Stocks and the like have an advantage being centralized since they can pay dividends anyway. The "killer app" feature of bitAssets is bitUSD. It's cryptocurrency without the volatility downside and it is secure in a verifiable way (and not a ponzi like nubits). BitAssets also provide an incredibly convenient way for local cryptocurrency trade, localbitcoins style (spread/fee will be a lot more transparent for even a noob user)
The OP is basically arguing against crypto as a concept. The reason Bitcoin became so massive is because we all see a financial shitstorm brewing on the horizon. When that happens, crypto will be there to step in and take over.
Nonsense. There are plenty of things crypto does better than any other system, for now. Fast, inexpensive, fraud resistant, international, semi-anonymous, programmable transactions to anyone without rules. That is what crypto means to me. That is the innovation and the revolution. Decentralization as in spreading the power *is* important because it allows for reliable provision of the above attributes, but you ideologues take it too far. The way I see decentralization as a plus is that an Apple coin or an Amazon coin would probably ultimately be abused. Similarly the world is wary of USD even as it depends on it. A single currency that the whole world could use and know will not be abused by the issuer is revolutionary.
That is Bitcoin.
But does decentralization mean that nobody will ever park their money at a company for safe keeping? That's just libertarian cryptonerd masturbation.
I'm not arguing against crypto coins. I'm merely arguing that BitUSD is not a killer app. BitShares is a technically superior system compared to Bitcoin, but it needs a killer app to make it stand out. BitUSD isn't it.
In the mean time, we still have massive utility for BitUSD.
- Interest on BitUSD
- Blackmarket
- Remittances
- Money laundering
Anything Bitcoin can do, BitUSD can do better.
Interesting. BitUSD for *blackmarket*!! There is a place it might actually be useful. It takes time to deliver drugs and launder your cryptocoin so having it denominated in dollars during the weeks it is unavailable could be very useful. On the other hand, I think the Silk Road offered a USD pegging service... but decentralized versions of the Silk Road such as Open Bazaar (which seem like the future of internet black market trade) may not be able to offer that, so if it could be built into the currency itself...
Ah hah! Perhaps this could be BitShares killer application. If OpenBazaar was perfected it could end up replacing most street level drug trade over the course of a decade. We're talking hundreds of billions of dollars... the extremely slow velocity of money for internet drug trading would mean HUGE coin price. With BitUSD, BitShares should have a lock on the decentralized black market compared to Bitcoin. Unfortunately I doubt anyone is working on an OpenBazaar equivalent using BitShares.
Note that OpenBazaar is a TOTALLY different situation compared to legitimate transactions where payment processing companies like BitPay and Coinbase can instantly and freely transform the bitcoin you receive into USD, so you aren't expose to any volatility. Black market internet drug dealers have to deal with *weeks* of volatility so the BitUSD might actually be useful. And if the black market is really moving towards decentralized solutions they won't be able to depend on a centralized service to insure against the volatility...
I found BitShares killer app! The black market. Now someone needs to make it happen.