Great post Alex. But I think it comes down to decentralization and the implied resilience from that. When you actually look at it from a technical perspective and the network effects of the Bitcoin network, it's unparalleled. These are the fundamentals which I think you're missing in this post. Not to mention, Bitcoin can actually do all of the things Ethereum can through sidechains like the Stacks 2.0 network which went live in January. Ethereum needs layer-2s to scale anyways, so why not build on the more resilient and decentralized network, i.e. Bitcoin?
A good set of points! I wonder tho on the implied resilience pt how much BTC holds an edge over other cryptos, given a dearth of 51% attacks in general? And re: sidechains, I am sympathetic to those, but given that nearly all the neat stuff I see is on the ETH chain I wonder...
ETH definitely has a lead. A lot of the alternatives are just reaching maturity this year. I personally believe in a multi-chain future where we will see a lot of specialization in the future. Different chains will excel at different use cases. There's issues with ETH and some uncertainty that other chains are taking advantage of. Proof-of-Stake introduces more risks around a 51% attack, because token holders are less anonymous (we all know who the early team members and investors in Eth are) and apps/exchanges hold custody of people's tokens. Also, the idea that PoS makes the rich even richer goes against the egalitarian inspiration for blockchain. BTC sidechains are getting a lot of pickup exactly for these reasons. It will be fascinating to watch!
PS. I mention Stacks because I run the Stacks Accelerator, we just launched last month and are making 100 investments over the next 3 years in startups building on Stacks. Our first batch kicks off this month and we have a ton of compelling projects in the pipeline.
Great post Alex. But I think it comes down to decentralization and the implied resilience from that. When you actually look at it from a technical perspective and the network effects of the Bitcoin network, it's unparalleled. These are the fundamentals which I think you're missing in this post. Not to mention, Bitcoin can actually do all of the things Ethereum can through sidechains like the Stacks 2.0 network which went live in January. Ethereum needs layer-2s to scale anyways, so why not build on the more resilient and decentralized network, i.e. Bitcoin?
A good set of points! I wonder tho on the implied resilience pt how much BTC holds an edge over other cryptos, given a dearth of 51% attacks in general? And re: sidechains, I am sympathetic to those, but given that nearly all the neat stuff I see is on the ETH chain I wonder...
ETH definitely has a lead. A lot of the alternatives are just reaching maturity this year. I personally believe in a multi-chain future where we will see a lot of specialization in the future. Different chains will excel at different use cases. There's issues with ETH and some uncertainty that other chains are taking advantage of. Proof-of-Stake introduces more risks around a 51% attack, because token holders are less anonymous (we all know who the early team members and investors in Eth are) and apps/exchanges hold custody of people's tokens. Also, the idea that PoS makes the rich even richer goes against the egalitarian inspiration for blockchain. BTC sidechains are getting a lot of pickup exactly for these reasons. It will be fascinating to watch!
PS. I mention Stacks because I run the Stacks Accelerator, we just launched last month and are making 100 investments over the next 3 years in startups building on Stacks. Our first batch kicks off this month and we have a ton of compelling projects in the pipeline.