What Bitcoin Did

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Beginner’s Guide #9: Altcoins, A History of Failure with Nic Carter

Peter McCormack

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BBG Part 9: Altcoins, A History of Failure with Nic Carter Peter McCormack

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Location: Skype
Date: Sunday, 26th January
Project: Castle Island Ventures
Role: Partner

Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin.

Bitcoin can be intimidating for beginners. The protocol is complicated, the community can be aggressive and unforgiving, silly mistakes can lose you money, and it is easy to succumb to altcoin marketing. 

Bitcoin does though, offer you the opportunity to hold a new type of monetary asset, one which can't be seized by the government and is censorship resistance and It has the potential to change the way the world. 

The goal of What Bitcoin Did has always been about making things simple; there are no stupid questions, and the show is here to help beginners navigate this new world. To kick off 2020, we are launching a special series to help beginners understand Bitcoin. We will be looking at the basics from breaking down the protocol to explaining the economics and discussing the potential societal shift. 

Beginners Guide Part 9 - Altcoins, A History of Failure with Nic Carter

From faster transactions to lower fees to better privacy, almost every altcoin promises to improve upon some technical aspect of Bitcoin. The blockchain myth, as some utopian database structure, has been nothing more than a marketing term for fundraising and hype, with little to no real-world traction.

The soul of Bitcoin is not embedded in some technical measure but in the trust of the protocol. Improving upon some technological measure of Bitcoin always comes with a trade-off such as reducing decentralisation or security. The beauty of Bitcoin is in its simplicity, something which can take time to understand.

The altcoin marketing machine can be a tempting distraction for those new to the world of crypto, but the long-term trend suggests that these investments are risky. Even trading altcoins as a way of increasing your Bitcoin holding comes at significant risk. Since the ICO bubble of 2017/18, the vast majority of these projects have all but died, with many holding worthless bags of hopium.

In Part 9 of the Bitcoin Beginner’s Guide, I talk to Nic Carter Partner at Castle Island Ventures a Venture Capital firm focused on public blockchains. We discuss the history of altcoins, their inferiority to Bitcoin, and why the failure rate is so high.

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00:04:10: Introductions
00:06:09: Scams and alt coins
00:09:34: Why is Bitcoin different?
00:11:27: David Chaum and Digicash
00:14:15: E-Gold
00:16:04: Beenz and Flooz
00:20:37: Liberty Reserve
00:22:25: What are shitcoins?
00:23:56: Why alt coins are good for Bitcoin
00:27:12: Leadership in cryptocurrencies
00:29:51: Privacy coins
00:32:07: Coin pre-mines
00:33:52: Centralization on alt coins
00:36:40: Whether stable coins are valid
00:39:05: Utility tokens
00:41:09: History of alt coins
00:41:37: Namecoin
00:44:51: Litecoin
00:50:27: Ripple/XRP
00:54:06: Frycoin
00:55:36: Mastercoin
00:59:03: Peercoin and proof of stake
01:03:28: Primecoin
01:04:33: Tether
01:07:13: Monero and Dash
01:11:16: Dogecoin
01:13:58: Ethereum
01:17:58: Zcash
01:20:40: Bitcoin Cash
01:23:59: EOS
01:29:12: Bitcoin Private
01:32:29: Libra
01:37:57: Final comments

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