(IJCH) The King is Dead, Long Live the King (or Why "The Flippening" King may NOT be Ethereum)
IJCH - Inside JaiChai's Head (meaning: My warped, personal opinions and musings)
From the Author:
Salutations.
I am JaiChai.
And if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before, I'm delighted to make your acquaintance now.
I invite you to interact with everyone, learn, and have as much fun as possible!
For my returning online friends, "It's always great to see you again!"
Firstly, A Tribute to Satoshi's Bitcoin
No one will argue that Satoshi Nakamoto's epic creation (The Bitcoin Protocol) has changed the world in so many ways.
He created a database structure with peer-to-peer networking, cryptographic tokenization, consensus where trust is unnecessary and incentivization via game theory.
The Bitcoin Protocol paved the way for vast digital storage and worldwide transmission of value without greedy middlemen and their scrutinizing requirements for the "privilege" to use them as "trusted third parties".
BUT this “Digital Money” use case, is only one use case; and in terms of scalability and efficiency, a poorly designed one at that.
IMHO, Bitcoin as a digital asset is the least functional use of the blockchain.
Smart, programmable money, conditional asset transfer, and shared, tamper-resistant business logic is a Hell of a lot more useful than mere "computer pennies".
Yes, the Bitcoin protocol is like the world’s largest set of accounting books; but it can only record one transaction at a time (or to move one crypto-asset from one place to another).
And therein lies one of its Achilles heels (vulnerabilities) - the limited scope of this initial design, due to its use of a virtual machine which isn’t Turing-complete.
Additionally, other valid objections to Bitcoin include the takeover (centralization) by the Global Mining Mafia and HUGE/EXPENSIVE carbon footprint that exceeds the power usage of many small-medium sovereign countries!
People with tunnel vision; that is, those who only focus on Bitcoin as a slow moving, expensive transaction medium are missing the notion that we’re on the threshold of the next generation of the web.
The King is Dead, Long Live the King
"The King is dead, long live the King!, or simply "Long live the King!", is a traditional proclamation made following the accession of a new monarch in various countries.
The seemingly contradictory phrase is used to simultaneously announce the death of the previous monarch and assure the public of continuity by saluting the new monarch.
What is "The Flippening"
The Flippening is an expected paradigm shift in the world of cryptocurrency, where the values of altcoins are no longer primarily based on the value of Bitcoin.
It marks the end of the absolute dominance and special status, in the form of market cap and brand awareness, that Bitcoin has had in cryptocurrency markets ever since its inception in 2009.
Enter Ethereum - The Second Generation of Blockchain Technology
Ethereum does everything Bitcoin can do plus so much more with smart contracts.
Its high level software language called Solidity is akin to Javascript.
Solidity enables Ethereum to store and transmit value (the single use case of Bitcoin) AND to program agreements where conditions must be met before the transaction can be completed.
For the prospective DApp developers out there, here's a couple examples of simple agreements that can easily be coded in Solidity:
A Loan
A Smart Contract
To EVM or not to EVM, THAT is the Question...
There are many alternative platforms on which users and DApp developers may launch smart contracts and smart contract based DApps using the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) or derivative.
These include EOS, Hedera Hashgraph, Stellar, Crowd Machine, GoChain and more platforms appearing on a quarterly basis.
Other platforms such as Cardano have created EVM compatible languages of their own (e.g., Cardano's Plutus using their KEVM - a K-based EVM).
No doubt, future platforms will utilize EVM or some other home-grown protocol in order to accommodate smart contracts on their platforms instead of on Ethereum.
Why?
Because launching DApps and smart contracts on Ethereum is based on the GAS model and is simply too expensive for new upstarts.
Yes, the King is Dead, Long Live the King, BUT “The Flippening” King may NOT be Ethereum...
Conclusion
"With the advent of other platforms with smart contract capabilities and cheaper models to lauch them, plus additional capabilities like interoperability, quantum resistance and zk-Snarks' level of security, it's realistically possible for another platform to overtake Ethereum (even after Ethereum dethrones Bitcoin)." - Jaichai
Parting Shot
I would love to hear your views.
By JaiChai
Thanks for stopping by.
About the Author
Believing that school was too boring, he dropped out of High School early; only to earn an AA, BS and MBA in less than 4 years much later in life – while working full-time as a Navy/Marine Corps Medic.
In spite of a fear of heights and deep water, he performed high altitude, free-fall parachute jumps and hazardous diving ops in deep, open ocean water.
After 24 years of active duty, he retired in Asia.
Since then, he's been a full-time, single papa and actively pursuing his varied passions (Writing, Disruptive Technology, Computer Science and Cryptocurrency - plus more hobbies too boring or bizarre for most folk).
He lives on an island paradise with his teenage daughter, longtime girlfriend and three dogs.
