Sorry Bitcoin, but I've found someone else...
No Bitcoin for me, thanks. Too rich for my blood.
Besides, I've finally discovered Bitshares (BTS) for myself and I'm crazy excited.
Despite being bombarded by post after post of information regarding Bitshares ever since joining Steemit, it took me really getting into the crypto mindspace for me to truly have a look at things and understand what was being said. I think what really did it for me was seeing the performance of Bitcoin (or the lack thereof) once it reached those incredible heights, watching it hit its glass ceiling, and coming to the conclusion that it just ain't got the horsepower for the world we live in. Like trying to haul a fully-loaded tractor trailer with a Volkswagen Beetle. Good luck.
- Crazy expensive transfer fees. Up to $15 in some places I've seen. Blocktrades even warns you the moment you open their homepage. (Update: Now it says $30!!)
- Unbearably and unacceptably slow transfer speeds. I waited for nearly 7 hours for a small transfer to go through last week during the peak.
Don't get me wrong, Bitcoin is like the invention of the automobile - it changed (or is changing, rather) the world. But it didn't take long before the Ford Model T was quickly made obsolete by better, safer vehicles. Luckily, we already have one, and by comparison it's like that Model T competing with a Tesla. But, now imagine that everyone had invested so much in the Model T that the cost of each of those cars were flipped. That's what's going on now between Bitcoin and BitShares.
I'm just amazed at its capabilities:
- SmartCoins
- Decentralized Asset Exchange (this is straight awesome right here, there are asset-pegged tokens that are pegged to USD, EUR, CYN, Steem, BTC, ETH, DASH, and other cryptos, and even metals like gold & silver - and they're all backed by collateral held on the blockchain in a Smart Contract - all tradable in Bitshares' own internal market)
- Incredible Scalability
- Referral Rewards Program
- User-Issued Assets (make your own coin!)
- Stakeholder-Approved Project Funding
- Delegated Proof-of-Stake Consensus.
The top coins out there are nice and all, but they don't offer a platform like Bitshares, on top of which the world's top companies would have plenty of room to function comfortably, and likely with a majority of its processing power to spare. You want to experience the fastest crypto currency transfer? Do a blocktrades transfer from your Steemit wallet to a Bitshares wallet. Not 2 seconds after Blocktrades confirms that the transfer is complete, you'll see it in your Bitshares wallet. In most cases you'll see it's in there before you even have a chance to switch screens back to check it.
I really feel like this is the one, folks.
The more I learn, the more it feels like Bitcoin is Myspace, and the only contender I see that can swoop in and be the "Facebook" of crypto and has the capabilities necessary to sustain entire industries is Bitshares. Frankly, if I had an extra $1,000 to invest I'd put it all in, because 2018 looks like it's gearing up to be an amazing one for BTS.
Big up to @tuck-fheman for giving me a slap in the face and saying,
"No, dude. Bitshares."
If you'd like to learn more about BTS, here's a great episode of Bad Crypto Podcast with guest Stan Larimer (aka the Godfather of Bitshares, also the father of Dan Larimer, who is the creator of Bitshares, EOS, and Steemit). They break it down in ways I never considered. To me, there's no clearer choice.
Click Here For the Podcast
EDIT:
Someone mentioned that it might behoove me to include a tag for Beyond Bitcoin, so it's been added. ;-)
Very well written post. Thanks for helping to spread the word!
We at bitshares are an enduring, tight knit, but rapidly expanding community. We have a very ethical core value system. We hope to bring the founder's, Daniel Larimer's, vision of protecting life, liberty and property to realization as he has gone on to create the other parts of the solution (ie. steemit and now EOS).
I'm totally sold on it. I'm baffled how it could be so undervalued given its capabilities. Stan blames this on marketing, and in listening to that podcast, I like that they're concentrating on going to boardrooms rather than try to play the popularity game with the public. Its capabilities seem more in tune with the needs of giant corporations.
In my mind, I ask myself: "Which coin would be best suited to handle the transaction volume on Black Friday at Walmart?" No other coin comes close.
I wrote such a long comment I decided to make an article for it instead. You can find it here: https://steemit.com/bitshares/@full-steem-ahead/why-is-dan-larimer-vilianized-rather-than-celebrated
I'm glad you now see the value of BitShares, and welcome aboard! Will you be one of the few who help shape the BitShares community into being the disruptive, freedom promoting platform it was originally envisioned to be, or do you see it as a gov-sponsored replacement for the US Dollar that will foster mainstream adoption and provide wealth to us all?
lol I actually read it before you deleted it. I deserved to be its own post. :)
Yeah, I got rather long winded and covered several sub-topics. That's why I moved it so as not to take away from your excellent and enthusiastic article here.
To quote Roger Ver...Bitcoin is the DMV of crypto.
It took 12 days for me to make a wire transfer out of my bank accurately! When it was rejected due to some regulation, the funds were returned to my account after 11 days from sending it. I then had to re-send it and that took another additional day so that I could invest in cryptocurrency. Oh by the way, the fees were ridiculous and the bank had the audacity to charge me for sending the wire and receiving the wire when it was rejected. Yes, crypto and blockchain is a necessary improvement and the reason why even large institutional investors are investing in all aspects of blockchain innovation. I resteemed this.
It is not cryptocurrency that will put banks out of business. Banks will do that all on their own.
I checked it out today (for the 3rd time or so) and even if I still like the concept, BTS as a DEX is not yet really usable for my day to day trading. The volume is very low and the coins traded are all inside the Larimer-Universe (BTS, STEEM, EOS). It has a hard path before it to convince other coins, icos and traders to come over from the crowded centralized exchanges....
What about bitUSD and bitCNY? Liquidity and trading volumes have been rising rapidly. Give it a try and become part of the solution as the CEX's get taken down in the coming year.
How would bitUSD make me any money? If I wanted to hold USD, I wouldn´t be into Crypto. The issue of all DEX approaches (also of Waves DEX etc) is atm, that they only work around their own coins. I did some trading on Waves DEX, but it made only sense with the Waves/BTC pair and even there, I´d get better prices on Bittrex.
Trading with bitUSD could, indeed, make you money if you like playing the swings of the market. It's a good place to swap over to if you want to preserve what you made from a pump. Then wait for the dump and then buy back in for more than you had pre-pump. It's also a good place to go even just to rest from trading. This was also true of Tether, but I'm hard pressed to recommend Tether to anyone now given its recent behavior.
Sure, in a bearish market, Tether or bitUSD can preserve your funds - I also go into Tether when BTC is crashing, but on the other hand, I got many long term investments anyway and I´m not so dependent on BTC as many daytraders are. From the practical side, I would then sell my coins for BTC, send them over to BitShares and then convert it into bitUSD? It´s not very practical - also why should I believe, that the bitUSD token is more solid as Tether? It´s also just a token. Sorry for playing devils advocate here - maybe I just want someone to sell me BitShares as a real asset ;))
Tether and bitUSD are completely different models, they aren't both 'just tokens'. Tether is an IOU token that relies on a centralized third party for backing and has direct counterparty risk. The backing organization holds dollars in a bank account and you trust that they'll keep exchanging those dollars and their TetherUSD tokens 1 to 1.
BitShares bitUSD is a collateralized token with a very different risk profile. bitUSD tokens can be created by anyone, but each have to be backed by more than $1.75 worth of BTS as collateral or they get margin called, enforced by the rules of the BitShares blockchain.
Thank you for clarifying! I really believed, that they are the same. I guess, I´ve still not fully understood the concept of bitUSD - which makes me question, if it´s just me or the concept is not explained clearly enough....
So if bitUSD is always backed by more than $1.75 and everyone can create it, how do I know, who has issued the bitUSD I´m buying and how much it is backed in reality? In other words, this way it depends on who issues the bitUSD token and how much it´s really worth?
Maybe I´m stupid, but somehow I still don´t get it.... ;)
All bitUSD is fungible so it doesn't matter who issued the particular bitUSD you buy. The collateral requirement is enforced by the blockchain protocol, and the blockchain hosts an active exchange. If the value of any bitUSD issuer's the collateral drops below 175% of their bitUSD debt, the blockchain offers their collateral for sale on the exchange at up to a 10% discount from the current exchange rate to pay the debt. I like holding some bitAssets not so much for stability as so I can pick up cheap collateral off of margin calls after sudden drops. You can also 'force settle' your bitUSD and demand a dollar worth of BTS per bitUSD after a delay, which settles that amount of debt from the least collateralized issuer positions.
You can look at asset details on bitUSD here:
https://openledger.io/asset/USD
It's tragic how poorly marketed BitShares and its market pegged assets have been. It's a brilliant system for stability without counterparty risk, but most people who even know about it just think it's like Tether.
Tether's had some pretty bad press lately, and my trust for them is pretty thin.
https://www.coindesk.com/tether-claims-30-million-stable-token-stolen-attacker/
This is a fair point, but lack of volume can only be solved by adoption and investment, which will happen eventually if the system remains otherwise superior. How many more Mt. Gox events will it take before people leave the centralized exchanges?
There's money to be made being one of the first to provide liquidity on a trading pair also.
Yeah, there's been a lot of interesting activity on those exchanges lately as well, hasn't there? That's what prompted me to go ahead and migrate over to a bitshares wallet.
Which I can't argue with, however my intention is hodling.
Welcome to the familiy @winstonwolfe.
This is great and I 100% agree with you. :)
Excellent post, great precise information to the point and concise, and the best part is your story: I loved it!
Thanks a lot for sharing it all with us! Namaste :)
Fantastic article!
For anyone looking to learn more about BitShares please use the Quick Reference Guide.
http://bit.ly/BTS_Quick_Reference_Guide
The information about BitShares is as decentralized as the platform itself which is why this guide is so useful.
If you have any suggestions of what need to be added please let me know.
I just invested some money... thanks to @onceuponatime and @kus-knee ... so let's see what happens in 2018 :-)
Resteem and upvoted, and hopefully some BTS whales that got invitation will come here to share some BTS/Steem love with you :)
Excellent post, regards from BItshares Thailand and @apasia.tech