Decay said:
Philip J Fry said:
I get bitcoin. Sort of.
I don't understand the many other alt coins out there though. Like, at all. Even after I read there description.
I like this thread because I get to answer this question every few months and as I gain understanding I'm able to better-articulate some of it.
Now I don't know like, the algorithms or anything like that - that's straight up data scientist stuff - but the general ideas.
So Bitcoin is a blockchain, meaning a record of every transaction that is built in such a way that every block is cryptographically chained to the previous block so you can verify the contents and any changes are immediately invalidated. The value of blockchain is simply that you can verify anything at any time. It's decentralized through all of the miners who participate.
Alt coins just take these concepts and iterate them. They introduce different concepts and algorithms to achieve the same goals and their validity is pure market force - if it's good it tends to retain value and if it's bad it will fall apart. ETH allows the creation of tokens to build new coins while staying on a known platform and is the reason it's considered to be a main coin and not really an altcoin.
So as to pricing you can think of it as trust, and trust comes from many places. Does a coin introduce a low-power algorithm? Does it ensure privacy of users? Does it offer low-cost transactions? Or does it offer high mining returns? Then you can put all the above together and look at how it operates in DeFi or other uses. Stablecoins peg prices to real assets and can be used as a substitute for cash while still maintaining the underlying advantages. LINK tries to bridge the gap between coins and contracts and data. Etc etc.
just to add, just because it's a blockchain or supposed to be a blockchain doesn't make it decentralized. Decentralization is actually very difficult so that a 51% attack cannot work. Some people like to glance over this aspect of bitcoins features but it's extremely highly secured in a decentralized fashion more than any other to my knowledge.
The reason many of the other coins got into digishield is due to he rash of miners optimizing their mining pools to mine the most profitable coins based on difficulty. When difficulty spiked they'd move on and the original miners would be left stuck at an exceptionally high mining difficulty without the hashing power to support it. Fairly disruptive. Digishield solves for a problem stemming from not being bitcoin.
Taproot is very interesting.
1. Allows easy smart contracts
2. Allows for hidden conditions of smart contracts
3.cant remember the third thing offhand but will update when I get a chance. Maybe someone else can go read about it and remind me.
***
Coming soon:
AE Ventures - sooner than soon
*Psychedelic Retreats
*Physical and mental exercises
*Addiction services
Step 3: property found
Step 4: set date
Step 5: plan agenda for participants, food, logistics etc, integration and counseling post-experience
Step 6: long-term planning
I am amped.
