No one disputes the place of Bitcoin in the world of cryptocurrency. Consensus had been reached on Ethereum as the leading challenger to Bitcoin. In early 2021, most people took it as a given that Ethereum was capable of pulling off The Flippening and overtake Bitcoin in market cap. Now that 2022 is a few days old, it looks as if The Flippening will be postponed, if not avoided.
Cover image banner made using HTML and CSS with light edits made using MS Paint.
Other images are sourced as noted.
References to fiat currencies come from XE.com
When some people think of The Flippening, this is what they have in mind--
Source: Alchetron.com
--Although a few other people may think of this:
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Source: Discogs.com
Given the astounding number of cryptocurrencies currently in existence-- last time I checked, CoinGecko listed 12,192 and CoinMarketCap listed 16,323-- a different scenario could produce a winner like this:
Source: CBR.com
What Does Taco Bell Have To Do with Cryptocurrency?
| I would have said "absolutely nothing"-- |
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| --only in March 2021 Taco Bell released limited series of 5 pieces of digital art on the blockchain. That's not of concern here. |
During the more than 9 months I've been on Hive I've been hearing about Bitcoin and Ethereum. A lot.
It's the largest rivalry in cryptocurrency, on par with Coke and Pepsi, McDonalds and Burger King.
Speaking of McD's and BK, they play bit roles in the subplot of the 1993 science fiction movie Demolition Man. In a comment I posted in the 25 August 2021 edition of Daily Crypto Markets Live Blog, this is what I wrote:
There's a scene in Demolition Man (1993) where leading citizen Doctor Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne) takes 20th Century police officer John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) to a fancy restaurant as a token of appreciation for saving his life from 20th Century villain Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes). Since Spartan had been in a cryogenic freeze for decades (along with Phoenix), Cocteau explained to him the Franchise Wars and what happened to McDonald's and Burger King. In the end, one franchise had become the paragon of fine dining, and that is where they were having dinner.
At Taco Bell.*
[...snipped...]
* US-versions of Demolition Man featured Taco Bell as the sole survivor of the Franchise Wars. Other versions of the movie have different sole survivors.
Today we're witnessing the cryptocurrency version of The Franchise Wars. Bitcoin is McDonald's and Ethereum is Burger King. Which cryptocurrency is Taco Bell (or Pizza Hut for Europe, or whatever the franchise winner was for other regions)?
Which Cryptocurrency Can Be Like Taco Bell (or Pizza Hut, or Other Winners of the Franchise Wars)?
Just as John Spartan would never have guessed or imagined that Taco Bell would win The Franchise Wars, none of us can say for sure that Bitcoin will remain King of Cryptocurrency for a long time or that The Flippening will feature Ethereum as the successor to Bitcoin's crown.
The fact is, we have no idea, and each of us is partial to our favorites even after an objective analysis of the crypto markets..
Below are my guesses.
Hive (HIVE)
This is the obvious answer, and it's not just based on the recent price performance of HIVE courtesy of our good friends at the exchanges in South Korea. There are other factors:
- Splinterlands (DEC) is among the leading blockchain games, if not the leading game in all of blockchain. Since Summer 2021 Splinterlands has been carrying Hive on its back.
- It sets itself apart as a safe haven for refugees from the intolerance of Big Tech-controlled social media (even if most non-Hivers aren't aware of Hive yet).
- Hundreds, if not thousands, of communities exist on Hive Social for virtually any interest; and a number of these communities have their own tokens on Hive Engine.
- There are over 40 dApps currently in use, and another 120+ in various stages of development. When it comes to dApps, no other crypto platform can catch Ethereum. However, Hive can move up a few places within 2 years.
Hive hasn't gotten the recognition it deserves for what it has accomplished, so it will be some years before it becomes an overnight sensation. That's OK, since it gives us the opportunity to stack as much HIVE as we can.
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Yes, I own some DOGE. No, I'm not a fanboy or hypeman for Dogecoin. Even without considering Technical Analysis, I look beyond the surface when it comes to the King of Memecoins. I do my best to treat Dogecoin as we would treat any other serious cryptocurrency.
While it's one thing to have an army of celebrities and social media influencers and a few USD billionaires keeping the name in our minds like a catchy tune or catchphrase, it doesn't mean a thing if the Dogecoin can't deliver at the most fundamental use case of all: Internet money accessible to anyone and everyone.
This means transactional money, not digital bars of gold or metaverse real estate. Outside of stablecoins, Dogecoin picked up the mantle abandoned by Bitcoin when it transformed into the BTC we know today.
If all it did was be used as money for buying and selling goods or services, and it did that very well, that could be enough for Dogecoin to become crypto's Taco Bell (etc.).
Litecoin (LTC)
Without Bitcoin, there would be no altcoins. However, without Litecoin, there would be no Dogecoin. Even if Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency made as a joke-- "for realz, yo!"-- Litecoin is serious business.
In fact, Litecoin is one of the earliest hard forks of Bitcoin, with a few modifications (especially these):
- Higher MAX Supply -- People may not know much about Bitcoin, but one detail they know is that only 21 million BTC will ever be made. Litecoin increased its MAX supply by 400%, so there will only ever be 84 million LTC ever made. If those numbers don't sound large, consider that 21M BTC is equivalent to 2.1 QUADRILLION Satoshi and 84M LTC is equivalent to 8.4Q Litoshi.
- Faster Transaction Times -- Litecoin can put an average transaction to blockchain in 2.5 minutes (compared to 9 minutes for Bitcoin).
While Dogecoin is a better transactional cryptocurrency than Litecoin, Litecoin is accepted nearly everwhere Bitcoin is accepted. If Dogecoin excels at low-level purchases such as food for one or two people, Litecoin is good for buying a pair of Nike sneakers or a mid-level cellular phone. Save Bitcoin for electrical vehicles or Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
XRP (XRP)
While XRP, the native cryptocurrency for the Ripple network. was made to be used primarily between banks and large corporations, there's no reason it can't be used as a consumer cryptocurrency.
As a matter of fact, it's currently priced like a consumer currency. At the moment it's in the neighborhood of CAD, AUD, and SGD. If not for legal trouble with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the XRP price would be higher.
XRP is already a transactional cryptocurrency. If XRP is going to be like Taco Bell (etc.), it needs to be well known to the masses. Being accepted by regional chain stores such as Kozum, the leading supermarket chain in Croatia will help XRP gain a higher profile among people.
The major drawback is essentially marketing. It doesn't need the level of marketing that Bitcoin or Dogecoin each have, but it has to become an option for people to consider.
Stellar (XLM)
A hard fork of XRP, Stellar (XLM) was made for people in developing nations. If XRP is run by corporations, Stellar is run as a non-profit organization.
1 USD is roughly 3.5 XLM, and 1 XLM is roughly USD 0.28. This puts Stellar (XLM) in the neighborhood of the Papua New Guinean Kina (PGK), Qatari Riyal (QAR), the Emirati Dirham of the UAE (AED).
While Stellar (XLM) is made as a people's cryptocurrency (especially for the unbanked), it has the same issues as XRP: marketing. Along with XRP, Stellar (XLM) is also accepted by Kozum. As time passes, and XLM gains greater acceptance as a transactional cryptocurrency, it will gain a higher profile.
Memecoins?
From its launch in late 2013 into early 2021, Dogecoin had been priced like a memecoin. Then, in early 2021, it reached the USD 0.01 milestone. By May 2021 it passed USD 0.75 and was expected to crack the USD 1.00 barrier. While DOGE will break USD 1, it won't be any time soon; at the moment it's priced at a bit over USD 0.17 (in the neighborhood of the Brazilian Real (BRL) and Ghanaian Cedi (GHS)).
Dogecoin is over 8 years old, and for much of that time it was an afterthought as a cryptocurrency outside the Dogecoin community. By May 2021, Dogecoin had become a Top 10 cryptocurrency by market cap. It's safe to say that none of us had expected that development for a memecoin.
If this could happen to Dogecoin, we shouldn't be surprised if this could happen to another memecoin.
It's one thing for a cryptocurrency to have a massive market cap. It's another for a cryptocurrency to have wide acceptance as a transactional cryptocurrency which people are comfortable using.
Just My Two Sats
Bitcoin was created in 2009, in part, to be Internet money for the people. For many years it was, and it was also a curiosity limited to early adopters. When 2017 came around, BTC began it's insane price journey past the moon and to the stars. That's when it stopped being a transactional cryptocurrency.
Ethereum has a similar story to Bitcoin, even if isn't as old. Last year ETH was priced in the hundreds of USD. In 2021 it passed the USD 5K milestone. One side effect of that meteoric rise in the ETH price was the increase in the ETH Gas Fees. This is not the behavior or a transactional cryptocurrency, so we can forget about ETH.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are like McDonald's and Burger King in The Franchise Wars. As a Native New Yorker when Demolition Man was released in 1993, the sole survivor of The Franchise Wars was Taco Bell.
Is there a cryptocurrency which can be like Taco Bell and knock out both Bitcoin and Ethereum? For me, the top contenders are Hive (HIVE), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), XRP (XRP), and Stellar (XLM). Stablecoins are meant to emulate fiat currencies, so I don't consider them here.
It's true that there are better cryptocurrencies than those. However, can they be used as money for everyday transactions of any kind? Not even metaverse money qualifies since that's limited to the metaverse. (If I'm mistaken, feel free to tell me how.)
Given the last year for Dogecoin, we cannot rule out memecoins. Unfortunately, they are too numerous to even begin to find worthy candidates.
Is there a cryptocurrency which can be like Taco Bell was for The Franchise Wars in Demolition Man? I will say there is. Will any of us see that happen? Not in 2022, and most likely not in 2023 either. But we shouldn't be surprised if it ever happens.
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I also have no idea and it's very hard to make predictions in this universe that's constantly changing but, that being said, I like your picks and I agree with you on most of them.
This is going to be an interesting year for sure.
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By this time next year, we may have a different set of choices; what we don't know is how many will replace the ones I named here.
It looks as if a bull run is going to take place, we just don't know when it will start. If this is true, then all cryptos will benefit (even the lousy ones).
If only we could say the same for movies. at least in sports there are suprises occasionally.
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Except in reality, Taco Bell didn't supplant all other franchises. That was only fiction.
You're 100% right. The Franchise Wars is a totally fictional event from a sci-fi movie taking place in the near-future.
Alternate examples for the post could have been these, but neither was as fun to write about:
Just because a market is dominated by 2 behemoths doesn't mean either will be the ultimate winner should competition end with a declared winner.
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It was sleeping crypto GAINT for many years.
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This is true. Many people are so hung up on the origins of Dogecoin that they forget it is a genuine transactional crypto. If it failed at that, then it would be only a memecoin (if not a shitcoin).
But people use DOGE not just for tipping but also for payments and purchases. It was never meant to be HODL'd. It was meant to be in circulation.
For me, the sleeper crypto for 2022 is Litecoin. It shares much with Bitcoin, only it doesn't get the love. Litecoin (LTC) isn't cheap, but it is seriously undervalued (like HIVE).
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STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
I find it interesting to see HIVE mentioned alongside those other incredibly well-know & recognized contenders. Hmmm.
I was looking for general-purpose cryptocurrencies which didn't cost an arm and a leg to acquire and which could be spent into circulation. This ruled out niche cryptos or expensive cryptos. I included DOGE since to me it crossed over into the world of respectable cryptos.
In theory, you can pay for a meal with any crypto, but smaller-scale cryptos-- those closer to value with fiat currencies-- are more suitable for that. It's easier to do rough math in your head for DOGE or XLM than for BTC or ETH.
Stablecoins will always have a place, but for the purposes of this post I wanted to use regular cryptocurrencies.
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Oh, I totally understood what you were going for, I just meant I've never seen Hive mentioned alongside those other more well-known names anywhere else, so it surprised me. But it was a pleasant surprise, go hive! :) 🙏
Feel free to use it as a marketing tool to grow the membership while promoting the cryptocurrency!
There should me more lists online which include HIVE in them. HIVE doesn't need to be BTC or ETH, but it needs to be considered by people who just never knew it existed.
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Agreed, and thanks! :) 🙏
I've been seeing lots of buzz surrounding LVL. I wasn't going to keep any until i read more about it, then I bought some for my wallet to HODL for a bit. When I bring in more outside money, I'll see if I can get more LVL for my wallet.
Sadly, it's limited to Layer 2 on Hive blockchain. We're the only people who know about it. Then again, if it duplicates what happened with Splinterlands, then that's good as well.
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