Bitcoin, BitShares and the Hero!
Remember that battle cry! ... It's our first (recent) shot across the Bitcoin bow in the Huffington post.
For those who don't follow links, here's the text below for your convenience.
Many thanks to Michael for getting this published there. It will now be syndicated everywhere.
Please don't change Bitcoin, you'll break it!
The entire digital currency industry is in an uproar over the civil war in Bitcoin. They are apparently going to break it into competing chains: “BTC” and “BCC”. No matter who wins, this will end badly… and it is soooo unnecessary.
It will never succeed in becoming the world’s real-time payment system.
By undermining Bitcoin’s utility as the former in vain pursuit of the latter,
both factions are doing the digital industry a major disservice.
Bitcoin has a lock on its monetary role as a store of value for the same reason that physical gold is seen that way… by global consensus. But neither Bitcoin nor gold fill the other role of money as a medium of exchange. Both are just too hard to move around.
As Dominic Frisby, an astute UK commentator, put it:
“Broadly speaking, money has two main uses. One is as a medium of exchange. The other is as a store of wealth. (You might find other characteristics in an economics textbook, but these are the crucial ones.) Our modern fiat system of money is a quite brilliant medium of exchange."
Thanks to the Internet, you can buy almost anything anywhere in the world and pay the seller instantly. Short of a single global currency that eliminates the need for foreign exchange, it’s hard to see how you can improve on modern money as a medium of exchange. But it’s a rotten store of wealth. Every year it buys you less and less.
Gold has, of course, proved to be a wonderful store of wealth. It lasts pretty much forever. And it buys you as much as it ever did – as much energy, clothing, bread and meat as it did 50, 500 or even 5,000 years ago. It’s why, in this era of negative real interest rates (i.e. rates are negative once you adjust for inflation), more and more people are choosing gold as a means to store their wealth).
Gold has been the standard for store of wealth for millennia. But as a medium of exchange, it’s been found wanting. From about 1700 on, people began to prefer to use paper certificates representing gold – which eventually became bank notes – in the marketplace to gold itself. And the chances of my going to Tesco’s some time in the not-too-distant future and doing my weekly shop with a gold sovereign are, at best, remote.
If you want to move gold around, you hire a slow armored truck and drive it there. If you want to move Bitcoin around, you use the comparably slow Bitcoin network. Patching that network to double its capacity, or even boost it by ten, is the equivalent of putting wings and propellers on an antique roadster. It is simply not going to compete with the airplane as a medium of transportation around the world.
There are better solutions.
(and inevitably more)
competing assets destroys its usefulness
as the undisputed point of reference for everything else.
The Bitcoin industry has already lost huge momentum as we approach the August 1 crisis point. Uncertainty has caused a major pullback affecting all digital currencies. And if there are two Bitcoins after that date, the uncertainty will remain – setting Bitcoin back for a year or more – just like the splitting of Ethereum did. Sure, this modern equivalent of the VHS-Betamax videotape war will eventually shake out a winner, but only after dragging the industry down for another year and slowing adoption for everyone.
And to what end? Both versions will still be unable to scale to the transaction rates needed on a global scale. Ever. And there is a very real possibility of more damaging splits in the future as the Bitcoin Brand keeps undermining its store of value role trying to be the medium of exchange it will never be. BTC and BCC are looking at increases in transactions per second (TPS) to merely a few dozen TPS. Tops. Other top blockchains have been scalable far beyond 100,000 TPS since 2015! Why not upgrade to one of their technologies instead?
Madness.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
We have planes, trains, automobiles, and supertankers for a reason. They are each adapted to, and therefore more competitive in, their own ecological niches. Turning Bitcoin into a medium of exchange for the global economy is like trying to hack a Model T into a starship by adding propellers. It’s not going to happen.
But the world has already put together a rather marvelous global transportation system out of planes, trains and automobiles. Sure, there’s a bit of friction each time we change modes, but overall that mix provides by far the most practical way to travel from doorstep to doorstep on a global scale.
Why aren’t we using the same strategy to meet our digital currency needs?
Madness.
Bitcoin, BitShares and the Hero.
There are many potential technology mixes we could cite here, but we’ll just choose one to make the point: Bitcoin, BitShares and the Hero. Three very different coins that together completely solve the mainstream adoption and scalability problems for the industry. (Ethereum solves other interesting problems but is already saturated at 25 transactions per second and therefore is not a serious contender to handle global demand.)
Bitcoin is your store of value. It belongs in cold wallets just like gold belongs in underground vaults. For real time transactions, you trade bitcoin receipts – fast tokens that can be exchanged for bitcoin. That’s what every exchange does already. Your bitcoin goes into their cold wallet and you trade the exchange’s surrogate ledger entries representing bitcoins until you cash out. That’s how all exchanges achieve acceptable trading performance. If those exchanges facilitated account-to-account transfers you could pay as fast as you can currently trade. Instead, people do up to three hour-long transactions: withdraw, pay, deposit to achieve what they could do in seconds inside the exchange. -- Madness.
BitShares is your real-time counterparty-free exchange. “But paying through the exchanges is not free of counterparty risk”, you may say. True. If you store your bitcoins in your own private wallet, you can (slowly) pay them to some other private wallet without counterparty risk. But who really does this? Most bitcoins used in actual commerce spend most of their time in notoriously risky control of some counterparty exchange waiting to be hacked. BitShares implements a counterparty free exchange called the Bitshares DEX where all the trades and payments occur at the speed of light – under three seconds – with no counterparty in the loop. And it is scalable beyond 100,000 TPS (transactions per second) today and to infinity when it upgrades to EOS technology next year.
The Hero is your medium of exchange. The Hero is a stable smart coin backed by equity in the BitShares platform. During the recent industry collapse, it held its value perfectly while everything else, including BitShares, dropped at alarming rates. You can spend it in real time on the BitShares network, and it is programmed by smart contract to appreciate by 5% annually against the dollar. The Hero is also the subject of a billion dollar promotion aptly called the Billion Hero Campaign to achieve mainstream adoption. So, you have the equivalent of a stable, appreciating certificate of deposit you can spend like cash in under three seconds at full global workload.
These three currencies already work together perfectly today to solve all the problems causing the current BTC Civil War. There is no need to disrupt the whole industry with ineffective patches to Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s unique strength is that it is the venerable, immutable, acknowledged granddaddy of them all – the undisputed reference against which all other currencies are measured. And they are breaking it up!
Madness.
Why would otherwise rational people go mad? Well, Bitcoin miners are vested in their hardware and Bitcoin core developers are vested in their software. Neither will upgrade to the state of the art needed to scale because it would put them both out of business. They are stuck like dinosaurs in the crypto tar pits, fiercely defending their turf, while agile little mammals prepare to inherit the earth.
We all know how THAT ended up.
while mammals adapted and thrived.
Invest wisely.
Stan Larimer, President
Cryptonomex
The Godfather of BitShares and the HERO
Image credits: see embedded links
About the Author -- Stan Larimer
Follow Me On Steemit - The Social Media Platform That Pays
Please Connect To Me On Linkedin!
Greatest Hits
Bitcoin and the Three Laws of Robotics
Engineering Trust with Charles Hoskinson
The Origin of BitShares
The Hero from BitShares Island
Key Links
Here are some of the best links for inquiring about us:
The Original HERO Definition Post - “The Hero from BitShares Island"
https://steemit.com/bitshares/@stan/the-hero-from-bitshares-island-5
The Billion Hero Challenge Announcement
https://steemit.com/hero/@stan/the-billion-hero-challenge
The Avant Garde Magazine Special Issue
http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1313226
The Video
By far the best resource for new people is our “TED Talk” in front of a live studio audience in Hollywood. Everyone loves it for some reason. There is no better way to know all about us in one sitting.
Upvoted, reblogged and promoted!
First class, @stan
i am going to follow you... thanks.
This comment has received a sweet gift of Dank Amps in the flavor of 1.74 % upvote from @lovejuice thanks to: @qasimwaqar. Vote for Aggroed!
Honest
Economics
Reclaiming
Our
Sovereignty
So much YES
Isn't it spelled HEROES? or is my english rly that bad? :D
Yup.... Tomato / Tomatoe the internet is a fun place :-)
Heroes are people and famous dogs.
HEROs are plural for HERO like EUROs are plural for EURO.
My friend as I saw you share a well article plase allow me to translate to chinese in order to spread it more to community,thanks! Upvote me if you like this action!
link here : https://steemit.com/cn/@incrediblesnow/4yuch6
Thank you!
Much appreciated!
Shared on the Twitter machine for you.
--
I do love your posts Mr. L.
I always learn things from them, I am still learning so much every day in this space.
I am sad I do not have enough BTS still LOL
I believe in the people and the project and the bit I have, is my way of staking it to prove it.
Have a nice week and say hi to Dan for me. He gave me a nice vote on a post this week!!!
I told him thanks!
(:
Again, this article is well worth the upvote, resteem and share. Thanks a bunch for the education, as always, as well for the quality and powerful sharing all around. Namaste :)
Bitcoin was design to be like gold. A way to store your wealth. You don't take you gold out of you vault to buy a cup of coffee. That's what bitUSD is for.
That is a very volatile place to store wealth.
True. Not everthing works the way you plain.
Regardless of whether you are right or not, @stan, changes in bitcoin can not be avoided. We have to live with it. But I do not care, maybe BTC come off the stage and will remain a museum exhibit. Crypto will remain. Maybe even a blockchain will succumb to DAGs (as in Byteball or IOTa). Crypto still remains.
you saw this from miles away
Great post Stan.
Bitcoin - Store of Wealth & Bitshares - Medium of exchange
should be the marketing pitck for Bitshares.
If only bitshares had volumes and hence forth less spread it would have been a great DEX. But this is again a chicken and egg problem. These problems would be fixed once we have volumes and we will have more people using it once these issues are fixed. I think the marketing for Bitshares should increase so that it will trigger the adoption and volumes which will fix the spread issues.
@stan what are your thoughts now that Bitcoin is bullish again and has crossed 4300 USD.
Satoshi just came back from the ether and has announced they are HARD FORKING Bitcoin on August 1st, with an immediate 8MB block size, and rejecting Segwit entirely. The split is on!
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@belerophon/the-ante-has-been-raised-bitcoin-cash-announces-aug-1-hard-fork
Bitcoin's design was never meant to be set in stone. Bitcoin can and will become a currency for day to day use from small to large purchases. If bitcoin can't then no other cryptocurrency can as they are all built on a similar concept.
Actually no. Bitcoin is built on the idea of wasting huge amounts of energy in a glacially slow competition to win a lottery every ten minutes. Modern blockchains don't do that and can thus be eight orders of magnitude more cost effective than bitcoin. That's the difference in speed between a Ford Model T and a starship. Most people who try the exhilarating new technology can't stand to go back to driving a Model T. Bitcoin wastes hundreds of millions of dollars this way annually making it a supremely unprofitable company. Bitcoin exists to make miners wealthy and they will never agree to adopt technology that doesn't need them.
I agree mining is expensive but it started with a purpose. Decentralisation of issuance of bitcoin and that was one of the main incentives of adoption. Now it's becoming a hindrance, but it's naive or even deceptive to claim it'll remain this way. Bitcoin will upgrade when there's consensus. For the time being, the market is happy with the state of the network as judging by the bitcoin price. And once Segwit activates it'll be a matter of time for the Lightning network to be implemented, which will enable thousands of transactions per sec. And the innovation won't end there. It'll never end.
Hi Stan,
So, apart from writing and publishing very reasonable articles like this, is there any way to stop the train wreck? :O
😄😇😄
Which train wreck? Bitcoin or the US dollar? :)
No. Each is doomed by its own unwillingness to adapt.
But there are still us wily mammals to contend with.
I think your right, Bitcoin doesn't need to be anything else but a store of value. Let's see how this plays out but could be dicey!
Upvoted and followed. Good job
You may find it usefull:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@cardboard/bitcoin-segwit-activation-schedule-infographic
So Stan, are we really at the mercy of two camps that are willing to thrown an entire Industry into chaos because they won't adapt? So they'd rather we all loose a lot then take a hit themselves to balance things out? is there a way forward if Bitcoin does not get its act together? and how long if crypto ever regains peoples confidence?
Well, if Bitcoin fails, something else will become the digital store of value and we press on. One good choice would be equity in the real-time, industrial-grade decentralized exchange and smartcoin factory that is bringing us the Hero...
meep
ha haa, meep in action
meep
Good post! Anyways, if bitcoin dies it won't kill crypto, and most certainly something can replace bitcoin very fast. Easy example, Litecoin, just like bitcoin but without all the drama. Another thing to consider is that, when quantumn computing becomes a reality, most blockchains will become useless/not safe without an update. There's a few projects already, that could potentially replace bitcoin in the future, quantum resistance included.
Anyways, cheer up! Crypto won't die on August first! it might just crash and burn, but that's all.
maybe LTC gets #1 spot then - i wouldnt mind ;)
I agree 100%
Sadly it's already breaking.
It will be the MySpace of the crytp world. Blockchain will change the world. It will just be another Crypto that is the currency.
BTS + STEEM + EOS can change the world.
A lot of the change discussion is a game of chicken at the moment, trying to see where the other sides' breaking points are. As we get closer and closer to August 1, the uncertainty will start to clear up but the fear will still be there until one side stands down.
Great post about bitcoin.
But I think that, like it or not, the truth is that bitcoin is already an outdated technology. And I go further, I think that all cryptos that still rely on blockchain technology are already outdated, because nowadays we have post-blockchain cryptos like Iota with zero fees, instant transactions and enabled micropayments.
Yes, there are alternatives that are 100% pre-mined, which totally goes against one of the main reasons people got attracted to crypto. People seem to forget the point of mining. Bitcoin is far from obsolete. Its code will be upgraded when there's consensus. This is how democracy works. It's slow and messy but fairer than any other system. with central issuance and control. The most efficient forms of governance are dictatorships, somehow they don't seem to be very desirable.
Yes, I am a big proponent of change...however, for BTC - I am asking them not to break too!!!
Bitcoin will break itself by not doing anything. Don't worry, BTC and digital currencies are here to stay ;)
I think Dinosaurs were able to adapt, their called birds today.
That took nothing less than complete re-design!
That vulture will fly away, and the mammals will sink into the tar.
No redesign. Dinos had feathers, laid eggs, warm blooded, and hollow bones. Of coures the word dinosaur is not a scientific term but a description.
Some dinosaurs adapted. Not all.
I wonder is this message falling on the right ears or death ears. Or should we brace ourselves for gloom and doom for the next year and if so we are in for a rough go of it.
I have always believed that the split will hurt bitcoin.
You'd write this post in a way that even my grandma would understand it. I really enjoy while reading. First of August is close. Let wait and see. I think that too much money is already in BTC and somehow they will find a way to overcome this situation. But I don't know much about this anyway. I'm just holding my bts and steem.
i got my HERO - it's only 1 - but i got it at a decent price - and it was nice to see it actually go up in value as the rest of the market crashed. (my INSANE held up pretty good too - but that's another story ;)
It won't split. Not enough cry babies.
Great article!!! 1000% aligned with my thoughts about bitcoin and better technologies like Bitshares!
Excellent post Stan. It's been a while. I hope that you are keeping well?
I was reading this post from @ash about bitcoin wallets that give you the option to choose between the btc and bcc fork. It might be of value to others.
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@ash/this-bitcoin-wallets-are-ready-for-a-fork
I'm planning to move the btc that I have on exchanges to one of these wallets and let the dust settle. I'll probably convert some of it to another coin as well.
Look after yourself.
Nice post..
Thanks for sharing @stan. Until the very last moment, there will be always a change for BTC not to separate into two.
Why would people get Bitshares if they can get Hero?
Investors want to participate in the growth of BitShares.
Savers want to relax in the safety of Hero.
HERO is price-stable, pegged to the USD and appreciates at 5% per year. Low risk, very decent reward.
BTS goes up and down and up and down. Could be worth $300/BTS next year... or $0.03 BTS. Higher risk, potentially enormous reward.
Upvoted and RESTEEMED!
Just like almost every other morning, it's nice to wake up and see what is it that morning paper (Steemit) has got to offer this time. Very interesting article, thank you!
Due to where I'm located, it's not always easy to follow everything that is happening with BitShares on other shores of Atlantic or in Asia. It's been said that this time BitShares will be doing the marketing right. However, it feels that ever since 4th of July and during the latest price correction we have gone through a quieter period with BitShares in every way.
I'm not expecting that everything happens all at once and do realise that Bitcoin situation (before cleared up) affects on all Cryptos. Just wanted to know if Digital Launch have started with marketing efforts? How about the teams of Hero competition - how active they are and what kind of way the competition has begun during the last couple weeks?
I'd be very thankful for every comment putting me back on the map.
All that is still on. This article appearing in the Huffington post is part of preparing the battlefield. Our marketers are doing intensive SEO strategies on it now. More of this is ramping up every day. Meanwhile, we need many things to be put in place below the visible tip of the iceberg. That is what is happening now.
Understood. One brick at the time and take your time with preparations. Thank you Stan answering personally on my questions. I know that you don't always have time to answer and comment on everything that comes up.
BTW, there was one very interesting and promising hint on this article saying that BitShares "upgrades to EOS technology next year".
So thanks again and take care!
THANK you Stan for the great post!
I am following you recently and becoming releazing something big is happening right now. I am always thinking about a real price off-hook with Bitcoin by Bitshares' BTS which will happen next month or so. That will be a sign of emerging of a real economy driven blockchain industry for the first time! Something stand with the true value, and something really get out of the pump&dump things. And this could be a next stage for the whole industry.
Please let me know if I am in an appropriate confidence level about the near future of the industry. Your comments are much appreciated! Thank you again!
Upvoted, reblogged and promoted!
First class, @stan
I like the HERO idea and have a small amount, but have a BIG question!
When you say:
I understand the meaning of the statement, but have yet to see any information on how or where the HERO can or willl be used "like cash".
Are there plans to develop an app for users and merchants? Is there a network like impak claims with "400 businesses ready to accept the impak coin"?
Ultimately, what's the incentive for people to actually use HERO widespread?
Thanks!
The hero will probably start out as a safe haven for stashing your money when you want to take your eyes off the market for a while - or to sit on the sidelines during a secular decline. Eventually, it will be used as a savings account like my boyhood passbook account that paid 5% in the sixties. It still didn't stop me from tapping that account for a new bike. Once people learn that their savings account is also a checking account that can pay anyone in the world in three seconds - it will become a "medium of exchange". Offramps like remittio.com will let you spend it with your debit card - just like cash. Blockpay is a mobile wallet that will, no doubt, support it as it gains traction.
Hopefully, the HERO marketing will include usage explanations so everyday people like me can have a reason to get on board.
Thanks for clearing this up!
Hi @stan, Blockpay looks amazing! But how safe is the Blockpay POS? Is there any need for cold storage?
Great information! Thank you!
cool! Great content @stan as always, which scenario could happen for eth after segwit2X is implemented for bitcoin?
thanks for the answer and i am following you now and upvoting you!
Ethereum must face EOS.
reestemet! awesome content !
keep your bitcoin safe
Awesome article. Hopefully we will not have a split. Do i also assume Bitshares may be a good investment? Upvoted, following.
Posted on ZeroHedge:
In short, when you buy Bitcoin or Ethereum, you are buying into a digital currency that is predicated upon an ICO market that is totally unregulated, backed by only the white papers they publish, 'peer reviewed' on Github and Reddit -- beset upon by countless hucksters and future American Greed stars whose only interest is to get rich off the hype.
If the SEC ever decides to step in, light's out.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-19/heres-why-i-know-bitcoin-and-ethereum-are-bubble-built-top-outright-scams
Very good information, thanks!
Upvoted and following
nice post
if you like my post please follow upvote comment and resteem
https://steemit.com/life/@neerajsharma007/travel-with-me-visit-shimla
great content...informative...thanks for sharing..upvoted