Is Bitcoin vs Ethereum the Wrong Debate? - Decentralise #7
Tribes and the battle to be digital money
The Bitcoin vs Ethereum debate is as old as the platforms themselves.
But recently the issue has resurfaced on crypto twitter, following an episode of the Uncommon Core podcast featuring Su Zhu, Hasu, and Light.
The podcast’s main focus is on Light’s trading strategies, drawing upon analogies from the world of poker. I’d recommend anybody interested in trading to give it a listen, as well as previous episodes that dive into yield farming and other topics.
Under The Spotlight
The controversy came in the tail end of the show when all three backed Bitcoin as the de-facto internet money and expressed a bearish sentiment towards Eth. They cite various reasons for this judgement; traditional investors preferring a safer platform, the Schelling point of Bitcoin’s first mover advantage, delays to Ethereum’s roadmap.
Since then Hasu says he’s been barraged by members of the Ethereum community, and while I do hate to see tribalism it does seem clear to me that there are limitations to the commentators’ argument.
One of the clearest and balanced rebuttals came from Cyrus from MakerDAO this morning, and I recommend reading the whole thread.
Cyrus points out that while Bitcoin might seem safe to some, no technology can do nothing and expect to win, with Ethereum’s developer and network effects forging ahead.
For my own part while I’ve always tried to steer clear of cryptocurrency tribes I can’t help but side with Cyrus. After all, it was Ethereum’s vision and potential that got me excited about decentralised tech in the first place. Since then the Ethereum ecosystem and DeFi explosion has cemented the reality that this is the place to be for me right now.
While Ethereum has expanded rapidly, Bitcoin hasn’t changed. And to me at least, the $50+ fees to use the Bitcoin network in 2017 made it clear that if we are going to provide accessible financial tools for a global audience, tackling scalability must be an urgent priority. Not just that, the 21m hard cap means that Bitcoin’s future ability to secure the network is deeply uncertain.
Wrapping Up
Despite my sentiment, the markets are certainly siding with Su, Hasu and Light. The ETH / BTC ratio has slowly bled to 0.0291, with Bitcoin staying strong over $13,363 and Eth struggling to hold $400.
But while the market may favour Bitcoin, the Bitcoin vs Ethereum debate might just be the wrong conversation to be having.
Wrapped Bitcoin on Ethereum is growing exponentially, with over $1.5b of WBTC alone and decentralised non-custodial solutions continuing to emerge. It’s not just tBTC and renBTC - over at PieDAO we recently chatted with BadgerDAO, a decentralised organisation entirely focused on bridging the Bitcoin DeFi gap.
Perhaps everyone is debating the wrong question. Perhaps Hasu, Su and Light are correct, and nothing will best the digital gold meme.
But perhaps that Bitcoin will live primarily on a scalable Ethereum (or other) network.
From my perspective, it’s all guesswork.
One thing is for sure though:
With all the challenges decentralised tech faces, we’re better off working with each other than against.