Bitcoin Forum

Hi guys :D I'm just a little bit curious, may i know if there is a difference between altcoin and cryptocurrency? I always read those terms buy I'm not sure if they differ from each other or if they are just the same. If there is a difference, what is it? Can you give me a detailed explanation regarding those two? Thank you and God bless us more :D

In my opinions between of them not having any significantly different. have the same definitions but different in their name. they're having the same function just the decentralized of digital currency managed by peer to peer network.

My understanding is both bitcoin and alt coin are crypto digital currency , but bitcoin is widely accepted everywhere , but i have seen on the forum that alt coin trading etc , still even i am not clear on the alt coin currency  believe any one on this  can suggest here with more clarity .

To me the difference is a cryptocurrency can cover every coin including bitcoin as they are all cryptocurrencys and altcoins are the same but without including bitcoin since obviously bitcoin is the one true coin. In general if i was talking about anything to do with all coins i would then use crypto but should i need to make a point of not including bitcoin for whatever reason then i would use alt.

as far as I know any coin that has a blockchain or a similar technology and uses cryptography technology for it transactions is called a crypto-currency
so altcoins are all crypto-currencies but altcoin is a unique term that is used for any coin that is not bitcoin and it is used in order to show that you are talking about an "alternate" cryptocurrency than bitcoin.

in short, do you mean that altcoins are just some branches of cryptocurrencies? they originated from the cryptocurrencies and bitcoin is let's say their ancestor? bitcoin is the mother of all coins?

For me, altcoins are all cryptocurrencies except bitcoin while cryptocurrency are all altcoins plus bitcoin. So, when we called cryptocurrency it refer to all coins including bitcoin and when we mention altcoins it refer to all coins except bitcoin. We cant call bitcoin as an altcoin!

This is my own opinion. Crypto-Currency is the Bitcoin, Dash, Ethereum, Litecoin and all altcoin. But Altcoin is not Bitcoin. So The difference is when you say altcoin. This is the alternative coin of Bitcoin so the difference here is Crypto-currency is all digital currency and Altcoin is the Same in crypto but theres no bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency is a term that encompasses all coins/currencies that use encryption as means to verify transactions. The term altcoin assumes Bitcoin as the first crypto currency, referring to any other cryptocurrency as an alternative to Bitcoin. So Bitcoin is not an altcoin but both Bitcoin and altcoins are cryptocurrencies.

altcoin is also part of cryptocurrency and so does with bitcoin,those altcoins being called as altcoins because you're talking on bitcoin forum which makes bitcoin as main coin or primary,if you'd discussing on another coin forum such as doge or ltc,bitcoin will be considered as altcoin,correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm sure about it

To me, in a more technical way, every altcoin is a potential cryptocurrency but every cryptocurrency has to be an altcoin (or btc). What I mean is, that an altcoin has to be used as a currency in order to be given the "cryptocurrency" title. However, today most of them are used as "trading tools" in order to earn more "cryptocurrencies" (btc,eth,doge,etc)

Basically, alt coin is just a sub set of the term crypto-currency. Crypto-currency is used to refer to all the coins out there including bitcoins and all the alt coins that are there and there would be. If you know an alt coin, that's a crypto-currency. If you know bitcoin, that's a crypto-currency as well. This shouldn't be that hard to understand if you focus on the "currency" part of the term crypto-currency.

For me, Crypto-cyrrency is called when you want to include all of the digital currency including Bitcoin. When we say altcoin, this is the coin wherein alternative to bitcoin so for me altcoin is all of the crypto currency excluding Bitcoin. Thats my Opinion. If im wrong please correct me so that I knew what is the difference of This.

Thank you Obscure for enlightening us. This is the best and easiest to understand of all the answers. +1 to you and keep sharing this patiently done answers to more of us newbies in the crypto world.

cryptocurrency = altcoin + bitcoin

There really is no difference except for the fact that Bitcoin is also a cryptocurrency but it's not an altcoin. Other than that, they are the same.