There are currently around 100 Bitcoin hard/soft forks. Thousands of crypto assets have been developed and launched as a result of the evolution of smart contracts on Ethereum and other chains. Technically, anyone can create their own cryptocurrency. These, however, are not Bitcoin.
Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, was introduced in 2009. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies available today, with a total market value of around $2 trillion. Tens of thousands of cryptocurrency millionaires were created earlier this year as their prices skyrocketed—at least on paper. Cryptocurrencies may turn out to be a massive speculative bubble that harms many inexperienced investors. Indeed, many cryptocurrency fortunes have already vanished as a result of the recent price drop. Whatever their ultimate fate, the ingenious technological innovations that underpin them will fundamentally alter the nature of money and finance.
This fact overlooks the fact that, while a new coin can be issued, it lacks the necessary infrastructure when compared to Bitcoin. As I previously stated, miners pour billions of dollars per year into maintaining the Bitcoin network's security, and this does not include the billions poured in to facilitate custody, trading, liquidity, payment, and other services for Bitcoin.
Even Fidelity, one of the world's largest asset managers, is mining Bitcoin on its own and providing a slew of Bitcoin-related services. Furthermore, no coin can match Bitcoin's combination of math, decentralization, and game theory. You cannot simply create a new Bitcoin.
In addition to these technical and monetary factors, Bitcoin's brand power cannot be underestimated. Bitcoin is the undisputed blue-chip of crypto assets, and it is known to billions of people worldwide. To bolster its brand power, Twitter created a #Bitcoin hashtag with the infamous orange "B" symbol. "Bitcoin marketing works," as Dan Held of Kraken constantly reminds us, and it positions Bitcoin as the premium brand of the crypto, if not monetary, space.
Every person has a brand that they identify with and pay a premium for, whether it is Apple, Google, Coinbase, or another. This is undeniably true for Bitcoin as well. Simply put, you can create a new coin, but it will never be able to replace Bitcoin.
