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Topic: What Litecoin means for Bitcoin (and crypto in general) once it's on Mt.Gox - page 2. (Read 8600 times)

newbie
Activity: 34
Merit: 0
^ He never argued that arbitrage is unhealthy. I think you misunderstood his post. He's saying that having multiple BTC-based blockchains doesn't better enable one to take advantage of fiat-BTC arbitrage opportunities.

Ah, his use of the word "combated" leads me to believe otherwise. Seems you're right about the fiat-BTC arbitrage, though. In any case, the BTC/USD rates of e.g. btc-e and vicurex are typically a lot closer than btc-e and mt. gox, presumably because there is alt-chain enabled arbitrage, so hopefully it's a non issue.
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1000
Ended up to a very boring thread IMO... Undecided
hero member
Activity: 772
Merit: 501
^ He never argued that arbitrage is unhealthy. I think you misunderstood his post. He's saying that having multiple BTC-based blockchains doesn't better enable one to take advantage of fiat-BTC arbitrage opportunities.
newbie
Activity: 34
Merit: 0
The addition of Litecoin or any other number of altcoins to the exchanges won't make any difference to combating arbitrage. That's because the arbitrage arises from friction caused by moving fiat around and not bitcoins.

For instance you can buy a bitcoin on Bitstamp for $101 and sell it on Gox $110 at the moment. A perfect arbitrage opportunity you might think but withdrawing USD from Gox is difficult and that's the reason behind the price gap. Adding altcoins into the mix won't change that.

+1

OP is just trying to raise litecoin visibility in the main forum.  Move this thread to the garbage section where it belongs.


-1.
The post you responded to completely missed the point regarding arbitrage, which is that now instead of waiting a really long time to transfer USD from Gox to Bitstamp, one can simply transfer LTC to bitstamp. So we can affect not only the LTC/BTC but the USD/BTC since other exchanges have LTC/USD and LTC/BTC. Both you and meanig need to go learn what "arbitrage" means Wink

But, I lol'd that you overlooked that and +1'd it anyways  Grin Grin Grin

Ok, let me try to understand what you're proposing.

Quote
instead of waiting a really long time to transfer USD from Gox to Bitstamp

So lets say I have $100 on Gox and I want to transfer that to Bitstamp because bitcoins are cheaper there. I'll then send those bitcoins back to Gox and sell them at the higher Gox price giving me more than $100 at the end.

Quote
one can simply transfer LTC to bitstamp.
I sell the $100 on Gox for litecoins and then send the litecoins to Bitstamp. Then exchange the litecoins for  Huh Huh Huh

Please explain how to finish the arbitrage trade keeping in mind that the LTC/BTC rate will be almost identical between Gox and Bitstamp (much like it is between BTC-e and Vircurex which already do LTC/BTC trading)

This post and your original post show a fundamental misunderstanding of the way economies and arbitrage work. Arbitrage is not a bad thing and is not something that should be combated; arbitrage is healthy in a functioning economy. LTC on Mt. Gox enables easier arbitrage because extracting LTC from Mt. Gox will be considerably faster than extracting USD, and subject to much smaller fees. There are lots of explanations about how arbitrage works. You should find such an explanation and read it. Once you really understand it, it will be obvious why LTC on Mt. Gox will make arbitrage easier (assuming it is quicker and cheaper to move LTC around than USD, which is a fairly safe assumption), and thus the cryptocurrency economy healthier.

As for whether or not LTC or some other alt fills this role, I have no opinion (well, I have one, but it's not really important to the idea of arbitrage).
full member
Activity: 242
Merit: 110

I can send you some LTC if you want post up your address  Cheesy

Yes please    x4lqb9gED2AVqJfescaf   Smiley
hero member
Activity: 531
Merit: 501
The addition of Litecoin or any other number of altcoins to the exchanges won't make any difference to combating arbitrage. That's because the arbitrage arises from friction caused by moving fiat around and not bitcoins.

For instance you can buy a bitcoin on Bitstamp for $101 and sell it on Gox $110 at the moment. A perfect arbitrage opportunity you might think but withdrawing USD from Gox is difficult and that's the reason behind the price gap. Adding altcoins into the mix won't change that.

+1

OP is just trying to raise litecoin visibility in the main forum.  Move this thread to the garbage section where it belongs.


-1.
The post you responded to completely missed the point regarding arbitrage, which is that now instead of waiting a really long time to transfer USD from Gox to Bitstamp, one can simply transfer LTC to bitstamp. So we can affect not only the LTC/BTC but the USD/BTC since other exchanges have LTC/USD and LTC/BTC. Both you and meanig need to go learn what "arbitrage" means Wink

But, I lol'd that you overlooked that and +1'd it anyways  Grin Grin Grin

Ok, let me try to understand what you're proposing.

Quote
instead of waiting a really long time to transfer USD from Gox to Bitstamp

So lets say I have $100 on Gox and I want to transfer that to Bitstamp because bitcoins are cheaper there. I'll then send those bitcoins back to Gox and sell them at the higher Gox price giving me more than $100 at the end.

Quote
one can simply transfer LTC to bitstamp.
I sell the $100 on Gox for litecoins and then send the litecoins to Bitstamp. Then exchange the litecoins for  Huh Huh Huh

Please explain how to finish the arbitrage trade keeping in mind that the LTC/BTC rate will be almost identical between Gox and Bitstamp (much like it is between BTC-e and Vircurex which already do LTC/BTC trading)
hero member
Activity: 772
Merit: 501
MtGox is the biggest exchange and I think they could play a big role in whether cryptocoins remain limited to 21 million or if their circulated supply continues to increase with the adoption of very similar blockchains that have their own coins.

Since MtGox is dependent on Bitcoin's success, it could be in their best interest to give up on the small amount of business they could get from supporting Bitcoin-altchains, in exchange for boosting Bitcoin.

Ethically, I think it's fine to ask an exchange to support Bitcoin exclusively, because providing exchange services to additional blockchains requires giving them precious screen space on the exchange site.

Giving screen space on MtGox to litecoin reduces Bitcoin's exposure to give it to a blockchain that is completely unoriginal, in being technically, an almost exact copy of Bitcoin, has very little actual real world use - with much fewer merchants supporting it than Bitcoin - and undermines the whole concept of Bitcoin-based cryptocurrency by discrediting one of its most attractive features: that there will only ever be 21 million coins.

I think all of the requests they get from litecoin miners has encouraged them to come to the decision to support litecoin though. In every Facebook post they make about their future plans, you see a number of people commenting, asking them to support litecoin, and each comment getting a lot of likes.

The people who want litecoin to do well are individually more motivated than the much larger number of people who don't want Bitcoin to be diluted by altchains, so are more likely to make publicly visible statements.

The addition of Litecoin or any other number of altcoins to the exchanges won't make any difference to combating arbitrage. That's because the arbitrage arises from friction caused by moving fiat around and not bitcoins.

For instance you can buy a bitcoin on Bitstamp for $101 and sell it on Gox $110 at the moment. A perfect arbitrage opportunity you might think but withdrawing USD from Gox is difficult and that's the reason behind the price gap. Adding altcoins into the mix won't change that.

+1

OP is just trying to raise litecoin visibility in the main forum.  Move this thread to the garbage section where it belongs.


-1.
The post you responded to completely missed the point regarding arbitrage, which is that now instead of waiting a really long time to transfer USD from Gox to Bitstamp, one can simply transfer LTC to bitstamp.

Any difference in the price of BTC between exchanges is likely to apply to the price of BTC-alts as well, since price differentials are caused by factors that will affect all cryptocurrencies equally, making it unlikely that they would ever be useful for taking advantage of BTC arbitrage opportunities.

No, it won't happen. You might realise the reasons why but only if you sell your LTC and give yourself some time to evaluate situation in cryptocoin
and real worlds. For as long as you are holding LTC you will stay LTC biased. It is eventual profit of some sort that is blinding you from realising the
truth there. You might go as far as writting a tome of books about why LTC will be successful but it will contain nothing but crap with very little or
no connections with reality.

One can never realise the truth if he or she is holding onto something because that which he or she is holding onto distorts perception of reality.


HAHA, WHAT? Did you seriously just make the most n00b mistake of all?
1) Go sell ALL your bitcoins. Every last one.
2) THEN come back here and preach to us about how you can't talk about [LTC doom and BTC destiny] while simultaneously holding the coin.

Actually, the people who own BTC have no reason to be biased against BTC-alts if profit is their motive. If they really wanted to only profit, and had any reason to think BTC-alts had a future, they could easily trade their BTC for a BTC-alt, then join the hypers in claiming there's space for BTC 2, 3, 4 and 5.

They could then enjoy all of the profit that comes with coins they bought at 0.001 BTC each going to 0.01 BTC. Not investing in BTC-alts is missing out on an opportunity to make very big short term profits, whereas investing in them is not.
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
The addition of Litecoin or any other number of altcoins to the exchanges won't make any difference to combating arbitrage. That's because the arbitrage arises from friction caused by moving fiat around and not bitcoins.

For instance you can buy a bitcoin on Bitstamp for $101 and sell it on Gox $110 at the moment. A perfect arbitrage opportunity you might think but withdrawing USD from Gox is difficult and that's the reason behind the price gap. Adding altcoins into the mix won't change that.

+1

OP is just trying to raise litecoin visibility in the main forum.  Move this thread to the garbage section where it belongs.


-1.
The post you responded to completely missed the point regarding arbitrage, which is that now instead of waiting a really long time to transfer USD from Gox to Bitstamp, one can simply transfer LTC to bitstamp. So we can affect not only the LTC/BTC but the USD/BTC since other exchanges have LTC/USD and LTC/BTC. Both you and meanig need to go learn what "arbitrage" means Wink

But, I lol'd that you overlooked that and +1'd it anyways  Grin Grin Grin

What people against Litecoin (or Mt.Gox adding it) I think don't realize is it's probably inevitable already Litecoin will see widespread adoption.

No, it won't happen. You might realise the reasons why but only if you sell your LTC and give yourself some time to evaluate situation in cryptocoin
and real worlds. For as long as you are holding LTC you will stay LTC biased. It is eventual profit of some sort that is blinding you from realising the
truth there. You might go as far as writting a tome of books about why LTC will be successful but it will contain nothing but crap with very little or
no connections with reality.

One can never realise the truth if he or she is holding onto something because that which he or she is holding onto distorts perception of reality.


HAHA, WHAT? Did you seriously just make the most n00b mistake of all?
1) Go sell ALL your bitcoins. Every last one.
2) THEN come back here and preach to us about how you can't talk about [LTC doom and BTC destiny] while simultaneously holding the coin.
Let me look through your post history... yes, you've talked quite a bit about bitcoins... shall I now go troll every single one of your posts, replying with "sorry, your opinion about bitcoins is automatically invalid since you hold bitcoins!"
Logic fallacy is fallacious. Fail troll is fail. Nice try dude  Wink
sr. member
Activity: 328
Merit: 250
The addition of Litecoin or any other number of altcoins to the exchanges won't make any difference to combating arbitrage. That's because the arbitrage arises from friction caused by moving fiat around and not bitcoins.

For instance you can buy a bitcoin on Bitstamp for $101 and sell it on Gox $110 at the moment. A perfect arbitrage opportunity you might think but withdrawing USD from Gox is difficult and that's the reason behind the price gap. Adding altcoins into the mix won't change that.

+1

OP is just trying to raise litecoin visibility in the main forum.  Move this thread to the garbage section where it belongs.
legendary
Activity: 1148
Merit: 1014
In Satoshi I Trust
Gox has made it official that they will be adding Litecoin support once the new trading engine has been rolled out.

That is not true. What they said is this:

"As risky as it is to invoke the name of Litecoin (LTC???), we must apologize for not keeping everyone up to date. The fact is that the current
situation means a continued delay, but for good reasons. We’re looking at July right now, though that depends on a few things. Mainly, we
want to do things correctly from the beginning."

I interpret them as just being cautious about promising a specific day. I don't think with statements like this they don't intend to follow through.

+1

of course they will add it when the time is ready and its a good thing to do this! of couse we dont need 1000 other alt coins that are just more but at least a handfull of good ones: like the silver:  LITECOIN
hero member
Activity: 541
Merit: 500
Ok lets say you are right then why do newbies and crypto beginners like the idea of owning some LTC then ?

Except for very few people, cryptocoins are nothing more but yet another "(Eventualy) Make Money Online" deal.

I agree that Bitcoin users are infact very "get rich quick" in their thinking.  And the big reason they are worried about alt's, incase one really takes off and effects their money making venture.  Which is one of the reasons I started mixing it up a bit.  Alot of the alt crypto's are more for the ideas of innovation and having fun than worrying about trying to make a quick buck.  Heck the alt I started mining yesterday "Bottlecaps" is based on Fallout 3 currency.  I like some of the things they are trying with this new coin.  

PoW Scrypt with PoS has 1.5% per annum
Block Time: 60 seconds
4hr Difficulty target time
Reward: 10 coins per block until the end
Coin cap: 47433600 (9 years)
Block confirmations: 5

But in the end, I doubt it will net me any money.  But it's all for fun, which is 1 thing the Bitcoin market seems to have forgotten about.

Bitcoin users should actually embrace the altcoins.  Since they are a big testing ground Bitcoin can't take chances on.  Who knows maybe one day some Alt-coin code will help innovate Bitcoin to make it more useful for day to day transactions (Like buying a coffee at a Starbucks), which would help Bitcoin become more easily adaptable as a World currency everyone seems to want it to become. 

All this fear and hatred from the Bitcoin users seems to be kind of like a Major league sports team knocking the kids playing in the little league games, because they aren't as good as them, and telling their parents that they are idiots for wasting their time watching them play.   
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1000
I've been following some of the silly discussions in this thread and I'd like to weigh in on some things.

First of all, as far as actual usage, all alternative cryptocurrencies, including Ripple, are, as of right now, absolutely useless compared to Bitcoin. Once we understand that, we can continue the analysis on a fair basis.

Claiming that the altcoins have a significant diluting effect on Bitcoin, is a statement with no actual facts backing it. Thus far all of the other cryptocurrencies have managed to get a very small market cap compared to Bitcoin. Here I don't even address the possibility that most likely altcoins will bring in more people to the cryptocurrency scene, which will actually increase the whole cryptomoney market cap.

Bitcoin market cap = ~1.1 billion USD
Litecoin market cap = ~50 million USD
Ripple market cap = ~17 million USD (1.2 billion XRP distributed so far based on founder statement, 7000 equals 1 bitcoin, 1 bitcoin is $100)
Other altcoins = ~50 million total?

One can disagree with the way I calculate the XRP market cap, but I can assure you that's the only sane way of doing it.

So, now that we know that the altcoins are basically useless at this time, and their total market cap is very small compared to Bitcoin, we can clearly see that they have no significant "diluting" effect on Bitcoin. It's almost the same as saying that Bitcoin is diluting the Euro. Which is obviously ridiculous. They do dilute Bitcoin more than Bitcoin dilutes the Euro, but anyway. You get the point.

What are altcoins good for? They are good for experimenting with stuff that Bitcoin simply can't. Potentially exciting cryptocurrency innovations can come from there. They can also provide some additional mixing capabilities to the cryptomarket, thus allowing more privacy.

One can argue that some innovations already exist. Faster block time (in my opinion an insignificant issue), different algorithm for proof of work (don't agree on scrypt superiority at all, but I do see it as a good backup), different model entirely (proof of stake included) etc.

Ripple is the most innovative of them all, it's very different. Then again Ripple has significant issues as well. It's way more centralized and it's also way more closed. At the moment at least. I'm at this time very skeptical of Ripple, but the core idea behind it is more innovative than the other altcoins.

Finally, I wouldn't really worry about altcoins. They can dilute Bitcoin a bit, and they are mostly useless, but they can also bring in new people and create more diversity for the cryptocurrency economy. That can't be bad. The market will make sure the useless ones die eventually. Remember that Bitcoin has a huge lead in brand name, publicity and network effect. All the others are way, way behind, and regardless of the innovations they bring, they will have a tough time catching up.

Even though in some ways the "Bitcoin is gold, Litecoin is silver" analogy is bad, in some ways it holds true. Litecoin will most likely remain a significantly cheaper cryptocurrency. Not relative to the monetary base, but in actual market cap.

I'm surprised if Litecoin ever manages to sustain a market cap that is over 10% of Bitcoin market cap. Right now it's at 4%, which I think is actually a bit high. Litecoin has perhaps 1% of the usage Bitcoin has, so it's a bit overvalued. It's very speculative though, so who knows.
You said all I would like to say!
legendary
Activity: 2492
Merit: 1473
LEALANA Bitcoin Grim Reaper
I just find it funny that people think it is a good thing that gox will be doing litecoin trading. As if they haven't fucked up enough to be stripped of their market share for good.

Only good thing will come of this is more exposure for Litecoin. But anyone trading litecoin on mtgox, beware, more fuck ups are on the way of mt. of kox.

legendary
Activity: 1096
Merit: 1067
I've been following some of the silly discussions in this thread and I'd like to weigh in on some things.

First of all, as far as actual usage, all alternative cryptocurrencies, including Ripple, are, as of right now, absolutely useless compared to Bitcoin. Once we understand that, we can continue the analysis on a fair basis.

Claiming that the altcoins have a significant diluting effect on Bitcoin, is a statement with no actual facts backing it. Thus far all of the other cryptocurrencies have managed to get a very small market cap compared to Bitcoin. Here I don't even address the possibility that most likely altcoins will bring in more people to the cryptocurrency scene, which will actually increase the whole cryptomoney market cap.

Bitcoin market cap = ~1.1 billion USD
Litecoin market cap = ~50 million USD
Ripple market cap = ~17 million USD (1.2 billion XRP distributed so far based on founder statement, 7000 equals 1 bitcoin, 1 bitcoin is $100)
Other altcoins = ~50 million total?

One can disagree with the way I calculate the XRP market cap, but I can assure you that's the only sane way of doing it.

So, now that we know that the altcoins are basically useless at this time, and their total market cap is very small compared to Bitcoin, we can clearly see that they have no significant "diluting" effect on Bitcoin. It's almost the same as saying that Bitcoin is diluting the Euro. Which is obviously ridiculous. They do dilute Bitcoin more than Bitcoin dilutes the Euro, but anyway. You get the point.

What are altcoins good for? They are good for experimenting with stuff that Bitcoin simply can't. Potentially exciting cryptocurrency innovations can come from there. They can also provide some additional mixing capabilities to the cryptomarket, thus allowing more privacy.

One can argue that some innovations already exist. Faster block time (in my opinion an insignificant issue), different algorithm for proof of work (don't agree on scrypt superiority at all, but I do see it as a good backup), different model entirely (proof of stake included) etc.

Ripple is the most innovative of them all, it's very different. Then again Ripple has significant issues as well. It's way more centralized and it's also way more closed. At the moment at least. I'm at this time very skeptical of Ripple, but the core idea behind it is more innovative than the other altcoins.

Finally, I wouldn't really worry about altcoins. They can dilute Bitcoin a bit, and they are mostly useless, but they can also bring in new people and create more diversity for the cryptocurrency economy. That can't be bad. The market will make sure the useless ones die eventually. Remember that Bitcoin has a huge lead in brand name, publicity and network effect. All the others are way, way behind, and regardless of the innovations they bring, they will have a tough time catching up.

Even though in some ways the "Bitcoin is gold, Litecoin is silver" analogy is bad, in some ways it holds true. Litecoin will most likely remain a significantly cheaper cryptocurrency. Not relative to the monetary base, but in actual market cap.

I'm surprised if Litecoin ever manages to sustain a market cap that is over 10% of Bitcoin market cap. Right now it's at 4%, which I think is actually a bit high. Litecoin has perhaps 1% of the usage Bitcoin has, so it's a bit overvalued. It's very speculative though, so who knows.

In a nutshell as Litecoin becomes ever more "useful" expect higher prices.
legendary
Activity: 2184
Merit: 1056
Affordable Physical Bitcoins - Denarium.com
I've been following some of the silly discussions in this thread and I'd like to weigh in on some things.

First of all, as far as actual usage, all alternative cryptocurrencies, including Ripple, are, as of right now, absolutely useless compared to Bitcoin. Once we understand that, we can continue the analysis on a fair basis.

Claiming that the altcoins have a significant diluting effect on Bitcoin, is a statement with no actual facts backing it. Thus far all of the other cryptocurrencies have managed to get a very small market cap compared to Bitcoin. Here I don't even address the possibility that most likely altcoins will bring in more people to the cryptocurrency scene, which will actually increase the whole cryptomoney market cap.

Bitcoin market cap = ~1.1 billion USD
Litecoin market cap = ~50 million USD
Ripple market cap = ~17 million USD (1.2 billion XRP distributed so far based on founder statement, 7000 equals 1 bitcoin, 1 bitcoin is $100)
Other altcoins = ~50 million total?

One can disagree with the way I calculate the XRP market cap, but I can assure you that's the only sane way of doing it.

So, now that we know that the altcoins are basically useless at this time, and their total market cap is very small compared to Bitcoin, we can clearly see that they have no significant "diluting" effect on Bitcoin. It's almost the same as saying that Bitcoin is diluting the Euro. Which is obviously ridiculous. They do dilute Bitcoin more than Bitcoin dilutes the Euro, but anyway. You get the point.

What are altcoins good for? They are good for experimenting with stuff that Bitcoin simply can't. Potentially exciting cryptocurrency innovations can come from there. They can also provide some additional mixing capabilities to the cryptomarket, thus allowing more privacy.

One can argue that some innovations already exist. Faster block time (in my opinion an insignificant issue), different algorithm for proof of work (don't agree on scrypt superiority at all, but I do see it as a good backup), different model entirely (proof of stake included) etc.

Ripple is the most innovative of them all, it's very different. Then again Ripple has significant issues as well. It's way more centralized and it's also way more closed. At the moment at least. I'm at this time very skeptical of Ripple, but the core idea behind it is more innovative than the other altcoins.

Finally, I wouldn't really worry about altcoins. They can dilute Bitcoin a bit, and they are mostly useless, but they can also bring in new people and create more diversity for the cryptocurrency economy. That can't be bad. The market will make sure the useless ones die eventually. Remember that Bitcoin has a huge lead in brand name, publicity and network effect. All the others are way, way behind, and regardless of the innovations they bring, they will have a tough time catching up.

Even though in some ways the "Bitcoin is gold, Litecoin is silver" analogy is bad, in some ways it holds true. Litecoin will most likely remain a significantly cheaper cryptocurrency. Not relative to the monetary base, but in actual market cap.

I'm surprised if Litecoin ever manages to sustain a market cap that is over 10% of Bitcoin market cap. Right now it's at 4%, which I think is actually a bit high. Litecoin has perhaps 1% of the usage Bitcoin has, so it's a bit overvalued. It's very speculative though, so who knows.
hero member
Activity: 826
Merit: 500
Crypto Somnium
Ok lets say you are right then why do newbies and crypto beginners like the idea of owning some LTC then ? Its not all about bitcoin you know Roll Eyes

I do value your maturity and intelligence on the subject though Smiley

I can send you some LTC if you want post up your address  Cheesy
legendary
Activity: 1204
Merit: 1002
RUM AND CARROTS: A PIRATE LIFE FOR ME
legendary
Activity: 1050
Merit: 1002
What people don't realize is all the disagreement is the exact reason I realized alt-coins like Litecoin had a role to play.

When Litecoin (and other alts) were announced I paid them little attention. I just didn't see how they provided significant value enough to be adopted by the community on par with Bitcoin. (I believe Erik Voorhees still has this opinion.)

When the disagreement over Bitcoin Foundation broke out I realized with startling clarity there could be irreconcilable opinions between people, no matter how much debate ensued. I saw this could apply to more disputes than just the foundation, and might even threaten Bitcoin (with tempers, hard forks etc.) as stakes grew and more opinions came on board. I felt there was growing risk in corralling increasingly divergent opinions under one tent, and expecting harmony. Indeed this was long before the block size issue blew up in the community. A single coin I felt invited disaster because while threats from the outside might be defensible, a diverse group unable to counter infighting (and possibly corruption) could fall from within.

That was the important feature I realized alt-coins had which Bitcoin didn't. They provided an alternative. That was the thing Bitcoin could never provide by itself. After I realized this I found other ways alt-coins strengthened cryptocurrency overall (like providing technical/economic backup, easing pressure on block chain scalability, experimentation, etc.).

While I missed the significant value of alt-coins at first, I later realized they could be indispensable for trying to gain cryptocurrency success overall.

What people against Litecoin (or Mt.Gox adding it) I think don't realize is it's probably inevitable already Litecoin will see widespread adoption. Whether or not Mt.Gox adds it doesn't change the large number of people already holding it, which is where coins get traction/value in the first place. There are 18,810,954 litecoins in people's hands now. That's slightly more than the number of bitcoins currently. Litecoin is already being exchanged and has a growing user base, just like Bitcoin.

Last, for those worried about an unending string of new coins, don't. You can't stop that happening anyway, and you may even find (later as I did) real benefit to this. The reason new coins can't easily destroy older established ones is exactly because older coins are older and established. Any coin's code can be duplicated, so coins competing on that level only are not differentiated. What can't be duplicated easily is the willingness of a large user base to use a coin. For every coin that attempts to gain this, but offers no real value, i.e. reason to be adopted, the coin's value is never any more than how quickly the features it has can be cloned (i.e. probably zero).

If you don't believe more than one coin can co-exist and be valued by the market properly (and differently) you're not paying attention. That is already the situation we have now.
hero member
Activity: 541
Merit: 500
I think people are crazy not to see the benefit of alt coins.  It's all a matter of greed that some people push to have just 1 type of coin.  Sure it might not exactly have a niche market etched out yet, but that doesn't mean something won't come along.  I think everyone can agree that Bitcoin is not going to make inroads into the fast food/coffee shop market due to the speeds of transactions.  LTC probably won't even make ripples in that market.  But since the dream is to have the entire world economy to switch from fiat to crypto, then only an idiot would think that only 1 coin can do all that.  Alt coins could act like a personal wallet (Fiat you carry with you, not talking Bitcoin personal wallet) or store card (Like my re-chargeable Tim's coffee card) does now in the current economy.  Bitcoin could hold the majority of people's currency (Like a bank does now), and people could switch a few satoshi's over to the crypto of their choice when they go out to purchase groceries, or get that morning coffee.

Plus different pools of people working at getting different ways to get crypto accepted by the masses can only help crypto be accepted, which would help Bitcoin in the long run.  Or whatever crypto takes over as the dominant one.  It's quite funny to see a large group of supposedly technologically advanced people stumble on the idea that innovation is bad, and if the original product is unhinged as the top, it would mean the entire system would collapse.  I can't think of a single innovation in recent times when something was created and kept as the defacto standard, where no person/company added something to make it better.  And I think that is the reason that people deeply ingrained in Bitcoin don't like the alts.  They are to busy worrying that some innovation will eventually take out the coin they put so much money/time into.
newbie
Activity: 53
Merit: 0
I believe that while we shouldn't focus just on one exchange (I use BTC-e & Vircurex for trading, Coinjar for buying, Bitrade for selling), we should support their efforts in adding another crypto.

I'm definitely in support of LTC inclusion with FTC as well. You gotta diversify your portfolio and build practical uses in order to have an ever evolving coin. Much like Dollars, Yen, Euros etc.

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