I often get asked "Why Bitcoin vs Ethereum." This article sets out to define my thoughts on the difference between the two, and why I think Bitcoin represents a distinctly different risk/reward profile than Ethereum.
I'm no expert on crypto by any stretch, but I've never liked Ethereum nor would I ever invest in it. Deep down I believe it's a scam, or at best a wolf in sheep's clothing and a poor long term investment. I wouldn't be surprised if it skyrockets in price in the short-medium term, but I also think there's a good chance it collapses in the longer term. And if/when it does, it could take the entire crypto market down with it and shake many weaker hands out of Bitcoin in the process. But I also strongly believe that Bitcoin will prevail, regardless of what happens with Ethereum or other shitcoins. Why? Bitcoin was born in truth, represents hope, and will prevail through unity.
Such good work. Your current job at Kraken would indicate that you believe in a sort of cryptoverse of some kind (after a mass extinction event). Would you be willing to talk about some of the others in the say top 5? It’d be nice to hear thorough, sober thoughts on some of the others in contrast to so much love/hate/hype.
I have had FOMO on the alts only because of reading all of the information shilling them. I had 10 ETH until the Sunday before the Tesla $1.5billion announcement. I read your newsletter and decided to convert them to Bitcoin so that is the only crypto I own. Once again you have reinforced my decision as SOV is what I am in it for so I can leave something valuable to my heirs. Looking forward to you being a Texan Dan. Glad you are feeling better.
Hey man, huge fan of your work. Are you planning on doing an article on YCC and what you think the fed will do? Preston on his podcast has been talking about it a lot and he makes up some really fascinating cases about how because the fed will need to do YCC, everyone in fixed income is going to pour into Bitcoin. Which of course means we go to the moon.
Will ETHE fail due to scalability and high gas fees (or) will the ETHE upgrades in progress likely fix it before ETHE loses market share to a better platform? If so, what is most likely to replace ETHE as a smart contract platform for DEFI?
Amazing read. I wish you could tackle the FUD about Bitcoin mining consuming 10% of Earth's energy before it hits 1 million dollars... not to speak of higher numbers.
Bitcoin can't consume more energy than is available. If there's no market for energy to be sold to miners, then the number of miners would reduce and the electricity required would also reduce as the mining difficulty goes down.
Now, if it takes 10% of Earth's energy, whether that is right or wrong is subjective.
People who see it as revolutionary money don't see a problem with it consuming 10% of the earth's energy. People who see it as a geek coin for nerds see it as a waste of time.
I heard that not giving birth to a child would do the most towards reducing our carbon footprint. A human born today would consume a lot of energy and contribute to environmental degradation over the course of its lifetime.
So, does this mean we shouldn't give birth to humans? Or humans should commit suicide? Once again, that depends on who you ask.
We live in interesting times...when your technical analysis / opinion should get you "fired" - possibly the most important thing that one should learn at an early age is that disagreement is normal / acceptable in a free society. It's actually how things get done, how we improve, how scientific inquiry and intelligent discourse is furthered.
Love the "narrative over time" chart. I would not necessarily hold that against Ethereum as long as Ethereum had achieved each of its intermediate goals. In other words, Amazon, started as a place to order books and over time has successfully jumped over every new objective/hurdle and is now a vast store of data / transactions, a virtual store of almost everything with regional warehousing, a marketing / ecommerce platform for other stores, a series of successful products (e.g. kindle) and now with a CEO who built their cloud tech stack into a global powerhouse. Your point stands, of course, but I think this needed to be said.
Thank you Dan. After taking a beating from some of your fans, and based on your great work, I am moving out of some alts to increase my Bitcoin position.
I'm no expert on crypto by any stretch, but I've never liked Ethereum nor would I ever invest in it. Deep down I believe it's a scam, or at best a wolf in sheep's clothing and a poor long term investment. I wouldn't be surprised if it skyrockets in price in the short-medium term, but I also think there's a good chance it collapses in the longer term. And if/when it does, it could take the entire crypto market down with it and shake many weaker hands out of Bitcoin in the process. But I also strongly believe that Bitcoin will prevail, regardless of what happens with Ethereum or other shitcoins. Why? Bitcoin was born in truth, represents hope, and will prevail through unity.
Such good work. Your current job at Kraken would indicate that you believe in a sort of cryptoverse of some kind (after a mass extinction event). Would you be willing to talk about some of the others in the say top 5? It’d be nice to hear thorough, sober thoughts on some of the others in contrast to so much love/hate/hype.
Love your work...
Thanks! I only like Bitcoin, and all of my writings are my personal thoughts vs my employers.
I have had FOMO on the alts only because of reading all of the information shilling them. I had 10 ETH until the Sunday before the Tesla $1.5billion announcement. I read your newsletter and decided to convert them to Bitcoin so that is the only crypto I own. Once again you have reinforced my decision as SOV is what I am in it for so I can leave something valuable to my heirs. Looking forward to you being a Texan Dan. Glad you are feeling better.
Thanks Robert!
Great article Dan!
Thank you!
Very nice read per usual, thanks Dan, I’ve been waiting for this.
I agree w you 100%. Let bitcoin be SoV. Other crytos can be something else. i.e. litecoin is a sensible payments aggregator, for example.
Hey man, huge fan of your work. Are you planning on doing an article on YCC and what you think the fed will do? Preston on his podcast has been talking about it a lot and he makes up some really fascinating cases about how because the fed will need to do YCC, everyone in fixed income is going to pour into Bitcoin. Which of course means we go to the moon.
Hey Jeremy! Check out Preston and I's podcast coming out Tuesday! I don't cover this exactly, but we may answer some questions you have.
Awesome, can't wait to listen!
Will ETHE fail due to scalability and high gas fees (or) will the ETHE upgrades in progress likely fix it before ETHE loses market share to a better platform? If so, what is most likely to replace ETHE as a smart contract platform for DEFI?
I don't think there is a huge need for DeFi/Dapps at the moment.
Thank you Dan. I love your work. Because of it I am moving out of some alts to increase my Bitcoin position further.
great article, thank you !
Amazing read. I wish you could tackle the FUD about Bitcoin mining consuming 10% of Earth's energy before it hits 1 million dollars... not to speak of higher numbers.
I have! It's probably my most popular article.
https://www.danheld.com/blog/2019/1/5/pow-is-efficent
Bitcoin can't consume more energy than is available. If there's no market for energy to be sold to miners, then the number of miners would reduce and the electricity required would also reduce as the mining difficulty goes down.
Now, if it takes 10% of Earth's energy, whether that is right or wrong is subjective.
People who see it as revolutionary money don't see a problem with it consuming 10% of the earth's energy. People who see it as a geek coin for nerds see it as a waste of time.
I heard that not giving birth to a child would do the most towards reducing our carbon footprint. A human born today would consume a lot of energy and contribute to environmental degradation over the course of its lifetime.
So, does this mean we shouldn't give birth to humans? Or humans should commit suicide? Once again, that depends on who you ask.
Phenomenally explained. Simplifying the complexities for the growing pool of investors coming in-mass into the BTC ecosystem.
Thank you!
Awesome article Dan. A sovereign fundament for a darwinian crypto supplement. Would that work?
We live in interesting times...when your technical analysis / opinion should get you "fired" - possibly the most important thing that one should learn at an early age is that disagreement is normal / acceptable in a free society. It's actually how things get done, how we improve, how scientific inquiry and intelligent discourse is furthered.
Love the "narrative over time" chart. I would not necessarily hold that against Ethereum as long as Ethereum had achieved each of its intermediate goals. In other words, Amazon, started as a place to order books and over time has successfully jumped over every new objective/hurdle and is now a vast store of data / transactions, a virtual store of almost everything with regional warehousing, a marketing / ecommerce platform for other stores, a series of successful products (e.g. kindle) and now with a CEO who built their cloud tech stack into a global powerhouse. Your point stands, of course, but I think this needed to be said.
Totally agree re: thought shouldn't be something that people try to get you fired over.
Thank you Dan. After taking a beating from some of your fans, and based on your great work, I am moving out of some alts to increase my Bitcoin position.
Do you think the TAM for store of value will remain more or less the same or the TAM grows bigger?
Dan WOULD you like to buy iota.com domain name? I own it. Please check out. Regards Juanpvidela@hotmail.com
hmmm not good enough