Bitcoin vs Crypto
Last updated
Last updated
Hold on, you probably thought Bitcoin was a 'crypto', well there's alot more nuance. The word 'crypto-currency' is not even mentioned in the genesis whitepaper document created by Satoshi Nakamoto, the crypto which Bitcoin is originally associated to is cryptography (encryption).
The right way to describe Bitcoin is as a digital asset and currency. Crypto as it is generally categorised has morphed into an industry where centralised projects run by a team with marketing budgets provided by venture funding, are building mostly affinity scams, pump & dumps, speculation conduits or outright ponzis and pyramid schemes.
Statistically majority of these crypto (coins/tokens/protocols/memecoins etc) have no fundamental value or basis of existence with most cryptos created for degenerate speculating and enriching early insiders. Think about it, like why does dogecoin which was created as a joke even still exist, what value does it offer, what utility? Definitely not scarcity when its circulating supply is over 140Billion and increasing daily. Let's not even start with fartcoin which has over a Billion $ in market cap value at time of writing.
What might be true is the need for the underlying blockchains which stablecoins are built on, but there is no fundamental need for an accompanying token. Eg Tron Blockchain is widely used for USDT stablecoin transactions but why does a Tron token exist, if not to enrich the creator and early VCs.
Most crypto projects are vaporware with no value creation, but with venture funding, high marketing budgets, coordinated manipulation, wash trading on exchanges etc the creators and early backers are able to get 'crypto influencers' to hype these vaporware and eventually dump on the masses who end up holding worthless coins (exit liquidity).
This is the reason there are uncountable crypto tokens, protocols, and coins. If you go back to the top 20 coins by market cap in 2017, you would notice most have disappeared from the top 100 coins today, little to no substance so they eventually fizzle away. This is why we say there is Bitcoin in its own category, and then there is crypto.
The modus operandi of over 90% of all crypto projects are just pure hype projects claiming to be the next big thing after Bitcoin when they are simply garbage. They have overshadowed the industry leaving just a few utility projects like fiat-pegged Stablecoins and a few others like sports token where fans can engage with their sport clubs.
Bitcoin has distinguished itself from all other crypto projects because it is truly and fully decentralised, it has a fixed limited supply making it deflationary. There is no second best to Bitcoin. Bitcoin is an incorruptible monetary network, a breakthrough in financial evolution.
Saving in Bitcoin is long-term wealth building while most of Crypto speculating is a Casino; a dog-eat-dog jungle, a wild form of predatory gambling, a zero sum market, a few winners at expense of the masses. It is a jungle because behind the scenes is so much price manipulation, deceitful marketing, insider trading and coordinated dumping on the herd. Exchanges, influencers, celebs, insiders and even the media are all complicit in pumping these worthless crypto projects.
Stablecoins are also in a category of their own, they are not speculative or volatile and are pegged to the value of the Dollar (eg, $100 can buy $100 of a US pegged stablecoin like USDT or USDC). However stablecoins are centralised and transactions can be frozen or seized at any time by Government request. Stablecoins are suitable for cross-border transactions and sending value since they are pegged to fiat currencies, hence the name stablecoins (stable=fixed value).
Before we end, lets run some numbers of some of the large-cap coins.
ETH: Circulating Supply | 120Million and counting
XRP: Circulating Supply | 100 Billion cap
SOL: Circulating Supply | 500Million and counting
ADA: Circulating Supply | 45 Billion cap
DOGE: Circulating Supply | 145Billion and counting
TRON: Circulating Supply | 87Billion and counting
This is why Bitcoiners say Bitcoin only, there is no second best.
This is a good time to cue in Onecoin a ponzi scheme which marketed itself as the Bitcoin killer in 2016, since then there have been uncountable fraudulent 'crypto' projects with the sole aim of enriching their early backers and creators. Let's not forget Luna coin which capitulated and while the creator was tweeting he doesn't "debate the poor". Basically most of crypto is a zero-sum “lottery” where the price eventually crashes and the last buyers lose everything.
