What might the “winning” altcurrency look like?
There have been several statements in the other bitcoin thread to the effect of (my paraphrasing) while I believe cryptocurrency is the wave of the future, I think bitcoin is only the first iteration, and that something else will come along that is better.
Let's talk about that. What features/aspects of bitcoin do you think might be troublesome in the future? What features/aspects of a cryptocurrency do you think must be addressed in a better version? Are there any features of bitcoin that you think should be carried into the next generation?
I'll start.
There are a couple of things about bitcoin that I question whether they can scale to what I believe is the future of this technology.
One is that the size of the blockchain is getting unwieldy. I think a successful cryptocurrency has to be designed in such a way to make it easy for businesses and developers to layer new applications into/on top of the archetecture. Right now, if a developer wants to design an app that uses bitcoin, it has to either download and keep up with the entire blockchain, (13G and climbing) or it has to keep in contact with other servers that keep track of the blockchain for it. I know there has been some work on the idea that perhaps they don't need the entire blockchain, only the last X number of blocks. I question whether that weakens the security. Those apps that contact other servers which maintain the blockchain for them, I believe are possibly adding in another point of failure that could become corrupted, also potentially weakening the security. This is not to say that bitcoin cannot fix this problem. I know many developers are working on it. But it is something I wonder about.
Another is the scripting language. Satoshi Nakamoto designed bitcoin knowing that it could be much more than just a currency or a payment processor. Marc Andreesen discusses this in his recent article Why Bitcoin Matters and David Morris also expounds on this vision in Bitcoin is not just digital currency. It's Napster for finance . There are several projects in the works now, like Mastercoin, ( http://www.mastercoin.org/ ) attempting to move forward this kind of vision.
Satoshi created a scripting language for bitcoin just for these kinds of applications, which really was a bit of genius, imo. Unfortunately, some developers that are trying to design these more complicated applications are coming to the realization that the bitcoin scripting language is just not all that robust. It is difficult to create the complicated financial instrument they need with this limited tool. So the question arises. Is the future with layers on top of bitcoin, like the Mastercoin project? Or do we need to kind of start over from scratch?
One such “start over form scratch” project I am watching is Ethereum. They have addressed the blockchain problem head on, and redesigned the entire protocol using a far more robust language to make it much easier to not only create your own coins, - translate coin here to mean any object of value. It could represent a stock certificate, a property title, or a derivative, for example, but also to create more complicated business instruments like loans, escrows, dividend payouts, etc and layer them right on top.
More info here:
http://www.coindesk.com/ethererum-la...y-2-0-network/
http://ethereum.org/
I admit readily that 90% of this stuff is way over my head. If I have misunderstood something, or misstated something, please feel free to correct me. I am absolutely in learning mode here, as I know many of you are too. I think discussing what we learn can lead to better understanding. I think this stuff is going to be important, so I really want to understand it, and I think others do too. I hope by talking through some of these things, we all can learn it together, and achieve a deeper understanding than what we might get just reading other articles or other forums.
So what are your thoughts? What do you see as necessary for a successful cryptocurrency? How do you see this technology moving into the future?
I would like to respectfully request that we try to stay on topic here, and that this is not the place for arguing about what defines a currency, the price of any particular coin, Mt Gox, or political ideologies. The other bitcoin thread seems to hold those just fine. I would also like to request that if your reply consists entirely of a one liner with a rolly eyes, “am not” or “are too”, just, well.. just please don't.
Thanks very much!
Meg
There have been several statements in the other bitcoin thread to the effect of (my paraphrasing) while I believe cryptocurrency is the wave of the future, I think bitcoin is only the first iteration, and that something else will come along that is better.
Let's talk about that. What features/aspects of bitcoin do you think might be troublesome in the future? What features/aspects of a cryptocurrency do you think must be addressed in a better version? Are there any features of bitcoin that you think should be carried into the next generation?
I'll start.
There are a couple of things about bitcoin that I question whether they can scale to what I believe is the future of this technology.
One is that the size of the blockchain is getting unwieldy. I think a successful cryptocurrency has to be designed in such a way to make it easy for businesses and developers to layer new applications into/on top of the archetecture. Right now, if a developer wants to design an app that uses bitcoin, it has to either download and keep up with the entire blockchain, (13G and climbing) or it has to keep in contact with other servers that keep track of the blockchain for it. I know there has been some work on the idea that perhaps they don't need the entire blockchain, only the last X number of blocks. I question whether that weakens the security. Those apps that contact other servers which maintain the blockchain for them, I believe are possibly adding in another point of failure that could become corrupted, also potentially weakening the security. This is not to say that bitcoin cannot fix this problem. I know many developers are working on it. But it is something I wonder about.
Another is the scripting language. Satoshi Nakamoto designed bitcoin knowing that it could be much more than just a currency or a payment processor. Marc Andreesen discusses this in his recent article Why Bitcoin Matters and David Morris also expounds on this vision in Bitcoin is not just digital currency. It's Napster for finance . There are several projects in the works now, like Mastercoin, ( http://www.mastercoin.org/ ) attempting to move forward this kind of vision.
Satoshi created a scripting language for bitcoin just for these kinds of applications, which really was a bit of genius, imo. Unfortunately, some developers that are trying to design these more complicated applications are coming to the realization that the bitcoin scripting language is just not all that robust. It is difficult to create the complicated financial instrument they need with this limited tool. So the question arises. Is the future with layers on top of bitcoin, like the Mastercoin project? Or do we need to kind of start over from scratch?
One such “start over form scratch” project I am watching is Ethereum. They have addressed the blockchain problem head on, and redesigned the entire protocol using a far more robust language to make it much easier to not only create your own coins, - translate coin here to mean any object of value. It could represent a stock certificate, a property title, or a derivative, for example, but also to create more complicated business instruments like loans, escrows, dividend payouts, etc and layer them right on top.
More info here:
http://www.coindesk.com/ethererum-la...y-2-0-network/
http://ethereum.org/
I admit readily that 90% of this stuff is way over my head. If I have misunderstood something, or misstated something, please feel free to correct me. I am absolutely in learning mode here, as I know many of you are too. I think discussing what we learn can lead to better understanding. I think this stuff is going to be important, so I really want to understand it, and I think others do too. I hope by talking through some of these things, we all can learn it together, and achieve a deeper understanding than what we might get just reading other articles or other forums.
So what are your thoughts? What do you see as necessary for a successful cryptocurrency? How do you see this technology moving into the future?
I would like to respectfully request that we try to stay on topic here, and that this is not the place for arguing about what defines a currency, the price of any particular coin, Mt Gox, or political ideologies. The other bitcoin thread seems to hold those just fine. I would also like to request that if your reply consists entirely of a one liner with a rolly eyes, “am not” or “are too”, just, well.. just please don't.
Thanks very much!
Meg
via JREF Forum http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=272868&goto=newpost
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