When you're on top, number one, the king, etc its only natural for folks to want to knock you off. Same is true with Bitcoin. New competitors are springing up and they are getting much more sophisticated. So far, all the other bitcoin "wannabes" have not made much of a dent to 'King Bitcoin' (even Jamie Dimon can't do it). But now, there are some ex-Google coders working on Basecoin and some other ex-coders from Amazon, Microsoft, etc working on Cypherium. Always know your competition and keep one eye open.
(Bill Taylor/CEO)
"Bitcoin’s seemingly unstoppable surge to record highs isn’t deterring competitors.
Former Silicon Valley developers are working on at least two new versions of the digital currency. Basecoin is seeking to solve bitcoin’s volatility with a team of former Google Inc. coders that are building what they hope will be a more stable version of the cryptocurrency. Cypherium has former Google, Amazon Inc. and Microsoft Corp. developers building a blockchain that aims to be able to handle an expanded workload more easily.
Competition isn’t new for bitcoin as there are over 1,000 different blockchains, the technology used for verifying and recording transactions that’s at the heart of bitcoin. While many rivals such as ethereum also provide applications, others like zCash and monero already say they’re trying to improve upon the first and biggest cryptocurrency.
So far they haven’t succeeded in dethroning bitcoin. After briefly dipping below 50 percent of the total cryptocurrency market, bitcoin is back at its dominant position.
“When you have a whole new industry, competitors within that industry aren’t really competing with each other, they’re competing with the old industry and generally all boats rise together,” said Peter Van Valkenburgh, research director at Coin Center.
Basecoin’s investors include venture-capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, PolyChain Capital, Pantera Capital and Mark Cuban-backed 1confirmation, among others..." Full Story at Bloomberg