Replying to Avatar Vlad, Bitcoin Takeover Podcast

When does a shitcoin stop being a shitcoin?

After it survives 2 bear markets and still has users?

When it stays in the top 20 for longer than 10 years?

When it does what it says it does, delivers exciting new features and is different enough from Bitcoin?

When it gets its own annual conference and people actually buy tickets to see it?
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trev 4mo ago

My belief is that there can be no altcoin that can match Bitcoin, because of the non-technical, organic nature of Bitcoin.

I guess I can understand utility in an altcoin. This has been demonstrated, notably in true privacy coins (not the fake new ones that have public and private txns), or even networks that provide convenient stablecoin use in countries with extremely volatile currencies.

This probably disqualifies me as a maxi, but I don't really care about that label since I'm probably already a shitcoiner to them for working at an exchange for many years.

To me, a shitcoin is a shitcoin from the start and there is probably no going back. Pre-mining, non-PoW, VC incubation, centralization, marketing campaigns, immediate exchange on-boarding, etc.

All these are indicators of a shitcoin and redemption seems unlikely unless we are all to be taken for fools.

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Discussion

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Gary Woodfine 4mo ago

I think I mostly and broadly agree with you. However, I still have a soft spot for Litecoin

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trev 4mo ago

I can't say anything too bad about LTC, except that it's one of the early examples of a fork of the Bitcoin software to make immediate technical changes.

After searching a bit and reading for the past 20 minutes, I could see more things that rub me the wrong way about the project. The MimbleWimble addition was neat though!

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Gary Woodfine 4mo ago

Yeah , I agree it’s not a perfect project . But it’s still got some different perspectives to offer

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plebeian ewok 4mo ago

I generally agree but still think well-intentioned, useful alts are shitcoins based on monetary policy alone. Nothing matches bitcoin for the function of money, and that’s the most important thing for people to understand. Litecoin and bcash etc may have similar monetary policy but had shadier starts than BTC and are not as decentralized and do not have the same network effects, so I consider them shitcoins.

I come at it from a public education / meme standpoint more than anything else. If someone makes more bitcoin by trading shitcoins or is able to get paid for some art or finance some loan on a shitcoin, that’s fine and I wish them the best. I’m not going to go around shaming people for operating in tradfi for example, but I will tell friends and stuff that 401ks are shitcoins and explain why. I still have a 401k, I just want people to understand these have real risks and shaky foundations they need to consider.