[stevep98]

I agree with the digital gold analogy. The value of bitcoin and other blockchain currencies is solving the double-spending problem online.

Gold and paper money solves it in the physical world. Gold because it’s dense and easy to check for forgeries (although gold is not used everyday now, is it). Paper money obviously has counterfeiting and serial numbers. But neither of these can be exchanged online.

If we agree that blockchain currencies are a way to exchange value online, then the question is: are they better than credit cards and banks?

Right now, it’s not clear to me that they are, because of the emissions from mining, and the relatively slow transaction rate. Time will tell if the digital currencies will scale better than they are now.

By the way, when comparing emissions of digital currencies with banks, do analysts include the physical bank infrastructure, such as all the bank’s retail branches, and associated employees and other overhead?

[ilaksh]

Take a look at Algorand. 1000+ TPS (going to 10000 within a few months), blocks in 4.5 seconds, fees less than one penny.