What's wrong with this picture?
So I've seen this picture in a few posts on steemit and reddit lately, with the narrative that bitcoin is outdated and ethereum is the future. I'd like to dissect that a bit.
Simple, reliable and long lasting
Like a lot of you I am a nerd and there is a calculator sitting on my desk, it gets used regularly despite the fact that my PC and phone both have calculators built into them. Why is this? My calculator was built to do a small number of tasks and is optimised to get those tasks done efficiently.
In that sense I can see some merits in the comparison in the picture. Bitcoin was designed to be secure, tradable and scarce so that it could be used to hold and trade value. With a 8+ year history these characteristics of bitcoin have been tried and tested.
For that reason bitcoin like my calculator will likely continue to be used by me for the foreseeable future.
Is Ethereum a smart phone?
First I should say that I am invested in both ethereum and bitcoin.
Like the bitcoin/calculator comparison, the ethereum/smartphone comparison has merits, it is the standard narrative that I have qualms about.
I do believe ethereum is potentially a leap forward in the cryptocurrency scene but so was the blackberry phone. Ethereum is still very new and experimental, if 8 years is enough time to battle test bitcoins simple features, it stands that ethereum will require more time than that to do the same.
And yes, ethereum can do most things that bitcoin can do, like a smartphone can emulate a calculator but why do I still use a calculator? My calculator has never frozen, over heated or been hacked. To repeat myself it is simple, reliable and long lasting.
Unfair to Ethereum
I would argue that the simple narrative of the image is unfair to ethereum as well, I have owned my calculator for 8 years and I'm likely to own it for 8 more. I can't say that for my phone.
Does that mean that ethereum will be replaced by something else? Not necessarily, ethereum is not hardware based like a phone and can be upgraded without needing to be replaced.
But I don't think ethereum can claim to be the iphone to bitcoins calculator. At best we can say that ethereum is the most promising smartphone being developed , but it hasn't yet been launched.
I think it's impossible to compare Bitcoin and Ethereum as they were made with different purposes: Bitcoin was originally intended as a sort of electronic cash while Ethereum was meant to be a network where run smart contracts and decentralised apps. I think Bitcoin and Ethereum can work together.
There are some problems with comparing Bitcoin to Ethereum. In general, it is too early in the game to say which is a better cryptocurrency. I argue they are different technologies. In Bitcoin, the currency is the whole thing. In Ethereum, ether is the fuel that provides energy for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). While they are both technically cryptocurrencies, they serve different functions. Bitcoin is a rock solid crytocurrency devoted solely to that function. On the other hand, Ethereum smart contracts etc. make it possible to use the blockchain technology for many different purposes.
Bitcoin beats Ethereum only as a crytocurrency because it is proven, has not been hacked and does the job well, all things considered. Ethereum beats Bitcoin as a versatile blockchain technology. While it does have a cryptocurrency side to it, Ethereum is competing in so many areas that Bitcoin can't even begin to operate in. PoS is still controversial which casts some doubt on the success of Ethereum as a cryptocurrency, but Ethereum smart contracts are a simple, proven reality.
My take on it is that there is room for all kinds of smartmoney in the future. We have not begun to imagine what the future holds for us in the crypto arena. While Bitcoin and Ethereum may compete for money on some level, they really work hand it hand in the big picture.
Have seen similar pic showing FB STEEMIT and LBRY hahah
https://steemit.com/lbry/@jonipilo/lbry-last-release
I guess you can count me in one of the "lucky" ones as I picked up ETH at $14 each on average almost a year ago. What it is is an advancement on bitcoins blockchain, bitcoin saw its flaws and ETH was there to correct them in their version. What it really has going for it is the ability to addapt and change unlike bitcoin which is really struggling at the moment. So perhaps that image is showing something else.
The calculator being set to do one thing, it cant do anything else but crunch numbers.
ETH at the iphone can do many things with apps but can still crunch numbers and change its product line to become better and better.
Now those statements to me would make sense when looking at this picture.
This is funny, but it stops there. Any link with reality :)
I am Fairly new to this Game, so I will look at it from the Perspective of my very limited developing economy nation. Bitcoin simply represents a new direction in the Monetary system and perhaps a whole new system, and Etherium among others represent different branches coming out of the thinking introduced by the New System Bitcoin. As such Bitcoin is the first and the most substantial and reliable and will continue to be the benchmark in my opinion, if there are limitations to Bitcoin they will be addressed in the same way that credit Cards sought to address the limitations of Cash but as of yet have not replaced it for many reasons. I also opine that the more tokens that come out aside from Bitcoin, the more diminished the New Thinking becomes and the Further it goes from what Newbies like me perceive as an organized system, in this Entropy will help Bitcoin and will lead to sustained victory. @dlina-v-metrah that last part, what do you think the effects of so many will be?
Its like comparing apples and oranges , btc and ethereum have different applications!
I think the person meant that smartphones give you access to Apps or Ethereum gives you access to DAPPs, problem is when the first smartphones came out there were not many Apps, same for Ethereum now.
The metaphor of the image is forced as hell. For Ethereum to really become the app platform of the future, they need to make development resources more readily available.
A great insight