Is the alternative cryptocurrency market flooded?

[Bitboy12345]

I decided to start this discussion, not as a means to distribute negativity or defect the credibility of projects alternative to bitcoin (I myself am a supporter of numerous blockchain projects other than bitcoin), but merely as a means to get some feedback and thoughts from the bitcointalk community regarding the Alternative cryptocurrency market as it stands as well as the too many coins that are just worthless.

1. Is the alt coin market flooded?

2. As a result, is the current status of the alt coin market more than likely to scare off new to crypto investors/traders because of the fact that almost every other day a new ICO is on the cards and in most cases the information presented might be overwhelming to anyone outside of crypto?

3. Do you think we are becoming/have become more of a "penny stocks market" in the view of the general public other than a true and feasible alternative to the world economy?

4. Has the rise/era of crowdfunding done more harm than good toward blockchain projects and the now more than 600 crypto currencies in circulation?

5. What can be done to improve on the overall perception associated with cryptography/alt coins from an outsiders perspective?

6. Should websites that list altcoins such as coinmarketcap remove the majority of the coins listed or at least list according to far stricter criteria?



These are just a few questions I've been toying with and formulating my own opinions toward. Please feel free to add to these questions and give your own feedback and ideas about where we are and where we're going?

Thanks

[1714809617]

1714809617

[1714809617]

1714809617

[1714809617]

1714809617

[1714809617]

1714809617

[1714809617]

1714809617

[1714809617]

1714809617

[jjacob]

There is no doubt that the alternative cryptocurrency market is flooded. The problem is not just the number of alts. If a large number of alts were created with genuine ideas and the fittest ones survived, I would have no issues with that.
The problem is that a large number of alts are created, just to ensure that that the developers make a quick buck. This reduces the confidence that the public at large have in ICOs.

In the real world, there are regulators and a number of people are responsible if the information presented is false - the promoters, lawyers, investment bankers, auditors, etc. In the crypto-world, people can take investors for a hike and walk away scot free,

[BitcoinHodler]

1. yes i also believe that this market is flooded with countless altcoins which are all copying each other, pump and dump and die.

2. it will scare off new investors in altcoins not crypto in general. newbies will go back to bitcoin and stay there.

3. i have heard this from others too, and i believe we are nearly there.

4. yes it has because when majority of them (the devs) are only looking for a get rich quick scheme through crowdfunding, this firstly harms users ' trust and then development in general.

5. it may be a bit late but i think if any good project comes along and their developers stop prioritizing making money over other things we can see some improvement and that coin will be much more successful.

6. no because we have also adopted with this new situation and we are only looking for a get rich quick altcoin where we can join in the pump and dump it right after the top. and sites like coinmarketcap help finding coins and where they are traded and more information.

[d5000]

The altcoin market is definitively "flooded". But this evolution of the market is inevitable, because the relation between the barriers to enter the market (extremely low) and the possible monetary gains is so attractive.

Sincerely I think the sheer number does not do too much harm. In the future we may see things like "city coins" or even "family coins" and they wouldn't affect the rest.

What in my opinion is a bigger problem for the "altcoin scene" is the lack of quality communication channels. This forum is totally flooded with threads that only can be described as "ads", and so are most other "altcoin forums". So possible investors cannot see that easy which coins are worth to invest and which not. (I fully support the last changes in the forum structure, as they have lead to a slightly better situation).

[NeuroticFish]

I also believe it's flooded. Many people just stay away of altcoins - meaning ALL altcoins - because of this.
While coinmarketcap should have some more strict criterias (or red flags?), it's hard to tell in various stages that this or that coin is scam/shitcoin. Especially in case of ICO: some just have great gfx and roadmap, but don't deliver.

[talkbitcoin]

I also believe it's flooded. Many people just stay away of altcoins - meaning ALL altcoins - because of this.
While coinmarketcap should have some more strict criterias (or red flags?), it's hard to tell in various stages that this or that coin is scam/shitcoin. Especially in case of ICO: some just have great gfx and roadmap, but don't deliver.

it is never easy to say an altcoin is scam and flag it just like that. you can only be like 80% sure because if an altcoin was clearly scam (100% sure) that altcoin wouldn't last a second and its price would have gone down to zero and possibly exchanges would have de-listed it immediately.
and the flags coinmarketcap has like the massive premine i think is enough and the rest is up to the user to investigate and find out.
and i know it is not easy to do among all these massive number of coins but if you love your money you would do it.

[Ayers]

there are simply too many coin yes, the market is full of shit now, people don't even look at the altcoin section anymore it's full of useless ico scam and scrypt and x11 coin that are there just to feed asic, also this will only diluit the market by destroying the good few altcoin that there are still out there

for the moment thank to bitcoin, people are ignoring all the new coin and focus on buying bitcoin itself, because if you see everything is dumped because bitcoin was pumped, and when bitcoin is pumped, buying everything else will become also more expensive, so this will lead to few choice to buy, and all the crap coin will be ignored

[NeuroticFish]

it is never easy to say an altcoin is scam and flag it just like that. you can only be like 80% sure because if an altcoin was clearly scam (100% sure) that altcoin wouldn't last a second and its price would have gone down to zero and possibly exchanges would have de-listed it immediately.
and the flags coinmarketcap has like the massive premine i think is enough and the rest is up to the user to investigate and find out.
and i know it is not easy to do among all these massive number of coins but if you love your money you would do it.

I think that more flags the better. Even some "experimental" "hunch" flags could be useful, but some will say it's manipulation.
Not easy for such sites, I know... Wishful thinking and what can be done cannot always be matched..
If coinmarkercap can't say (even with a good margin of error) that some coin is scam or not, for others, less experienced, it is even harder.

[iamnotback]

1. Is the alt coin market flooded?

2. As a result, is the current status of the alt coin market more than likely to scare off new to crypto investors/traders because of the fact that almost every other day a new ICO is on the cards and in most cases the information presented might be overwhelming to anyone outside of crypto?

3. Do you think we are becoming/have become more of a "penny stocks market" in the view of the general public other than a true and feasible alternative to the world economy?

4. Has the rise/era of crowdfunding done more harm than good toward blockchain projects and the now more than 600 crypto currencies in circulation?

5. What can be done to improve on the overall perception associated with cryptography/alt coins from an outsiders perspective?

6. Should websites that list altcoins such as coinmarketcap remove the majority of the coins listed or at least list according to far stricter criteria?

1. yes i also believe that this market is flooded with countless altcoins which are all copying each other, pump and dump and die.

2. it will scare off new investors in altcoins not crypto in general. newbies will go back to bitcoin and stay there.

3. i have heard this from others too, and i believe we are nearly there.

4. yes it has because when majority of them (the devs) are only looking for a get rich quick scheme through crowdfunding, this firstly harms users ' trust and then development in general.

5. it may be a bit late but i think if any good project comes along and their developers stop prioritizing making money over other things we can see some improvement and that coin will be much more successful.

6. no because we have also adopted with this new situation and we are only looking for a get rich quick altcoin where we can join in the pump and dump it right after the top. and sites like coinmarketcap help finding coins and where they are traded and more information.

I am developing an altcoin which is not yet officially announced, and I entirely agree with the response provided for #5.

What we have up to this point in altcoins is best characterized as developers who are either just in it to rake in easy ICO money and/or who are self-deluded as to the viable importance of their altcoins. IMO, the following summary from @r0ach describes the situation well (and you really should click that quote and read my replies in @r0ach's thread).

Let me start off by telling a story.  At the height of peak-altcoin, a guy I know released some garbage coin with the sole purpose of trying to make money in a pump and dump.  I told him, hey, why are you making this stupid scamcoin?  His response was, "just what exactly are we trying to do here?"  (i.e. being involved in cryptocurrency in the first place).

Before you try to create or engineer something, you first have to actually identify the problem you're trying to solve.  The problem to solve is not decentralization, it's creating an alternative to rent seeking usury, aka slavery.

The current state of cryptocurrency consists of closed entropy systems like Peercoin, which are internalized proof of stake, and open entropy Bitcoin PoW systems, which are just externalized proof of stake in practice, not decentralized.  Both are stake based and stake based systems have the following attributes, they're designed around someone monopolizing a variable then practicing rent seeking usury on everyone else.

The internalized stake is basically world domination on cruise control and should be shunned by anyone who doesn't want to be a slave, while the open entropy system of Bitcoin tends to give you the same result when you're just externalizing your metaphorical stake into the Pareto principle of the real world.  This means cryptocurrency solves really nothing in it's current state, and things like physical silver coins as a currency would be vastly superior in terms of both decentralization and avoidance of usury or seigniorage fee.

Having said that, if you were to try and improve on cryptocurrency in some way, you would be required to remove the stake variable entirely.

At this time, we basically have 4 main genres of innovation coming from altcoins:

1. Anonymity/Privacy (Monero, Zcash, ...)
2. Smart Contracts (Ethereum, ...)
3. Microtransactions/Scaling (DPoS, e.g. Steemit)
4. Decentralization (all shitcoins bullshit thus far)

The other shitcoins are very technologically weak innovations (egregious flaws which I have detailed in my posts) which attempt to incorporate some of the above innovations but do so with flawed technological bullshit. Examples include:

Vcash
Dash
CloakCoin
MaidSafe, Sia, StoreJ
NEM
CounterParty, Rootstock

There are centralization wolves in sheepskin (and network effects die with centralization):

Lightning Networks, KimDotCom's BitCache

There are copycoins which are lower-quality ripoffs of others:

ShadowCash

There are also the social networking shitcoins which have no prayer in hell (for reasons I have written about) of being widely adopted because they are conceptually flawed:

Steemit
Synereo
Yours.network
Ark
etc...

The problem for the serious (non-shitcoin) altcoin attempts listed for #1 and #2, is they haven't solved #3 and #4. Also #2 haven't solved safety and killer apps yet. And #1 (by itself) is not a mass adoption market.

So we are in a situation where we need a developer (or developers) who able to seriously address #3 and #4 combined and provide some real mass adoption case which is actually a serious threat to Bitcoin's dominance and current adoption stagnation. #1 is an optional feature to add. #2 is a potentially huge market to explore after fixing #3 and #4.

[ArcCsch]

There are several clear red flags:

Premine != 0 => scam
Starting difficulty too low => scam
Not a decentralized currency with open-source client and wallet => scam
Central authority => scam
Not announced in advance => scam
No advance over existing coins => scam
Rate < ~100s => scam
Promise of riches => scam
Too many bells and whistles to be credible => scam
Chargebacks or forks to reverse transactions => scam
Developer confused about subtle details of the blockchain => scam

If an altcoin shows any of those, its main purpose is to make money for the "developer" , run from it, do not be a bagholder!

[iamnotback]

There are several clear red flags:

Premine != 0 => scam

Ethereum was a scam?

How do you expect the developers to be funded? Don't tell me wasting so much time and inability to plan ahead because need to beg for donations.

I would rather argue that it is the size of the premine that matters. The goal is wide distribution of the tokens, so any premine/ICO/ninja mine, has to be congruent with that. It is the objectivity of the distribution that matters. Mining is nearly equivalent to ICO, except that an ICO issuer can buy it from himself.

Starting difficulty too low => scam

Agreed no ninja mining, but you are inherently assuming the proof-of-work is the best way to distribute a coin. Do you realize that PoW is a winner-take-all (might makes right) power vacuum disequilibria.

Not a decentralized currency with open-source client and wallet => scam
Central authority => scam
Not announced in advance => scam
No advance over existing coins => scam

Agreed.

Rate < ~100s => scam
Promise of riches => scam
Too many bells and whistles to be credible => scam

Disagree. Too subjective. There can be exceptions.

Chargebacks or forks to reverse transactions => scam
Developer confused about subtle details of the blockchain => scam

Probably good indicators, but you've got to be careful because there can be exceptions.

[iamnotback]

At this time, we basically have 4 main genres of innovation coming from altcoins:

1. Anonymity/Privacy (Monero, Zcash, ...)

...

And #1 (by itself) is not a mass adoption market.

...

#1 is an optional feature to add.

Value of Anonymity/Privacy:

The key problem seems to be to be how you quietly convert the crypto to real-world goods.

For example, you want to buy a ranch in Peru.

You pay the owner in crypto-currency anonymously, then you and the owner conduct a separate transaction in fiat for a much smaller amount.

So the visible portion of your wealth remains in fiat, but it is only an facade for the real financial transaction which occurred anonymously in crypto-currency.

The fly in this ointment is that ironclad anonymity against the national security agencies is very dubious. How can you control when the person you bought the ranch from screws up his anonymity and TPTB rubber hose him to force him to reveal the crypto-currency was obtained from you.

Instead I suggest a plausible different strategy. You treat your crypto-currency as ongoing anonymous investment. You move it around anonymously so it grows gains. From time-to-time, one of the companies you invested in, hires you and converts some crypto-currency to fiat to pay you. You use this fiat to buy real goods.

The above strategy can be used with the use of a tax haven that doesn't require you to report your crypto-currency holdings/gains, so that the above is not illegal.

[robelneo]

There are several clear red flags:

Premine != 0 => scam
Starting difficulty too low => scam
Not a decentralized currency with open-source client and wallet => scam
Central authority => scam
Not announced in advance => scam
No advance over existing coins => scam
Rate < ~100s => scam
Promise of riches => scam
Too many bells and whistles to be credible => scam
Chargebacks or forks to reverse transactions => scam
Developer confused about subtle details of the blockchain => scam

If an altcoin shows any of those, its main purpose is to make money for the "developer" , run from it, do not be a bagholder!

Good point,if you have been investing on hyip and the dev is trying to make you believe that he has a new innovation and it needs funding,and you are going to make lot of profit ,then you're looking for a scam coin enticing you to invest..

I like the part "Not announced in advance'
I think all devs should do a pre ann to their coming project for experts and traders to see what are you going to offer in advance..

Some DEV are very hurried to launch an ICO coin there should be a pre ann .

[blackhawk101]

Yes, market flooded.

When the water subsides, there will be two coins left standing: Bitcoin and PACCOIN.

PAC is the sleeper coin slowly building a base of crazed basement dwelling millenials. PAC, like the arcade game it was named after, will eat all other altcoins in its path. Time will reveal that PACMAN game developer, Mr. Toyota Panasonic was Satoshi's long lost brother.

[FaucetRank.com]

Yes crypto market has flooded.

Only crypto currency trading platform provider can stop this flood if they stop listing shit coins and start to removing dead coins.

[ArcCsch]

Ethereum was a scam?

How do you expect the developers to be funded? Don't tell me wasting so much time and inability to plan ahead because need to beg for donations.

I would rather argue that it is the size of the premine that matters. The goal is wide distribution of the tokens, so any premine/ICO/ninja mine, has to be congruent with that. It is the objectivity of the distribution that matters. Mining is nearly equivalent to ICO, except that an ICO issuer can buy it from himself.

I guess you can argue that if the premine is small enough for people to accept, the developer is fairly rewarded.
Also, Ethereum falls into two other categories:
(1) The speed, at 15 seconds, gives a huge advantage to miners with large farms and good connections, it takes twice that for a block to be relayed across the network.
(2) They bailed out the DAO, after they got hacked and robbed. When Mt. Gox was hacked, did bitcoin miners fork the chain to give the their bitcoins back? No, it is their own fault they got hacked, and not the responsibility of miners to issue a charge-back. With blockchain, if you got hacked, live with it!

[topesis]

Yes, the market is flooded with so many Altcoins at the moment and the it is becoming scary and more interesting to watch. But I except most of them to die natural death since there is no use case for them.

[smyslov]

Sometimes I'm lost on the coin that I'm following,because there were to many altcoins and new one coming in I notice that there are so many ICO coins in the market every week,maybe it's the holiday season and this dev needs money for the holiday.

[adhitthana]

Flooded? No way!
I'd like to see more ideas more experiments using blockchains, and more people doing it.

Some of the best stuff is yet to come.

[iamnotback]

(1) The speed, at 15 seconds, gives a huge advantage to miners with large farms and good connections, it takes twice that for a block to be relayed across the network.

I haven't followed Ethereum that closely. Interesting. Yes Vitalik totally screwed up the mining and consensus algorithms. He had one big idea which is smart contracts. Other than that, it has been a comedy of errors, as expected for a young man with no experience.

The remarkable phenomenon is how investors would not even value experience and maturity. They are hoodwinked by Vitalik's ability to talk about technology in inspiring memes.

(2) They bailed out the DAO, after they got hacked and robbed. When Mt. Gox was hacked, did bitcoin miners fork the chain to give the their bitcoins back? No, it is their own fault they got hacked, and not the responsibility of miners to issue a charge-back. With blockchain, if you got hacked, live with it!

Of course, I was also very critical of that. But look at Classic nosediving, because it isn't delivering anything worthwhile. I frankly expected more of Classic, but now I've learned that Charles Hoskinson doesn't understand how to drive excitement. He is good at assembling researchers and academics. Vitalik is very talented at driving inspired energy into an ecosystem. Also apparently Ethereum has some manipulator who controlling the market price. If as you allude to, the mining is monopolized, then that would explain the existence of the manipulator.