Yesterday I came across an interesting article from Gilles Cadignan, CEO of WOLEET, giving his uncensored opinion about Altcoins and their relation to Bitcoin. 

His full article can be found here

Taking away the “passionate” and colourful use of wording, valid points and arguments are raised.

He starts off by sketching a correct piece of recent history to underline and strengthen the arguments to be made. 

“Bitcoin maximalism came to life when Vitalik Buterin theorized the concept with his usual flaming eloquence. At this very moment, in 2014, the first big wave of shitcoins was rolling in, all of them claiming to be “the next Bitcoin”. If in 2018 you could create an ERC20 token and launch your ICO with the associated website and white paper by clicking a button (and paying the price), in 2014 the same tools already existed: choose a name, fork bitcoin code, change monetary policy, block time, difficulty adjustment algorithm randomly, generate the [ANN] post on the Bitcointalk forum and you were basically done. This was the lowest effort level of shitcoinery. Others put more work into their shitcoin, adding useless layers of complexity to solve problems nobody had.

The very existence of Bitcoin Maximalism took roots in the crypto-cambrian explosion of shitcoins. That being said, the term itself can be applied to different people with different opinions about Bitcoin. It is also largely used as an insult from people promoting/owning other coins, to designate narrow-minded bitcoiners rejecting every token other than Bitcoin. I became one of those narrow-minded people after being a shitcoiner myself back in the days. That was a slow process that I completed near the beginning of 2016, helped by a better understanding of the tech and its general intrications first, and then by witnessing many shitcoins scams and/or fallacies.“

As I was one of them for almost 2 years, I understand shitcoiners very well. Shitcoinery is completely logical from a newcomer point of view. After all, these coins are working better, faster than Bitcoin and they have marketing teams! They have partnerships! What could possibly go wrong? To the moon !”

It is true with the inception of the first “boom”, as a result of Bitcoin finally gaining its deserved traction, many companies and people tried to get “a piece of the cake” by copying the recipe and adding a personal flavour to it. 

The basis, the foundation, Bitcoin laid out remains foundational to each and any other coin that came after it. 

Without Bitcoin, the other coins never would have existed.
This is FACT. 

The additional “flavors” are aspects which can, and in my opinion, need to be explored.
If only to explore the full range of possibilities and potential the underlying technology has to offer.

The article written by Gilles Cadignan can be labelled as “Bitcoin Maximalist” and be done with.
Unlike other people, his arguments DO NOT RELY on economics or politics.
His arguments are based on technological foundations of Bitcoin.

His main arguments are:

1. Concrete foundations are better than quick sands to build on

The stability and unchanging protocol of bitcoin since its inception has made it to be the least failure-prone and most stable coin to be around. This underlines the most important aspect of what a decent protocol is, Stability”. 

“Protocols need stability in order to simply have a chance to find their way to adoption. You don’t want to start from scratch every other day because the protocol you have chosen to build on changes. If you choose a protocol to build on, you are assuming it won’t change, at least for several years.”

2. Altcoins Original Sin

The problem with many Altcoins centers around “funding” and unfulfilled promises.
As the article makes clear, with the ICO -rage in 2014, many made little effort and simply made a cash-grab without real effort or innovation. 

From the group that did try to be innovative quite a few either missed the boat completely or became lenient as soon as funding came in. 

However, the ORIGINAL SIN of altcoins has to do with economics and not being grown to fruition like bitcoin. Value of all altcoins being decided by the backing of “the project”, and subsequent losses as a result of loss of funding (or failing to deliver) instead of naturally growing through market adaptation like bitcoin. 

Remember, after the inception of bitcoin it took several months for it to be accepted and a first “purchase” to be made. A trade of 10.000BTC for 2 pizzas.
Nowadays you need but only fractions of a bitcoin to have those pizzas.
This, through natural grown market adaptation. 

The idea of funding also is against the idea of “implementing a global protocol”.
Against the idea of “public good and adaptation”. 

The fact of funding and “Initial Coin Offering” implies the idea of “decentralized authority” being shoved to the side in favour to those who made the biggest “offer” and investment.
And even if this weren’t the case, the “decentralized authority” shifts to the programmers and teams of the companies who created the altcoin. Having the ability to change protocols or even retiring the coins and established “fundaments” entirely. 

“On the contrary, the immense majority of altcoins made initial offerings, asking people for money to fund projects. Funding is completely normal for private companies, but when it comes to a public good like a global protocol, I don’t think it applies very well. As a result, numerous ICO projects or even altcoins from the pre-ICO era have raised tons of money (and more precisely tons of bitcoins) without delivering anything of value. Many deceptions came out of this situation, but this could have been anticipated. Why would anyone build anything when sitting on top of an enormous amount of coins growing in price day after day?”

3. Layers, layers, layers

One of the main reasons for an altcoin to exist has to do with the limitations of bitcoin.
Its sturdy and un-compromising base does not leave much room for quick changes.
THIS IS WITH REASON TO ITS INTEGRITY. 

It is limited in order to ensure and carve into stone its foundations.

– Security
– Decentralization
– Neutrality / censorship resistance

Each altcoin making a shift (or forking) from the original blockchain is riddled with additional complexities. Sensibility implies adding layer upon layer upon layer of structure. 

Each layer adding a possibility of failure.
Each layer adding possibility of compromising an aspect of the original foundation. 

Layering opens up possibilities for further innovation without compromise of the layers underneath.
But also holds potential to compromise one of the original aspects upon which bitcoin was created.
Yet, it also enables accountability to each and every member pertaining to the team that added a layer.

“The main explanation for creating a new coin or a new protocol was : Bitcoin is limited and cannot do what I want. Is Bitcoin limited ? Yes it is. But Bitcoin is limited for reasons. Security is crucial for Bitcoin to deliver its real innovation. Censorship resistance is also crucial in order to keep protocol’s neutrality. Decentralization is an absolute must if you don’t want to have powerful actors controlling everything. Newer blockchain protocols introduced more complexity and with it, new vulnerabilities or compromises; they have companies, foundations and people in charge creating single points of failure. We need to really think about the real innovation Bitcoin brought to the world. Bitcoin is freedom, for everyone the same rules. The most important feature is the freedom of making transactions and the same chance for everyone to have them included in a block. If you want to build more sophisticated things on top of this innovation, use layers for God’s sake! Layers are the smartest way to isolate roles and create secured architectures. Upper layers allows to add complexity without sacrificing lower layers properties. You can have scalability with layers, you can have complex smart contracts with layers, you can build tokens with layers. Layers are the way to go and it should be obvious to anyone. “

Gilles Cadignan concludes, correctly, bitcoin is the most major player and will retain the biggest market capitalization now and future-wise. 

Likes Gilles, I too believe no “flippening” will ever occur for the very same reason mentioned. 

“ I don’t think there will be any flippening, it’s simply too late. Bitcoin is a very secure technology, working as intended and 10 years after its genesis block, it became far more than just a technical protocol, it became a language, a common social construction strengthening its resilience day after day, block after block. “.

Where I do disagree with him is when it concerns the importance of altcoins. 

“Even if some altcoins seem to have genuine intentions — other than their founders buying lambos — I consider their mere existence as a fantastic loss of time and money.”

I disagree with this stance by reason that I see altcoins filling up a vacuum and exploring possibilities beyond the set limitations. 

I see them as an adaptation to fill in a variety of niches which can help develop a variety of companies and future technologies. 

Yes, human greed is a factor which MUST be accounted for.
It is something that will remain present and is inherent as soon as we talk economics and politics. 

Altcoins that aim to replace or “rival” bitcoin are indeed a waste of time and money.
Altcoins used for decision-making and “probing” of markets and localized exchanges are a grey zone with the majority being a darker shade.
Altcoins with a different niche-aim, and I like to look at stable-coins for this, fulfil another economic need which make them worth their while. 

Yet despite all, Bitcoin rules prime.
The technology and protocol by which it was enabled has opened up a wide arrange op possibilities.
And in my opinion, it would be a shame to leave these possibilities (and hidden potential) undiscovered.
Even if it implies wading through a SHITLOAD of trash.

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