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Comment by davidgerard | Hacker News Reader

What I see is Bitcoin fans pointing out the glaring problems in every altcoin, but not admitting that every single one of those problems applies to Bitcoin as well.

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Because Bitcoin is immutable and blockchains are a codification of the network effect. Altcoins are themselves competing chains, and thus compete with the main chain. Because the 'first mover' is Bitcoin, then the incentive for any miner is to join that chain. The problems in other altcoins are particularly important because their miners always sell that altcoin to the greater fool... in exchange for bitcoin.

Altcoins are (amazingly) even worse, but that doesn't make the Bitcoinsphere good. It still has no actual use case beyond illegal drugs, and is riddled with scammers and criminals at every level.

I detailed the problems as I saw them as of January here: http://reddragdiva.dreamwidth.org/594396.html Things really haven't improved in any regard.

Agreed. The black market is the smallest sector of the world's economy. If the best Bitcoin can do is service that market, its safe to say the Bitcoin is a massive failure.

Never before has a truer truth been spake.

Agree. I'm assuming it's because dealing with technical difficulties meets reasonable expectations when diving into a black market. As the pieces come together and the experience improves, it'll fade I hope.

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