Bitcoin is still going strong as it heads towards its third halving event… unlike the first website to declare it dead, which is sadly no longer with us.
NEWS
As the
top-rated cryptocurrency by market cap Bitcoin (
BTC) pushes onwards towards $10,000, it continues to prove wrong those naysayers who have falsely proclaimed its imminent demise.
In fact, as pointed out in a May 8
tweet from the CEO of CoinCorner exchange, Danny Scott, the first website to declare Bitcoin dead back in 2010 no longer exists.
Bitcoin defies naysayers for over a decade
In the beginning, there was Bitcoin. Then followed a seemingly endless stream of entities queuing up to proclaim it dead, or worthless, or
”a scam”, or even
“rat poison squared”.
Unfortunately for all of those naysayers, Bitcoin is still alive, kicking and stronger than ever as it approaches its third halving event.
According to the Bitcoin Obituary
page, Bitcoin has been proclaimed dead 380 times since it came into existence in 2008. The first of these was on Dec. 15, 2010, when BTC price was just $0.23, and The Underground Economist published an article titled “Why Bitcoin can’t be a currency.”
Thankfully, the Wayback Machine has an
archive of this article, because The Underground Economist website is unfortunately no longer with us.
Owwww, oh, oh, I’m still alive
In many ways, the article is quite prescient for its time, entertaining the possibility that:
People won’t be spending their Bitcoin anyway because they’re making so much money just by holding it.
However, it also predicted that when people started taking their profits it would propel Bitcoin into a death-spiral. After all:
The supply of Bitcoin is fixed and there is no other use for it besides as a currency. I doubt prices will have much of a chance to rise, since this will happen so fast.
It concluded that Bitcoin had been purely riding on its novelty value. Although if correct, that would make it still a novelty today.
the only thing that’s even kept Bitcoin alive this long is its novelty. Either it will remain a novelty forever or it will transition from novelty status to dead faster than you can blink.
Ooops. As Scott says in his tweet, “Don’t dismiss the honey badger.”
RELATED NEWS
China Telecom: Blockchain Has Significant Use-Cases for 5G
In a recent interview, China Telecom chairman said that blockchain has high-potential use cases to enhance 5G network services.
NEWS
Jiang Wei, the chairman of China Telecom Blockchain and Digital Economy Joint Laboratory, explained in an interview
published on Chinese news portal, Cebnet, that blockchain technology has significant use cases that could improve the 5G mobile network.
According to estimates by China Telecom in 2019, China’s 5G services are expected to have approximately 170 million subscribers by the end of 2020. Wei said that China Telecom expects blockchain to play a crucial role in trusted management, secure interaction, and efficient collaboration among multiple participants of the network and devices.
Making 5G more seamless and convenient
Wei stated that Blockchain in 5G will introduce social capital in the 5G landscape. He believes that this will help the industry crowdsource the 5G infrastructure. He also noted his belief that blockchain will help realize 5G resource sharing and usage tracking.
China Telecom is also experimenting with blockchain to improve international roaming services. He sees Blockchain as a way to eliminate the need for third-parties. If he’s correct, this could make related services more seamless and convenient.
There remain hurdles in blockchain / 5G implementation
“Before we could see an efficient integration of blockchain and 5G, there are multiple issues that need to be dealt with blockchain technology,” said Wei. “Of those, the legality and security aspects of smart contracts are a major concern.” Wei continued:
“In addition, from a design perspective, smart contracts cannot be repaired or upgraded. Therefore, 5G smart contracts need to formulate standardized solutions for bug fixes and updates.”
On the other hand, scalability and interoperability are two hurdles that hinder the integration of these two technologies. With proper cooperation and experimentation by global institutes, Wei says we can still integrate the two technologies — leading to better communication services throughout the world.
In August 2019, Cointelegraph
reported that China Telecom published a white paper explaining their idea for 5G blockchain phones.
