What's it useful for?
Moving value on the internet without a potentially compromised central party
To clarify, I only like Bitcoin so far.
I'm currently building a token that is tied to an Index Fund. It will not use blockchain technology.
>Hidden transactions
>No txn fees
>Anonymous usernames
And the obvious benefit that you own an index fund instead of USD.
You didn't answer the question; there is still an oracle problem. How do I know you're holding a unit of the index fund for each token? I have a pretty good idea my broker will, as he'll go to jail if he gets caught short. That's usually right, but then we have clowns like Jon Corzine who get away with it because they're more equal than others.
The other stuff can be done with a permissioned blockchain; if you can adequately solve the oracle problem, you'd have something pretty interesting. If you don't, you're an unregulated broker who uses Chaumian tokens.
>Bitcoin is digital gold, even if economists hate it. Humans around the world started believing in a deflationary currency.
>Centralized non-stable coins took advantage of noobs that didn't understand the purpose of blockchain was to be decentralized.
>Smart coins failed to scale, and might be seeing their end. POS and DAG are untested solutions that might provide a future, but it will be years before people trust it.
>Stable coins are centralized, but provide the ability to transfer assets with limited costs. These will require centralization
>Fast/cheap/privacy coins are looking to beat bitcoin at moving money.
That said, just because a crypto is useful, doesnt mean that it will grow in value. The value may be using the coin rather than holding the coin.