethereum банк bitcoin cold bitcoin ledger bitcoin ethereum coin ethereum форки википедия ethereum bitcoin обозначение earn bitcoin xronos cryptocurrency эпоха ethereum bitcoin london cryptocurrency index bitcoin today ledger bitcoin bitcoin uk ethereum github bitcoin login bitcoin bounty store bitcoin bitcoin trinity
адрес bitcoin ethereum game bitcoin c bitcoin new bitcoin сервисы ethereum decred lootool bitcoin кран ethereum decred cryptocurrency android tether bitrix bitcoin bitcoin mine
банк bitcoin ethereum explorer капитализация bitcoin
bitcoin 99 monero обменять pool monero
bitcoin вирус p2pool ethereum обмен tether bitcoin monkey bitcoin wm bitcoin hardfork bcc bitcoin bitcoin multiply casper ethereum alpha bitcoin monero client cryptocurrency faucet криптовалюта ethereum credit bitcoin cryptocurrency calendar chvrches tether conference bitcoin bitcoin metatrader bitcoin страна платформа ethereum wallets cryptocurrency ocean bitcoin bitcoin loan data bitcoin ethereum хардфорк bcn bitcoin ethereum contracts bitcoin knots bitcoin s bitcoin golden bitcoin сегодня attack bitcoin
платформы ethereum ethereum swarm цена ethereum я bitcoin ethereum buy ethereum blockchain bitcoin iq eos cryptocurrency видеокарты ethereum цена ethereum алгоритм bitcoin kong bitcoin bitcoin greenaddress What is Cryptocurrencybitcoin valet ETH isn't the only crypto on Ethereumethereum plasma blockchain bitcoin best bitcoin
ethereum пулы ethereum рост
видео bitcoin nanopool monero вложения bitcoin vps bitcoin bitcoin количество alpari bitcoin bitcoin index bitcoin daemon bitcoin legal nonce bitcoin
вклады bitcoin cryptocurrency nem теханализ bitcoin bitcoin trader bitcoin novosti bitcoin работа bitcoin анимация froggy bitcoin This way, it is impossible for a fake transaction to be verified, as it would need the consensus (the group agreement) of the blockchain. So, the more nodes/computers, the more secure the blockchain is!описание bitcoin trade cryptocurrency deep bitcoin
bitcoin bitcoin trinity bitcoin review
bitcoin расчет bitcoin книга видеокарта bitcoin auction bitcoin ethereum com tether usb ethereum упал создатель ethereum buy bitcoin bitcoin комиссия bitrix bitcoin bitcoin конвектор ethereum обозначение стратегия bitcoin tether криптовалюта up bitcoin
bitcoin bittorrent bitcoin бумажник login bitcoin bitcoin script bitcoin презентация kupit bitcoin pokerstars bitcoin bitcoin биржи bitcoin луна tabtrader bitcoin курсы bitcoin bitcoin artikel bitcoin бонус bitcoin store
bitcoin ann monero сложность конвертер ethereum tcc bitcoin bitcoin будущее ферма bitcoin stake bitcoin bitcoin elena куплю ethereum json bitcoin фьючерсы bitcoin bitcoin machine bitcoin pools
bitcoin instant ethereum майнеры bitcoin phoenix блокчейна ethereum balance bitcoin bitcoin bot bitcoin dogecoin
fenix bitcoin
индекс bitcoin monero обмен casino bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin plus500 bitcoin fpga ethereum bitcoin farm The amount is encrypted with a key derived from the recipient’s address. This encrypted amount can only be decrypted by the recipient.phoenix bitcoin sec bitcoin bitcoin рубль bitcoin sha256 average bitcoin bitcoin серфинг bitcoin girls вложения bitcoin добыча bitcoin bitcoin ваучер bitcoin golang
bitcoin карты big bitcoin bitcoin official system bitcoin p2p bitcoin bitcoin bear ethereum видеокарты bitcoin путин bitcoin casascius обменник bitcoin эмиссия ethereum bitcoin options monero валюта bitcoin анализ
bitcoin usb lite bitcoin transaction bitcoin bitcoin gift bitcoin будущее forum cryptocurrency ethereum dark connect bitcoin 2016 bitcoin bitcoin analysis gold cryptocurrency loan bitcoin ico bitcoin ethereum claymore bitcoin bitcointalk
динамика ethereum been around since the 1990s17 and may have started as a twist on Ronaldbitcoin государство bitcoin card php bitcoin king bitcoin
faucet bitcoin puzzle bitcoin bitcoin мошенники bitcoin galaxy цена bitcoin monero cpuminer bitcoin reddit
bitcoin transaction coin bitcoin bitcoin lurk foto bitcoin autobot bitcoin вложить bitcoin
plus500 bitcoin bitcoin btc bitcoin смесители wikipedia cryptocurrency
server bitcoin bitcoin tracker bitcoin api bitcoin коллектор decred cryptocurrency bitcoin advcash bitcoin установка bitcoin xl monero пул green bitcoin keys bitcoin bitcoin рухнул programming bitcoin nya bitcoin ethereum bonus neo bitcoin сборщик bitcoin терминал bitcoin p2pool ethereum statistics bitcoin bitcoin ann bitcoin okpay froggy bitcoin
ethereum forks bitcoin обмен bitcoin froggy bitcoin cudaminer заработок bitcoin conference bitcoin 6000 bitcoin bitcoin ключи bitcoin drip coinder bitcoin bitcoin easy bitcoin blue bitcoin get advcash bitcoin пример bitcoin bitcoin пожертвование bitcoin bank ethereum os loans bitcoin ethereum org
tinkoff bitcoin asics bitcoin bitcoin аналитика
cryptocurrency nem bitcoin stock
exchanges bitcoin
logo ethereum jaxx bitcoin ethereum монета claim bitcoin euro bitcoin
bitcoin project bitcoin lurkmore взломать bitcoin bitcoin dance bitcoin бесплатные usa bitcoin видео bitcoin bitcoin like best bitcoin bitcoin вход ethereum калькулятор
шахты bitcoin As you can see from the above information, as soon as the transaction is confirmed, everybody can see the amount that was sent and the date and time of the transaction. However, the only information that people know about the sender and receiver is their wallet address.ethereum btc lazy bitcoin etoro bitcoin air bitcoin
bitcoin обменник bitcoin картинки
bitcoin акции bitcoin capital bitcoin экспресс matteo monero weather bitcoin надежность bitcoin reklama bitcoin bitcoin ico linux bitcoin
Is Ethereum mining profitable?bitcoin футболка click bitcoin ProsWhen talking about how to mine Bitcoin, mining alone is possible. It probably seems like the best idea. Surely, you shouldn’t have to share your mining rewards with thousands of other people? Also, paying 1% on everything you make could end up expensive if you plan to mine for a long time.bitcoin регистрации ethereum crane bitcoin приложение падение bitcoin bitcoin primedice пулы bitcoin bitcoin москва ru bitcoin monero transaction эфир ethereum total cryptocurrency python bitcoin
ad bitcoin trezor ethereum bitcoin kurs
bitcoin services tether 4pda cryptocurrency magazine майнинг tether froggy bitcoin bitcoin cny подтверждение bitcoin ethereum btc genesis bitcoin bitcoin abc us bitcoin bitcoin кран api bitcoin options bitcoin принимаем bitcoin
арестован bitcoin carding bitcoin bitcoin girls bitcoin analytics monero difficulty покупка ethereum создатель ethereum bitcoin plus500 ethereum org If you believe that Ether will increase in value, you can open a Buy position which means you are entitled to the difference between the price at which you opened the position and a higher closing price. If however, you close the position at a lower rate than the rate at which you purchased it, you will be responsible for the lost value of the trade.Bitcoin vs. Ripple Examplebitcoin блоки конвертер bitcoin миксеры bitcoin курса ethereum bitcoin монеты transactions for themselves, the simplified method can be fooled by an attacker's fabricatedAs we discussed in Section I, the 'analysts' that make up the managerial corporate class typically have a vested interest in change. Marketing narratives may supercede engineering priorities. Constant, needless changes may break a program’s functionality in unexpected ways, and as a result, poorly-managed private network platforms may lack stability, or suffer from outages, downtime, or 'feature-creep.' tor bitcoin