When you say, “cryptocurrency,” your average Joe may not know to think any more than: “Oh, she means Bitcoin.” In reality though, there are so many more tokens out there than just the infamous BTC. In fact, some estimates say there are as many as 3,657 tokens currently in existence! Today, however, let’s talk about Decred.
To paraphrase Gandalf the White, “Decred is Bitcoin as it should have been.”
The original goal of Bitcoin was to create a “decentralized currency.” This means that there is no one force controlling the currency (in the US’ case, the Fed); Bitcoin would be of the people, for the people. As great an idea as this was, however, Bitcoin soon became controlled by an “oligarchy,” so to speak. A group of miners were fortunate enough to own expensive mining equipment that allowed them to control the supply and demand (aka the price) of Bitcoin. Some developers weren’t happy, so they struck out on their own.
Enter Decred! A few of the original Bitcoin developers had a vision. They dreamed of a currency that was purely decentralized, with no room for power-hungry oligarchies.
Decred makes sure miners and users have the same amount of influence.
This was a great improvement from Bitcoin, but that’s not all Decred can do. What if Soni, a brilliant developer, has an idea that could revolutionize Bitcoin? Unfortunately there is no way for her to easily propose and help implement that idea in the current Bitcoin system. But because Decred believes their biggest strength is their community, they welcome Soni and her proposal. With help from other Decred community members, Soni’s idea flourishes, and Decred grows exponentially. This happens all the time!
Decred encourages members of their community to make the system better.
Decred officially launched on February 8, 2016, and it has made leaps and bounds of progress this past year. They were just recently invited to present at a Coinbase talk, and since then prices have jumped dramatically. At launch last year, 1 Decred was worth about $1.20. Today, it hit $5.30!
Bitcoin may be the superpower in the Blockchain and cryptocurrency world for now, just as Netscape was once a superpower. Then the internet came along. Decred may not be the internet, but such improvements are coming. It would be in all our interests if people started paying attention to this particular cryptocurrency. It has vision.
Decred is up and coming, and you should pay attention.
If you’d like to know more about Decred, there are a few ways to jump in:
- Visit their beautiful new website decred.org.
- Visit decredible.com — the best site I’ve seen on DCR to date.
- Follow Decred on Twitter for regular updates.
- Buy some Decred. You may be happy you did!
If you haven’t invested in Bitcoin yet and you want to join the movement, the easiest way to begin is with Coinbase. Get $10 of free Bitcoin when you use this link — it’s my referral link — and get started now!
If you’d like to start using an exchange instead of Coinbase, Binance is a great place to start. Sign up here!
