What is Bitshares exactly? Please ELI5 (Explain Like I'm 5)

btswolf · June 06, 2017, 06:45:27 PM

Quote from: xeroc on August 23, 2015, 03:22:51 PM
Quote from: Akado on August 23, 2015, 01:02:27 PM
I believe @xeroc is going to do some whitepapers. Correct me if I'm wrong.
You are correct .. but it is A LOT of work .. BitShares is not just another altcoin .. I will try to release papers when they are ready ... but there are at least 5 in the makings ..

@xeroc what's the status on the 5 whitepapers? only 2 have been released so far. anything still in the works we could help with?

xeroc · August 23, 2015, 03:22:51 PM

Quote from: Akado on August 23, 2015, 01:02:27 PM
I believe @Xeroc is going to do some whitepapers. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct .. but it is A LOT of work .. BitShares is not just another altcoin .. I will try to release papers when they are ready ... but there are at least 5 in the makings ..

Akado · August 23, 2015, 01:02:27 PM

I believe @Xeroc is going to do some whitepapers. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Samupaha · August 23, 2015, 12:51:15 PM

Quote from: BitEnthusiast on August 22, 2015, 07:32:12 PM
Is there any documentation or a white paper on Bitshares 2.0?

Best documentation is Technology page on the website. You might also want to read Lessons Learned from BitShares 0.x from the blog.

BitEnthusiast · August 22, 2015, 07:32:12 PM

Is there any documentation or a white paper on Bitshares 2.0? As an investor and stake holder I need to weigh the pros and cons of Bitshares vs Ethereum. And no I don't need anybody to weigh in on "Bitshares vs Ethereum", because I think most forum members will be biased in favor of Bitshares. I simply see Ethereum as a Bitshares competitor and I need to know which is more of a better investment short-term and long-term.

Akado · August 22, 2015, 02:56:17 PM

This is related to this thread https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,18006.0/topicseen.html

Message should be clear on the website, which is not. Someone should be able to visit bitshares.org and have a complete understanding of what BitShares is about.

lakerta06 · August 22, 2015, 02:52:19 PM

Quote from: brainbug on August 22, 2015, 02:38:07 PM
Quote from: BitEnthusiast on August 22, 2015, 01:28:32 PM
I really appreciate the explanations. I now have a better understanding of Bitshares.

Quote from: dritz3r on August 22, 2015, 10:08:24 AM
BitShares is centralized way from Dan and Stan to steal money.

P.S. I'am not a troll. That is exactly my experience.

Can you explain?

No, he can't. At least he is not corroborating his arguments with facts or evidence; also see his posts in the other threads.

I seriously started to think that well known trolls of this forum are pr attackers, paid (or at least encouraged) by competitors.

BunkerChainLabs-DataSecurityNode · August 22, 2015, 02:52:05 PM

Quote from: Helikopterben on August 22, 2015, 05:23:59 AM
Seriously guys, ELI5 means "EXPLAIN IT LIKE I'M 5"

Here you go:

Sometimes bad people want to steal things you have, especially if it's worth a lot of money. Bitshares let's you put those things (such as gold, silver, oil, and your money) on the Internet where nobody can take them and bitshares also lets you trade those things with other people on the Internet where nobody can stop you from trading them. The best part is anybody in the world is free to do it.

Purdy good right here for a 5 year old explanation.

Adult version... If Ashley Madison was using BitShares.. they all still would have not got caught. :)

brainbug · August 22, 2015, 02:38:07 PM

Quote from: BitEnthusiast on August 22, 2015, 01:28:32 PM
I really appreciate the explanations. I now have a better understanding of Bitshares.

Quote from: dritz3r on August 22, 2015, 10:08:24 AM
BitShares is centralized way from Dan and Stan to steal money.

P.S. I'am not a troll. That is exactly my experience.

Can you explain?

No, he can't. At least he is not corroborating his arguments with facts or evidence; also see his posts in the other threads.

BitEnthusiast · August 22, 2015, 01:28:32 PM

I really appreciate the explanations. I now have a better understanding of Bitshares.

Quote from: dritz3r on August 22, 2015, 10:08:24 AM
BitShares is centralized way from Dan and Stan to steal money.

P.S. I'am not a troll. That is exactly my experience.

Can you explain?

dritz3r · August 22, 2015, 10:08:24 AM

BitShares is centralized way from Dan and Stan to steal money.

P.S. I'am not a troll. That is exactly my experience.

Frodo · August 22, 2015, 09:39:50 AM

BitShares is a decentralized asset exchange for value stable tokens (smart coins).

BitShares lets you issue and control your own assets and can thus act as a crowdfunding platform.

BitShares is self funding and has advanced features to ensure flexibility by stakeholder approved hard forking.

And probably a lot more.

brainbug · August 22, 2015, 09:09:45 AM

Likewise, BitShares is an Asset Exchange Network.

Actually BitShares is quite similar to Ethereum but without the (probably unmanageable) overhead of a "Turing-complete" programming language. Thus, it can be seen to be similar to Java (offering a subset of C/C++) when Ethereum is considered C/C++ (or such). Here the benefit is that the subset is handable and verifyable (.... more robust and safer), and much easier to work with :D

cass · August 22, 2015, 09:02:03 AM

Quote from: speedy on August 22, 2015, 01:06:31 AM
No one has any idea, thats why the price is tanking.

At least with Ethereum you can explain it in one sentence "Turing-complete programmable smart contract currency"

Someone needs to create a one liner like that for BitShares.

BitShares is an industrial-grade financial smart contract platform.
BTS the digital token issued on that platform, is the cryptofuel to operate on it ...

</thinking loud>

Helikopterben · August 22, 2015, 05:23:59 AM

Seriously guys, ELI5 means "EXPLAIN IT LIKE I'M 5"

Here you go:

Sometimes bad people want to steal things you have, especially if it's worth a lot of money. Bitshares let's you put those things (such as gold, silver, oil, and your money) on the Internet where nobody can take them and bitshares also lets you trade those things with other people on the Internet where nobody can stop you from trading them. The best part is anybody in the world is free to do it.

Stan · August 22, 2015, 01:49:50 AM

Lots of good ways to look at it.

Another huge one is that it is the backbone for an entire network of partner exchanges, taking the term Decentralized Exchange to a whole new level:

Remember this from Summer Announcement #2?

Quote from: Stan on June 16, 2015, 12:07:03 PM
The BitShares Blockchain now has a whole new purpose.

Not only is it a second generation coin containing a decentralized exchange that produces smart-currency products...
Now it's also a transparent inter-company network letting exchanges give their customers and assets trading access to customers and assets on other exchanges.

Instead of competing with traditional exchanges,
we are multiplying the markets they can enjoy by networking with each other.

Here's the details about why this is revolutionary:

Quote from: Stan on June 15, 2015, 08:22:53 PM
Now that you've had time to absorb all the cool new features in BitShares 2.0, its time to start unveiling some of the implications about what is possible. In this post, I'll lay out one of them.

The BitShares Smartchain can serve as a backbone
to support live trading between traditional exchanges.

Now, instead of having separate shallow markets inside their own stovepipe order books, they can use BitShares to enable all their customers to trade all their assets with the customers and assets of other exchanges. Small exchanges can band together to attract medium exchanges to join them to compete with still bigger exchanges. Like a rolling stone.

This greatly expands the network effect, liquidity and market depth of all participants. A bigger pie for everyone.

And with our new referral system, every participating exchange keeps their own profits from signing up their own customers and issuing their own assets.

We have the perfect way for them to safely compete and cooperate on a single, compelling, transparent exchange network.

The BitShares Exchange Network.

So, exchanges can do more than just serve as gateways and bridges.
They can publish their own order books transparently on our Smartchain.
So everyone can KNOW that they are honest and solvent.

And every customer holds the keys to their own assets, fully decentralized where they won't be such juicy targets for hackers.
With easy to use multi-sig accounts to make those decentralized accounts even more secure.

BitShares 2.0 has the industrial strength to handle the workload of all member crypto exchanges combined.
It is the perfect application to serve as an inter exchange networking back bone.
(Almost like we planned it that way.)

Yeah, but it will never happen, right?

Not so fast! Check out this week's Big BitShares Announcement!

CCEDK.com will put its exchange on a transparent Smartchain offering to trade with other exchanges there.
(And provide them fiat ramps and crypto-aware debit card support in the mix.)

Read their news release here.

clayop · August 22, 2015, 01:38:47 AM

Bitshares is a cluster of cusromized smart contracts based on industrial level blockchain technology.

speedy · August 22, 2015, 01:32:36 AM

Ok here is my attempt at explaining what BitShares is. I deserve a Brownie for this:

QuoteBitShares is a smart contract platform and asset exchange with Nasdaq-level capacity built into a blockchain.
BitShares' global orderbook supports trading market pegged and issued assets with minimal fees and the best liquidity.
BitShares is the world's first (potentially) profitable virtual company, by earning more income from providing services than the cost of securing the network.
BitShares is an ideal financial system, where participants have complete choice in their type of savings, which are fully collaterialized and can be lent out globally for the maximum possible return.

puppies · August 22, 2015, 01:19:40 AM

Bitshares is the network that secures smartcoins such as BitUSD. Which are pegged to real assets in a counterparty risk free manner. Thus reducing volatility concerns inherent in crypto.

There are more features planned, but most of them are in regards to growing our network, because it is our network as a whole that secures all of our property.

BitEnthusiast · August 22, 2015, 01:11:55 AM

Quote from: speedy on August 22, 2015, 01:06:31 AM
No one has any idea, thats why the price is tanking.

At least with Ethereum you can explain it in one sentence "Turing-complete programmable smart contract currency"

Someone needs to create a one liner like that for BitShares.

+5%

I agree. I can't decide on wether I want to buy more $BTS or dump lol

speedy · August 22, 2015, 01:06:31 AM

No one has any idea, thats why the price is tanking.

At least with Ethereum you can explain it in one sentence "Turing-complete programmable smart contract currency"

Someone needs to create a one liner like that for BitShares.

BitEnthusiast · August 22, 2015, 12:44:33 AM

I've been holding $BTS since last year and I'm just wondering what is Bitshares exactly? When I first invested in $BTS I thought it was suppose to be a decentralized bank and exchange? What is Bitshares now? I've been reading around the forum to wrap my head around Bitshares and honestly I'm confused ???