I have been wondering for a long time why Bitcoin is still rising in value. Ethereum has a better blockchain, but can't follow the pace of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is also polluting the environment with the PoW algorithm using too much energy for mining. So there is many arguments NOT to use Bitcoin, but why do we still do it?

If you want to trade altcoins on exchanges you almost always trade against Bitcoin instead of USD (or USD Teather). So you NEED to have Bitcoin. I know that more exchanges allow trading against Ethereum and others, but still the most popular marked is BTC/XXX (where xxx is any given coin).

For me it is clear that this has to change to stop the rise in Bitcoin. I think most of us is tired of the long confirmation time in the Bitcoin block chain that can take up to an hour or more.  It's embarrassing for any crypto to have such a long validation time.

I therefore hope that exchanges will adapt USD as the standard measure and stop having Bitcoin/Altcoin pairs.... it will probably not happen. I'm just saying what I would like to see.

I think exactly that is keeping the Bitcoin price high.

Comments?

Also posted here: http://rimbit.dk/showthread.php?tid=656