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The Area 51 proposal originally included "Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies". I think the FAQ should be changed to include this explicitly.

The ones I'm thinking of are currently Bitcoin forks (Namecoin et al...), but perhaps other crypto-currencies that are not forks would be acceptable as well? Is the the set of crypto currencies that are not forks an empty one?

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  • note that there are many crypto-currencies in the literature which do not resemble bitcoin at all (for instance they are not decentralized). There are also crypto-currencies that existed before bitcoin. Thus, the set of nonfork cryptocurrencies is non-empty, and a lot of them don't resemble bitcoin at all.
    – Artem Kaznatcheev
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 12:25
  • @Artem - I would want this SE to be about forks and "design forks" - meaning all crypto currencies that take a significant amount of inspiration from BItcoin. Being decentralized is a key factor in all such crypto currencies.
    – ripper234
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 12:44
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    then you should not allow other crypto-currencies, but say something explicit like "bitcoin forks" or "decentralized crypto-currencies", etc. It is best to be precise, to avoid people who might become confused as their legitimate-seeming non-bitcoin related crypto-currency questions are closed. Also, in this case you might want to include a link to crypto.SE in the FAQ, so that users know where to take general crypto-currency questions.
    – Artem Kaznatcheev
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 12:49
  • @Artem - added "/bitcoin forks" to the title.
    – ripper234
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 17:47
  • eMansipater has a good suggestion here: meta.bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/85/…
    – Chris Acheson
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 22:40
  • @Chris - I'll upvote if he takes my comment there into account.
    – ripper234
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 2:42
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    See also the question Are questions about other crypto-currencies on-topic?. The conclusion so far is that not only should forks be included as on-topic, but also comparisons to far-less-similar systems, and perhaps more than that.
    – nealmcb
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 2:55

2 Answers 2

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I agree. This would follow the line that it is the Bitcoin protocol that is important, and not specific uses of it. Should other variations of Bitcoin that support other types of distributed signed tokens occur then there will be useful reference site ready for them.

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  • If you agree, you should upvote.
    – ripper234
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 8:59
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    @ripper234 I've been trying but for some reason my network wasn't allowing me certain activities (voting, answer acceptance etc) on any SE sites. Anyway, working now... :-)
    – Gary
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 10:34
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Should this site include barter currencies, as per the original proposals on Area 51?

While bitcoins are a uniquely successful alternative currency, the system was built on other currencies, and could benefit from parallel discussion on those other currencies.

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    Hmm, I don't think we should be including all barter currencies. For example, I don't think trading goods for gold would be too relevant to the community. However, if the currency was to be digital and notable, I could see it being incorporated into the SE. I think we could accommodate some additional topics without diluting the focus on Bitcoin too much ;).
    – ThePiachu
    Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 8:33

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