Bitcoin, Not Crypto: A Comparative Analysis of Bitcoin's Fundamentally Unique and Irreplicable Properties

Abstract

The crypto industry comprises thousands of cryptocurrencies offering different versions of blockchain-based decentralization – a concept that was described originally in the Bitcoin Whitepaper in 2008. What is Bitcoin’s value proposition in this confusing landscape? Bitcoin is a monetary asset that achieves immutability through a decentralized governance protocol. Such immutability is, in theory, the primary reason behind blockchain technology in the first place. However, besides Bitcoin, what we see across the industry are blockchain-based tokens offering diluted or spurious decentralization, thereby contradicting and defeating the purpose of immutability altogether. This paper highlights these ‘blockchain-fallacies’ through a comparative analysis against Bitcoin’s unique and irreplicable decentralized governance mechanism.

Keywords: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Decentralization

JEL Classification: G10, G15, G23, D81