The Altcoin Is BTC And Here Is Why
The term altcoin was coined by the early Bitcoiners, at a time when the first alternatives to Bitcoin cryptocurrencies appeared.
The first one was NameCoin and after that, a wave of Bitcoin clones appeared. Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Dash, and later on Stellar, XEM, and various smart-contract-related networks.
This "new" trend with developers creating blockchain networks with limited differences to Bitcoin (cloning Bitcoin) was named altcoins and later on "shitcoins".
However, cryptocurrencies progressed and many of them have brought innovation beyond what BTC was offering. And BTC remained stagnant all this time.
Cryptocurrencies constitute an industry today, and while BTC is the frontrunner innovation is flourishing outside of the BTC realm. Meanwhile, BTC developers are focused on what they did best so far: Not change anything.
This is the strategy since the BTC community falsely advocates the blockchain is inefficient and can't scale.
It is a fact that Blockstream is behind this, and it advocates with various methods that the only solution for the scalability issues are side-chains. These sidechains promoted by Blockstream are the Lightning Network and the Liquid Network.
The Fork of Bitcoin is BTC
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Wikipedia has a messed up definition of Bitcoin Cash right at the beginning of the BCH dedicated page:
Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency that is a fork of Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash is a spin-off or altcoin that was created in 2017.
Bitcoin Cash is not a spin-off or altcoin as Wikipedia suggests in this inaccurate description based on untrustworthy articles from mainstream media.
The branding wars were already over before they even started since the Bitcoin brand was effectively hijacked by Blockstream devs, the moment they denounced and revoked Gavin Andresen's commit access at GitHub.
The centralization of BTC development was finalized with the ousting renowned early Bitcoin developers (Garzik, Mike Hearn, and more) by a team of devs that proceeded with the creation of VC-funded Blockstream.
However, an even worse centralization process was the decisive factor in the outcome of the scaling debate in 2015.
A single anonymous person in control of the top three media channels for Bitcoin information on the internet was the crucial element Blockstream's leadership needed to achieve the corporate hijack of Bitcoin.
Theymos, an anonymous persona nobody knows in person was somehow in control of the Bitcoin forum (bitcointalk), Bitcoin.org domain, and the Bitcoin subreddit (r/Bitcoin).
It is very interesting how one person managed to amass such power in the Bitcoin community, and how he/she selected to exercise this power at the most decisive point in Bitcoin's history, the scaling debate.
The censorship Theymos and the puppet devs employed at Reddit was simply the most dishonest and despicable moment in Bitcoin's history.
The Bitcoin fork of 2017, created two chains, and a hash-war started that was not going to bring any other result, rather than the Blockstream side having absolute control on BTC developments and Bitcoin Cash advancing with a different brand.
The Bitcoin brand is not based on the decision of miners, users, or nodes.
Bitcoin Core followed the path of stagnation. Any upgrade of the Bitcoin protocol didn't involve radical changes. It was just some security upgrades and a few more features that would only enhance further the privileges of the whales.
Bitcoin Cash wasn't a fork of Bitcoin but one of the two different routes Bitcoin followed. The other side was the Bitcoin Core developers led by Blockstream, the one holding the commit rights and the one holding the control of the Bitcoin brand.
BTC is the altcoin since it is a crippled network with centralized development unable to further innovate, and incapable of offering a useful alternative to fiat currency to the world.
Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin according to the whitepaper.
BTC Looks Like An Unfinished Altcoin
High fees
Stagnating development
Powerful individuals in control of the press and the narrative
A VC-backed private entity in control of development
Modern BTC evangelists in favor of regulation and Wall-Street compliance
Not quite what Satoshi intended for Bitcoin according to all testimonies, previous comments, emails, and the whitepaper.
Since BTC with its current low capacity and inaction of devs is the altcoin.
Bitcoin did not upgrade and it is running at a maximum capacity for years.
What happened, yo?
Adam Back was stalling and not being transparent with this statement since the clear scope of Blockstream was to block any attempts of scaling Bitcoin on-chain as a crippled Bitcoin would serve his company.
This is the historic chart of BTC fees from BitInfoCharts:
Just this chart alone makes the argument that BTC is the Altcoin instead.
This failure is the expected outcome of stagnation and centralization of BTC development under Blockstream's control.
Bitcoin wasn't supposed to be under the control of a single entity, but a decentralized network operating and upgrading with the agreement of the overwhelming part of the community.
The side of Blockstream was not even a majority and had to resort to censorship of the voice of the overwhelming majority.
The fork, the Bitcoin that didn't follow the whitepaper and lost its currency features is BTC. Certainly BTC is the altcoin in this perspective.
The Term Altcoin is Obsolete
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The term altcoin, probably describes better BTC today, than anything else in the crypto industry. It is a term mostly used by BTC maximalists to advocate an innovation superiority that doesn't exist.
It worked brilliantly to help BTC reach the Wall Street funds, which massively bought it since 2020.
It is a marketing ploy, but at least it made some sense when the term was coined.
Is Ethereum an altcoin, though?
According to BTC maxis, every other cryptocurrency is an altcoin, even every top cryptocurrency.
Is there a certain feature a cryptocurrency should have to escape being called an altcoin? It is certainly derogatory and gives an absolute advantage to BTC enhancing the BTC narratives.
The term altcoin is irrelevant today and used only by BTC maxis, or ignorant crypto-related accounts.
It only serves the BTC whales and a short-sighted fanaticism that in a technological aspect is unreasonable and unproductive. The purpose is to move forward and create new developments that contain utility.
BTC under this aspect is a useless altcoin, as the BTC maximalists refer to cryptocurrencies.
In Conclusion
"Altcoin" is a term the BTC maxis are delighted it is still used.
"Alt-season" is another term that helps the maximalist narrative expand further and proceed as a justification of their cult.
Maxis claim everything else is an altcoin containing no innovation and no utility. But it is more than half of the world that can't use BTC as fees don't allow them.
Everyone can use Bitcoin Cash today, even in the most isolated part of the world. BTC is simply not working, though.
BTC offers zero utility but is only serves only speculation. Who will be the last one buying the top lossed in this game, and McDonald's memes apply next.
This is the remaining feature of Bitcoin today, its entertainment value as a meme in a similar approach to Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.
Cover Photo: by geralt on Pixabay (modified)
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Now that I know where the altcoin comes from, I can finally answer the question, "What is this altcoin and what is the purpose for generating shitcoins?" But, at the very least, I now have a basic understanding of the altcoin's origins.