Hey guys, this is going to be kind of a rambling post but I had a few points I wanted to get out there and wanted to see your thoughts on them as well.
- It's not fair Bitcoin Forks maintain a high marketcap and they really don't deserve it.
I think many of these Bitcoin forks don't really have any promise, and don't do anything unique, yet they maintain a marketcap higher than other altcoins which actually have a valid use, which have a strong and active community and development team, it just doesn't seem right. I think just because they have the word "bitcoin" in their name they get more attention and more buyers. Also because there's a lot of controversy and speculation surrounding them whether people believe in them or like them or not people are going to trade them on the volatility because volatility means money so these coins artificially have their prices inflated and very high marketcaps.
- Bitcoin Forks do steal value from Bitcoin...but maybe not in the way that we think.
I'm a bit torn on this point but I think Bitcoin forks steal value from Bitcoin, but not in the sense that people believe they are the true bitcoin and split the community so much as that they take money people would otherwise spend on Bitcoin and divert it into other altcoins with the Bitcoin name. Now the reason I'm torn about whether this is really true is because at the end of the day if my thesis is correct these people are trading to make money and not holding because they believe in the forked coins so I suppose at the end of the day these people have to jump back into Bitcoin to cash out and the marketcap comes back to Bitcoin that way.
- Bitcoin Forks hurt the Bitcoin brand.
I recently got my father into Bitcoin and he bought his first Bitcoin. It's hard enough getting noobs to wrap their head around a "digital currency" or "internet money". It's confusing enough teaching them how to send and receive coins and about private keys. Then as soon as we do bring them on board they are freaking out every month about a new upcomming fork and how do they need to prepare and what do they need to do??? I most people like passive investments ie the popularity of Index Funds. While I agree that people can just let their Bitcoin sit and forget about it and even if they dont come back for a year they'll still have their Bitcoins and access to any forks as long as they control their keys, I still think it just puts a lot of confusion and uncertainty into the space and hurts the brand and hurts the ability to bring on new adopters.
That's my soap box, curious to hear your thoughts on these points.
To be honest I don't care. Bitcoin is Bitcoin. As long as I can access the Trash and sell it on the open market so be it. I feel the same way about Bitcoin Forks as I do about 90% of ICO's and crap like Bitconnect and all these other things coming out. To each their own. The Free Market will work itself out.
Do you think it hurts the Bitcoin brand so to speak or confuses new users or do you think its not really that big an issue. I agree with you I think Bitcoin is Bitcoin and anything new With Bitcoin Cash I knew it would jsut be an altcoin, I knew Bitcoin Gold would be garbage. While I do think Bitcoin will win out over Segwit 2, I may wind up holding off on doing anything for a while just to be cautious. On the off chance Segwit2X takes the majority of the value and what we currently know as BTC say for example drops to $1,000, I would hate to have sold off at peanuts and lose a lot of money. I think thats very improbably but I'm willing to sacrafice a bit of money I could make flipping segwit early just to be safe that whichever way it goes I'm still in so to speak.
The crypto market is in triple retard mode right now. I agree with you that these forks aren't really adding value.
And then it is almost like you have to just go with it and figure that everyone is just going to be jumping in because a new useless fork is coming out. I agree it just confuses people as well. Here is the picture I did last week of what CoinMarketCap will look like in a year. IT was hilarious because I put in Bitcoin Silver in there and then a few days later some group came out and were naming their stupid fork that.
Very true. I kind of get worried because I feel cryptocurrencies can easily be exploited in this way. They are still in their infancy but it is hard to trust something when forks keep coming along to "fix" some current problem. It really makes you think how easily all of this can just crash because there are a lot of vulnerabilities.
It's kinda weird how you can come out with any fork you want and put the Bitcoin brand next to it. I could come out with Bitcoin Platinum or Super Bitcoin and it all sounds like it belongs to Bitcoin but doesn't. Ever since I heard about Bitcoin Gold and Segwit2x I started feeling like something bad can really happen in the future regarding the value of Bitcoin if this keeps up.
Hey Man I agree I hope they can limit the amount of forks in the future as to me it makes it seem as they can just create more coins by hardforking.