[quote=“lindatess, post:9, topic:867”][quote=“0ptimal, post:8, topic:867”][quote=“lindatess, post:7, topic:867”]…
At the moment it seems primecoin fixes all the problems with bitcoin and litecoin…[/quote]
What problems?
Btw, the only thing I know of Primecoin is Prime numbers and CPU.[/quote]
Well a CPU should be able to compute mathematics faster than anything else. There is no need for any advanced computational algorithm. Furthermore, there is no closed solution for prime numbers making it less likely to be gamed by a system.
Bitcoin has some flaws including slow transaction times and in theory if you don’t pay a fee that transaction may not be completed for months as more and more transactions with higher priority enter the chain. There is also a maximum number of transactions per day that can be completed and no method to prevent mining pools colluding to decrease block sizes and increase transaction fees.
Both of the bitcoin and litecoin suffer from centralisation of mining pools. Scrypt asics are coming out soon and we will see the same centralisation issue and it will become overly monetised instead of being used as an alternative virtual currency. More and more mining will be done by fewer people allowing intelligence agencies to seize assets as the conspiracy theorists believe.
Although, I don’t see why one would use coins at all if we achieve usd/aud/cad/eur/cny/rub denominated wallets which are already available and easy to use. I argued that the future of virtual money is in fact proprietary bank products allowing secure money transfers using easy methods which are transaction free. Examples include: http://www.gomoney.anz.com/. In the future it may be conducted on a token machine, similar to that of those RSA tokens. The difference with primecoin is that it is international.
There are few other organisations that conduct low-cost international transfers that haven’t been targeted by enforcement agencies, one notably, Western Union. So usage of those services comes with a cost even if you are conducting legitimate business. Iranian E-Gold accounts were confiscated and you can do some research on this. The problem with western union is paperwork, so if someone doesn’t like it they would just use a SWIFT international bank transfer provided by a local bank.
It’s a bit like how many people choose the Apple over the Android. That’s why I see primecoin functioning much better than bitcoin and litecoin due to it’s ease of use. Although at the moment there doesn’t seem to be nice looking user interfaces.[/quote]
I agree with everything you just said. The idea that now you have to use ASIC to mine bitcoin will deter wider adoption. Now that bitcoin has gone ‘mainstream’ people will be looking at how they can get a hold of Bitcoins. Once they see the high asking price for a bitcoin they will likely be turned off by it. There is no incentive to switch from fiat currency. However with Primecoin, as it gains popularity, people can mine immediately for fractions of coins without investing large sums of money on GPUs or ASICs. In the future, the hope is the Primecoin value will be the several hundreds USD per coin. So even someone mining on an average multi core desktop for a week, can obtain several dollars worth of coins. It doesn’t seem like much, but if you want some coins at least you have some.