Things I think are interesting in crypto right now - How about you?
The world of cryptocurrency is fascinating to me, mostly because of how new all of the tech is and how quickly it's improving. Being on the bleeding edge of this technical and financial revolution is pretty incredible, and with that, I think there are some topics that are fascinating to watch play out. Here are some of my favorites:
Will the Lightning help to alleviate Bitcoin's scalability issues?
Lightning, while not totally ready for prime time yet, is increasing in usage quickly. Will it be the solution (or part of the solution), that helps Bitcoin lower fees, speed up transactions and overall scale better.
If you're not familiar with the Lightning Network, check out this quick explainer.
Will Bitcoin's reduced fees serve as a setback to Bitcoin Cash's value prop?
Not to many people have been talking about it, but after the Bitcoin fees skyrocketed, we're seeing the Bitcoin transaction fees settle back to normalcy. As Bitcoin's average transcation fees zoomed, Bitcoin Cash used that as an opportunity to tell the world about the benefits of big blocks for reduced transaction fees. But now?
https://fork.lol/tx/fee
How will Smart Media Tokens effect STEEM in the long-run?
As someone with a vested interest in seeing STEEM succeed, I'm eagerly keeping on eye on SMT progress. I think SMT's are a brilliant idea for STEEM and could bring significantly more utility to the platform, as well as an incentive for content creators and influencers.
ICO Regulation, when will it come?
Perhaps you've noticed a growing trend that more ICO's are increasing their KYC (know your customer/client), AML (anti-money laundering) requirements and limited their token sales primarily to pre-sale investors. I believe the majority of this is a result of the lack of regulatory clarity from the United States, but at some point, they'll roll out regulations. Will they be reasonable, or overbearing on the industry? Time will tell.
What do you find most interesting
With the advancements going on in the crypto world, what do you personally find most interesting? Any topics you're constantly keeping an eye on? Love to hear it and interact in the comments!
Yeah, I have personally always been baffled as to why Bitcoin cash is even necessary when we have Litecoin. If the idea is to have lower fees/quicker transactions during periods where Bitcoin core fees are rising and speed is slower due to spam or congestion, you have the Litecoin blockchain to function as a pressure valve. I'm optimistic that the lightning network will put this issue to rest regardless.
Litecoin has segwit. The biggest argument for bitcoin cash was to get rid of segwit. Many people are worried about how much less secure segwit is. It puts a lot more trust in the miners. I personally don't think either coin has the best solution but I'm definitely more wary of segwit.
Well, I guess it's good to have BCH around just in case.
Hey, thinking back on this post - can you explain what the worry is with Segwit? I was under the impression that Segwit is viewed as largely positive. I've actually never heard what the downside of it is, so the idea that "many people are worried about.." made me wonder about this. Thanks.
No problem! My favorite post on the subject is this one. Here is one of the more important excerpts:
I like this post because a lot of people just complain about the "lightning network" but that isn't really the main issue. The biggest issue is the fact that there was a change at the protocol level that allows cheating if enough miners agree to "look the other way."
I would recommend reading the entire article though. Enjoy! :)
Is it realistic for miners to "look the other way" on a large enough scale for this to happen? When I hear people like "Ivan on Tech" explain Segwit, it just sounds like a reasonable scaling solution. I will have to more thoroughly read the link you shared.
(
I think there will be better options out there anyway but I think the concern is that it is "possible" for them to do it even if it's not likely. Like I said, I think the solution will be something different. Segwit seems too complicated (and frankly unnecessary) for it to be a good solution and just raising the block size (bch) only solves part of bitcoin's problem.
I like to see the Lighting network capacity growing, but we don't actually know if it being utilized. Since all the transactions are private, all we know is more people are staking BTC to become a channel. Its interesting to see the BTC network backlog dropping. Is it due the Lighting, or is it due to shift in usage of other currencies?
My biggest interests are decentralized exchanges, privacy coins, and Steem.
I'll also add that when asking BCH supporters why Litecoin doesn't serve the purpose that BCH is meant for, I have never heard a direct answer to the question. So, I encourage anyone to help explain it to me!
See my other reply to you. :)
Hi @cryptobobby ! Great post, i like it, i just upvoted it ! @wildvest
its bitcoin lowest feet
Thanks for the post @cryptobobby!
Here's my take on some of your items:
Lightning for Bitcoin will definitely bring a new breath of fresh air, but in the long run BTC will loose the dominant role. It will probably serve well for value storage and with lightning it will be much easier (cheaper) to do transfers but whole crypto world is capable of doing much more. I'm bullish on platform projects. The analogy I share with my friends that are far away from crypto is: BTC is a good Nokia mobile phone, while Ethereum - is iPhone (1st gen), Cardano and EOS (and many others) are next generations of the smartphones. What brought iPhone and Android smartphones to the place where they are today?
It was not the phone-related technology. It was the underlying platforms that let developers write and for people to use apps on these phones.
As for ICOs. It's hot topic at the moment. Today I was trying to get into Dadi ICO. Followed instructions sent by Dadi team, was well prepared (not my first ICO), didn't waste a second since it began. But didn't manage to get in.
So even without regulation the market is not easily accessible at the moment.
I personally think the cross block chain technology will be the way whether or not it is lightning network or more like what Iohk is working on with sidechains. I like the sidechain idea because it adds functionality to chains that focus on security if only they can figure out a way not to break the security of bitcoin in the process.the team at IOHK seems to be set towards intermingling technology and open source.
Some projects that I have been interested in lately are Nebulas (NAS), Theta Token (THETA), and Data (DTA). Have you heard of any of these?
https://nebulas.io/
https://www.thetatoken.org/
http://data.eco/
Thanks for great informative video.. Keep it up bro @cryptobobby
Steem on,
Arslan
Some ICO clarifications will be needed that will surely lead to regulation in the space. I think it is good that they are allowing for gray areas as it will lead to the innovation needed to create the framework needed for the future growth possible in combining the technology with access to capital. We need a fair balance to weed out the scams and bad players in order to establish wider adoption into the commercial mainstream. If not, so many projects will fail to get off the ground running which will ultimately hurt the community of decentralization focus technology.