Bitcoin. Even if you aren't into cryptocurrency, you have heard about bitcoin. Most likely you have knowledge of bitcoin, or a desire to know more about it. I will not get into bitcoin basics here, you can simply use Google to learn about that.
Let me explain why, even though there is a plethora of new cryptocurrency being launched, bitcoin is not going anywhere. It will continue to skyrocket in value over time and will never be caught by any of its competition.
- #1. First of all, bitcoin is the most widely accepted form of cryptocurrency in the world. As other forms of cryptocurrency gain acceptance in the market (ethereum for example), bitcoin just continues to gain even more. So this essentially means that you can actually use bitcoin in many more places to actually buy tangible goods. Search around Google and look for online stores and platforms that accept bitcoin as a payment option. There are millions of sites doing this right now. Millions! With such a head start in the marketplace, it will be difficult for any other coin to ever catch up, let alone pass bitcoin in market acceptance.
So, you may own some cryptocurrency worth USD or other forms of fiat cash, but if you want to use it to buy actual goods, you can either try and turn it into USD (more difficult), or turn it into bitcoin (much less difficult). So no matter what cryptocurrency you use, you will still have to turn it into bitcoin at some point to buy stuff (unless you want to turn it into fiat currency). This reason alone means that bitcoin will always be more valuable than other cryptocurrency. Watch closely over this Holiday season as many cryptocurrency holders have to turn their tokens of choice into bitcoin in order to purchase goods. Over the next 10 years this will become an exponential problem due to the constant launching of new ICOs (new tokens) and the fact that they ALL will have to be converted to a market accepted cryptocurrency (bitcoin) to purchase goods.
- #2. Tons of bitcoin is being lost forever on a daily basis. This is a huge problem and is only getting worse by the day. With tons of bitcoin faucets and browser mining sites constantly emerging over the internet this problem has become massive. The issue is simple: Many users create accounts on these sites, spend days, sometimes months using them, only to realize that it takes an eternity to reach a withdrawal threshold. So the bitcoin they accumulate using these methods is forever lost in the system, tied to their wallets and accounts, never to be available again to anyone in the future. Also, if someone forgets their private key to a wallet, they basically have lost their bitcoin associated with that wallet. There have been reports of people losing millions of dollars in bitcoin from losing their private keys and access to their bitcoin storage. As more people get involved with cryptocurrency and bitcoin in general, these problems will only become more common. Imagine the amount of bitcoin which is being lost on a daily basis because of this. Over time this issue will become exponential and will only increase, even further, the value of the remaining bitcoin available in circulation.
#3. Another important reason bitcoin will always be worth more than any other cryptocurrency is because it's used to purchase other cryptocurrency. Yup. That's how powerful bitcoin is in the market. Almost every ICO which is launched requires you to either have bitcoin or ethereum to buy their tokens. You can't simply use your bank account or credit card to buy into a new token (ICO). To buy new tokens at an ICO you must have bitcoin deposited into your wallet at the ICO of your choice, or ethereum in some cases (which is getting easier to use to buy into ICOs due to the large amount of ERC20 token launches). So that is another major reason bitcoin will always stay on top. Simply put, you need bitcoin to buy other cryptocurrency.
#4. This is the same for many exchanges too. If you want to start trading, you most likely will start with bitcoin because you had to use your USD to buy your first cryptocurrency. Popular sites like coinbase.com offer first time cryptocurrency investors an easy way to turn their USD into bitcoin. You can also buy ethereum on coinbase.com and similar sites, but the fact that bitcoin is dominant in the marketplace as far as acceptance (see the 1st paragraph in this article), makes bitcoin the obvious choice for most newcomers. So if you want to start trading cryptocurrency, and have to buy your first with USD to begin (the most common scenario), there is a very large chance you will be purchasing bitcoin in order to begin trading. This issue will also grow exponentially over time, due to the influx of new cryptocurreny which people want to trade and invest in.
- #5. Last, but not least... The brand of bitcoin is king. People know the word. People know the bitcoin "B" icon. People see bitcoin being mentioned in the news, on Facebook, on YouTube, in magazines, and everywhere else they look. The common person knows the word "bitcoin" and is curious to learn more about it. As other cryptocurrency forms emerge, bitcoin only gains more popular. People may even get interested in cryptocurrency from something other than bitcoin, only to find themselves studying bitcoin in the near future because bitcoin was where it all started.
So, as the whole movement gains more momentum, it all leads back to bitcoin.
The original. The king. The one coin to rule them all.