crypto think tank presentation on alternative cryptocurrency feb 16, 2014 at sfu regal centre
DESCRIPTION
This presentation discusses the landscape of alternative cryptocurrency. It was given by Eric and Xin from Crypto Think Tank at the Vancouver Coinfest 2014, a multi-day weekend festival that gathered cryptocurrency enthusiast to share and learn more about this growing community. Please visit: www.cryptothinktank.com to learn more about us.TRANSCRIPT
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The Landscape of Alternative
Cryptocurrency
Coinfest 2014: Currency ConferenceFebruary 16, 2014
Eric Liow and Xin Lou
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Outline
• Current Landscape of Altcoins• Mining As It Is Now• The Future of Altcoins• Mining for the Future
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Current Landscape of Altcoins
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Definition: Altcoin
• What is an Altcoin?– Reference to Bitcoin (the OG)
– All other coins are “alternative coins”
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Much Coins! So Wow!
• There are currently 102 coins listed on www.coinmarketcap.com
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Litecoin (LTC): The Need to Knows
• First marketable Altcoin!• One of the first coin to use scrypt• Currently Second only to Bitcoin• (Ripple’s not a cryptocurrency *ahem*)
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Bitcoins vs Altcoin
• On the first day, Satoshi said, “Let there be Bitcoins!”
• BTC is the grand-daddy of all cryptocoins– Genesis block of BTC was like the Big Bang
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Bitcoins vs Altcoin: The NittyGritty
• SHA vs Scrypt• 21 Million BTC vs 84 million LTC• 10 Min vs 2.5 min block time generation
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Popularity Contest!
• How did they get so popular?• Social mechanism of Dogecoin – Charities: SOCHI Jamaican bobsled team
• Any purpose to these coins?– Namecoin– Primecoin
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Popularity Contest!
• How did they get so popular?• Social mechanism of Dogecoin – Charities: SOCHI Jamaican bobsled team
• Any purpose to these coins?– Namecoin– Primecoin
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Mining As it is Now
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Mining
• It’s hard work!
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Mining
• Joking, it’s not really that hard
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Mining
• Bitcoin Overview:– Peer-to-peer transaction network– Block chain: public ledger– Subsequent transactions added on to block chain
• What is mining?– Transaction verification– Keeps system honest, robust, reliable– Miners rewarded with newly minted coins and
transaction fees
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Mining
• SHA vs Scrypt – Encryption, proof-of-work scheme, hash function,
etc– The latter is extremely memory intensive
• Difficulty of mining adjusts automatically– In order to maintain the block times– Built in algorithm or protocol
• Shovels: CPU, GPU, FGPA, ASIC
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ASIC
• Application-specific integrated circuit– Currently applies to SHA coins– Scrypt is “immune” to ASIC • Requires a lot of memory• Building an ASIC for scrypt will take a lot of time and
money• Litecoin
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Future Landscape of Altcoins
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Natural Selection: Coins
• Which coins will be viable?– Suggested from trends– Whether or not they survive the volatility of the
market– Which has most trust– Which is most popular
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Alpha Coin(s)
• There is an assumption that BTC will forever be king. – *CAUTION* coins are more volatile than any other
commodity.• *ahem* tulips.
• Counter to tulip argument– Utility
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It’s all Relative
BTC LTC21 Million 84 Million10 Min. 2.5 Min.(Safer) (Safe)
First SHA coin First Scrypt coinLarge Transactions Med. Transactions
Yachts Cars
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Top Doges!
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Why So Coin?
• Dogecoin– Social mechanism that will keep it in play
• Namecoin– Decentralized DNS
• Primecoin– Solves prime numbers
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Ripples (XPM)
• Underlying reason is very honorable • We need more of these coins– Altriustic: Human Genome, HIV, Denge Fever, etc– Idea started in Vancouver– 45 percent pre-mined
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How Do We Choose?
• Purpose (as mentioned before)• Will regulation affect the survival of coins?
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Who else?
• Large corporations dominating the arena– Disproportionate distribution of power• Capital to fund ASIC farms
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Who else? Uncle Sam
• Governmental regulation– Negative?– Positive?– Fiat currencies?• There are 182?• Could crypto work in conjuction to fiat?
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Aurora Coin
• Regulating bodies have the momentum to push crypto into circulation
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YOU!
• We the masses inevitably control what is and what isn’t. – Governments do not control P2P– For the people by the people• But can also be forgotten by the people
– Notion of Decentralized
The Most Influential Demographic
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Ethereum
• What is it?• Vs. Mastercoin?• Vs. Coingen.io?• More user friendly• Supplies a better foundation to build upon.= More coins then evarrr?
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The Amazon RainCoinforest
• Just like living species– We know a lot about a few– We know some about others– We don’t know anything about many
• Natural selection– Coinmarketcap is $10.6 Billion– Top 5 coins control 96% of that market
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Honey Badger of Coins!
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Mining in the Future
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Mining for the Future
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Mining for the Future: Considerations
• Is GPU mining still relevant for scrypt coins?– YES!
• Doubt and skepticism surround ASICs– Aren’t scrypt coins “immune” to ASICs?– Sort-of, • Litecoin miners coming
– Efficiency vs. Profitability
• New mining-friendly algorithm: Dagger and Slash, currently prototypes
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Take Home Messages
• 1) There are a lot of Altcoins• 2) Several of potential due to purpose,
support and history• 3) GPUs for mining still viable in the near
future (1 year?)• 4) A lot of cool coins out there and a lot of
money to be made • 5) Buy Litecoin plus donate to this address:
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Take Home Messages
• Thank you!