RE: Is Bitcoin Dead?
I have to agree with you on the debate of centralized ledgers vs decentralized ledgers. Not only will the centralized ledgers not be able to satisfy the sheer quantity of the world's transactions they will also be more expensive in the longer run. DLTs have the potential to drive transaction cost close to zero. A lot of people on eBay would consider switching if they don't have to pay for PayPal fees.
There is also the issue of security. Which is one of the primary selling points of cryptocurrencies in the first place. The blockchain will eventually eliminate these hacking problems like the one faced by Equifax earlier this year.
The last point that you mention about Proof of Working being a wasteful is at the source of the speed problem. Future algorithms will be more efficient and this should speed up transactions.
Interesting take on it.. I believe it will take bit but we will get there eventually
I think these things will happen if blockchain and DLTs reach their full potential. You never know how things will play out. We don't know how PayPal and Visa will react to all of this.
I agree and that is what I find to be disconcerting about the issue. Paypal and Visa have, at their disposal plenty of capital to make a good stand. If I were a corporate executive for either and I saw a threatening fledgling ICO etc. I would either buy it or have the folks in R&D clone it and use our market share to roll it out before the competition could ever get off the ground
Yup, innovation through acquisition... or piracy. There was an estimate by IBM thrown out there that at least 15% of banks will be using blockchain technology by the end of this year.
I think some companies are thinking that they will wait for the dust to settle and after that, they will pick and choose the best innovations and try to merge them into one product.
It always seems to work out that way..