Thanks pablomp! That confirms what I was suspecting ...
In the case of bitcoin, I don't like the fact that usage is declining. I can buy huge speculative biases only in cases where I think transactions will follow.
I think the declining usage you mention has to do with the spam attacks of early 2017 that drove up the transaction fees to much higher values than before (~5-10 cent to ~1-5 USD for fast transactions). Since this time, Bitcoin users (like me) simply avoid unnecessary transactions and try to bundle them - or even, for "small change", use centralized services that don't charge any fees
(Bitstamp ). That would explain the slightly declining usage, I don't think it's a
real decline (=less interest) but even if the transaction amount was static, it doesn't explain the rally at all.
Many people that speculated on Segwit are waiting now for Lightning network to use BTC again as "digital cash", I think - LN would have to be tracked in your future updates too.
The LTC "undervaluation" against BTC is interesting. Maybe a good investment opportunity - or at least a hedge against the next Bitcoin crash
Good point about the LN network! I could proceed either way:
- Finding a source where to get the amount of transactions and commits per day happening within the LN network, so that I can add them up and subtract commits from the amount of transactions happening within the blockchain. BB_tx + LN_tx - LN_commits.
- Finding usage statistics of the LN.
I wouldn't like to go with the second solution, because usage statistics are not precise, neither constant along time. Do you know if there will be explorers of transactions within the LN?
With regard to Litecoin being undervalued, I am following it closely. Either transactions can drop, or price can rise. Or even both at the same time! I guess transactions have easier to predict (more stable) trends. So chances are that price rises more than transactions fall. Anyways, there are several ways to cash out the gap with different risks involved (all of them subjected to the risk fiat loses value):
- Buy LTC/BTC. Risks: BTC/fiat drops, transactions instead of price move to undo the gap, fiat loses value.
- Market neutral: short BTC, long LTC. Risks: transactions instead of price move to undo the gap, fiat loses value. Market neutral transactions imply the use of derivatives, so one has to be careful not to leverage, otherwise the former would be amplified.
I have an actual market neutral trade open, so to try to cash out and, at the same time, avoid exposure to BTC/fiat.