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Proposal: Bitcoin

Clearly, Bitcoin is the de facto leader in cryptocurrencies, but this technology is in its infancy, and its not clear that Bitcoin (as we know it today) will not be surpassed by another cryptocurency -- perhaps one of its owns forks.

Discussion today (and perhaps always) will be dominated by Bitcoin, and that's OK, but if competitive cryptocurrencies gain traction, it'd be nice to keep the information all in one place.

That said, Bitcoin desperately needs an upgrade to its own forums to better enable the exchange of ideas and also to improve signal-to-noise, which is deteriorating as usage increases.

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    How hard is it to rebrand a StackExchange site as long as the url is general enough? Right now, "cryptocurrency" is a pretty un-user-friendly word to slap on a site where user-friendly is the goal.
    – eMansipater
    Commented Apr 23, 2011 at 22:21
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    Yeah, I wasn't proposing "cryptocurrency" as the name ... just suggesting it would be more useful to have a name that reflects a scope beyond Bitcoin alone.
    – Travis
    Commented Apr 26, 2011 at 21:04
  • Right now I don't see the point. I mean, I will not say any question about non-bitcoin cryptocurrency is off-topic, but I don't think there's a need to positively include them, as bitcoin is definitely the market leader. I don't want to confuse people.
    – ripper234
    Commented Apr 27, 2011 at 6:18
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    It seemed there was agreement to include other crypto-currencies, but then hours before the private beta the name and description were changed by @Robert Cartaino to no longer explicitly include other types of crypto-currency. This is confusing.
    – Michael McGowan
    Commented Aug 31, 2011 at 3:39
  • Just as an update to this discussion. There are already 2 more crypto-currencies attempting to get into Area 51. Monero and Dash. It would make sense to absorb those users IMO.
    – Shawn
    Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 21:17

7 Answers 7

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Bitcoin is the market leader inside the cryptocurrency subcategory, but why not have even larger scope to new money in general? It is a large group of various ideas and concepts, including LETS, TimeBanks, OpenMoney, Joytopia, HubCulture VEN, and many, many other community-based, alternative, complementary and virtual currencies. You can still use tagging to filter a particular currency system that you are interested in. The larger scope you have, the more attention of peers you will attract.

So my suggestions for the site name: "New Money", "Future of Money", "Evolution of money"...

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    Yes, even "cryptocurrency" is too narrow but at the very least, expanding it to "cryptocurrency" will catch namecoin, beertokens, etc.
    – David Perry
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 22:26
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    That is too broad with no focus.
    – user41853
    Commented Aug 10, 2011 at 4:31
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I definitely like expanding the scope to crypto and/or p2p currencies. Not sure that the name matters too much, as the questions (and links to the questions) will be what draws people here.

I think expanding the scope to ALL alternative monetary/complementary currency ideas is a bit too broad for a targeted Q&A

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Why not do use paypal's marketing trick against them and use "Bitcoin and digital currency"? ;) That way if Paypal manages to play up "digital currency", we would show up just as often on searches asking about it instead of "crypto currency" or "bitcoin". After all, the chances of somebody searching for "digital money" is going to be higher than than "crypto currency" if you ask me :)

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    That would make the scope too broad, I think. "Digital currency" would cover stuff like e-Gold, LETS, and arguably Paypal. Also, I don't think we should be treating Stack Exchange as a promotional gimmick.
    – Chris Acheson
    Commented Jul 17, 2011 at 12:27
  • We don't need to go promotional gimmick within the Stack Exchange area. It doesn't hurt to get more traffic so that people are aware of the movement, but stick to technical issues and redirect them to bitcointalk for other stuff.
    – user40829
    Commented Aug 1, 2011 at 18:06
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"Virtual Currency" would have the proper scope IMO

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    I dont think that would be a good idea, this title would include things like "Facebook dollars" for example.
    – AlexCombas
    Commented Aug 10, 2011 at 5:34
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    Alex, so? Would that be bad?
    – Habbie
    Commented Aug 19, 2011 at 20:27
  • I agree, why limit it to bitcoin? That would be pretty narrow. I'm sure that pooling knowledge with the second life / facebook people would only enhance our discussion
    – Alex Waters
    Commented Aug 20, 2011 at 4:40
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    @AmpedWeb: Assuming you meant to say "why limit it to cryptocurrency?", Because then you'd have people talking about WoW gold. cryptocurrency is broad enough.
    – Longpoke
    Commented Aug 21, 2011 at 3:04
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The common "father currency" fallacy that bitcoin is only the precursor to the REAL cryptocurrency of the future.

Is there an economic principle or historic example of experimental currency suddenly giving birth to an evolved currency? Or are we just afraid to say bitcoin is the currency of the future, because I can understand fear of sounding like the moguls who speculated our world economy into dust.

http://twitter.com/#!/AstrohackerX/status/100068209306251264 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34513.msg430058#msg430058

Since bitcoin is the leading currency...err, the only crypto-currency, it should be included in the name. Saying digital cash, or crypto-currency with it also makes sense. But being as how there is no other major cryptocurrencies that are competing yet, its silly to pretend like they are here. Namecoin is only a nitche currency for buying domain names.

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    Bitcoin is not the only crypto-currency... and your point about it being a "father currency fallacy" has no evidence. It has already lead to the development of other currencies, and has gone through several major revisions itself
    – Alex Waters
    Commented Aug 20, 2011 at 4:42
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I think another good point to this question related to Barter Currencies, such as those occurring now in Greece.

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I suggest calling the site "Bits and Blocks" or something else that puns on the concept, so that both any future cryptocurrencies and any future block-chain technologies (like bitX, or NameCoin) can be included in the scope. Post suggestions for sitenames as comments below.

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    Bits and Blocks is too vague. I would like the name of the site to contain the phrase "bitcoin". Changed to "Bitcoin and Crypto-Currency"
    – ripper234
    Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 3:29
  • or... Digital Cash, the bitcoin revolution
    – user41853
    Commented Aug 10, 2011 at 4:32

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