Bitcoin Forum

As far as I can see it,
( with my limited knowledge of the cryptocurrency world)
Bitcoin is the most valuable and most used cryptocurrency because it existed much earlier than other cryptocurrencies and it is easier to understand that Bitcoin is not just another scheme to steal your money.

But if you were to side with certain altcoins that are better than Bitcoin in certain ways , which are better than Bitcoin ?

I AM NOT LOOKING FOR YOU TO ADVERTISE YOUR SUPER FAST COIN
I am looking for innovative coins that have good features , not just speed.
Majority of the posts are just another name for a super fast coin.

Notable Alt-Coins:-

Litecoin : A stable coin with faster transactions and the one that started the trend of Scrypt.

Primecoin : One of the original coins that started the process of not wasting resources just for the sake of maintenance of the coin and allows usage of energy for other processes.
Gridcoin seems to be based on the same idea as Primecoin , but is newer and does not seem stable and more like a more innovative pump-n-dump

Faster coins: I'm not sure if they are an advantage or a disadvantage. This thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=515390) discusses it.
Some disadvantages are more orphans and hence more energy usage , more inflation etc.
The obvious advantage is the faster transactions.

Darkcoin and Anoncoin : These try to enhance privacy in different ways. Darkcoin with easier and more integrated coin mixing and Anoncoin attempting to prevent correlation of an address to a real identity to a further level.

Post your coin and I will add it if it seems innovative.
This thread aims to be a resource to showcase the better and more innovative coins over the pump-n-dumps.

I really like Credits.  It has a very generic, simple name (something we want for mass adoption.)  It has VERY fast transactions. It's currently underrated and not many people know about it.  With the right attention it could be HUGE.  I really don't look at it as another pump/dump scrypt coin.  I want it or something like it to replace Bitcoin some day.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=496685.0

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h--kw2ZdIGQ

Haha, that's a $128k question.

Dogecoin, because different algo (Scrypt) = large GPU miners network, faster transactions, larger infrastructure and community than LTC (also Scrypt) and significantly undervalued compared to LTC by the way.

NXT, because decentralized exchange, not relying on the slow bitcoin network (like XCP and MSC, but have a little bit of these too) and other cool features coming soon.

Maybe protoshares/bitshares as a small part of portfolio. No other worth investing as of now.

I am not talking about the community or anything , just the coin.

Dogecoin in my opinion is among the worst.
It gives a bad name to cryptocurrency and moves it from something serious to a joke.

Krugercoin for sure  ;D -- Currently under appreciated not sure why?

Krugercoin - At the forefront is their blazing fast speed. Your transaction will be fully confirmed in about 60 seconds or less.

Their major goal is to become the crypto-currency of choice for merchants and consumers for their everyday transaction, whether it be a cup of coffee or a bigger ticket item. Our speed and security makes all of this possible. KrugerCoin is also based on sound money principals which makes it the smart choice for wealth preservation. It is designed to appreciate in value over time, unlike paper currency. This is due to the fact that only x coins will ever be produced. These advantages are what makes it the leading choice for users.

Well, ok, strictly as a coin Dogecoin beats Litecoin, because faster transactions and undervalued compared to it. You're asking your questions because you want to know which coin has more chance to appreciate from current rate, aren't you?

Joke name helps attract new users, who are scared to touch more 'serious' coins because they have this illegal use stigma attached to them. Nobody can say that Dogecoin is used to launder money or something like that because it'd sound ridiculous, and that's the reason exactly why it will be popular, because there is no fear using them and media doesn't portray Dogecoin as the money of criminals. So no, I don't agree that Dogecoin gives a bad name to crypto currencies, on the contrary, it makes the whole crypto currency scene look agreeable to the public eyes.

The only feature which seems better is the faster transaction speed.
While you seem optimistic,
( but you probably are just another early adopter looking to make it popular for your pump and dump to succeed)
The problem for your new coin is that bitcoin will not be displaced so easily.
Making faster transactions sounds like something that might defeat Bitcoin if they are on equal ground.
But Bitcoin is through the roof and this coin is nothing.

I am looking for innovative coins , not coins that are :-
"Super Fast"
Named after a famous person and therefore are the best logical currency
Made to be funny or named after a trend and hence should be worth millions

But,
I am now confused.
What is the drawback of having a faster coin ?
Why does Bitcoin have a 10 minute block time ?
Please answer here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=515390.0), so that I can use that information to further my search for a coin that is better than Bitcoin and could have replaced it if it was made a few years ago.

Darkcoin

Okay , it would have been better if you detailed , but for all those too lazy , this is the copy-paste from their website (http://www.darkcoin.io/).

0.00000% Pre-mined
Super secure hashing algorithm: 11 rounds of scientific hashing functions (blake, bmw, groestl, jh, keccak, skein, luffa, cubehash, shavite, simd, echo)
Block reward is controlled by: 2222222/(((Difficulty+2600)/9)^2)
CPU only mining
Block generation: 2.5 minutes
Difficulty Retargets based on Kimoto's Gravity Well
Est. ~7M Coins in 2015, ~13M in 2020, ~23M in 2030 (84M theoretical max)
Almost Completely Anonymous Transactions using DarkSend: Beta testing on MainNet

No premine is expected in any currency.
Block reward seems pretty sensible , pretty much like Bitcoin.
CPU only mining doesn't make sense... Allowing GPUs and ASICs convinces more people to invest capital into the coin and allows faster growth.
2.5 minutes seems like a good enough block time.

My biggest questions are :-

1. What does a hashing algorithm that complex achieve ? SHA-256 seems secure enough.
2. How exactly are transactions more anonymous ?

http://s16.postimg.org/5cvxkrrdh/Gridcoin_infographic.jpg (http://postimg.org/image/7hgalut01/full/)

-Einsteinium
-Any POS coin (except premine shams like nxtcoin.)
-Quark
-Dark
-Myriad
The above coins are more innovative than bitcoin. End of story.

Some people have promoted GridCoin and PrimeCoin as coins that potentially have better features than BitCoin. However, I don't see how this kind of feature will lead to massively increased adoption. Sure, you might feel good about helping people when you mine GridCoin, but the fact that your processor cycles are going somewhere useful doesn't actually positively affect the ease of adoption of the coin itself, with regards to its usefulness as a currency.

Plus, with GridCoin, there's the added security headache that comes from a possible breach of the computers that manage the supercomputing work (I'm not an expert, so I may be mistaken here). If GridCoins were $1000 a piece, people would be attacking that infrastructure like crazy.

I would do some serious research on most of the coins that people suggest, as you may find that they're nothing but glorified pump-and-dumps. I haven't seen a single coin that is superior to BTC yet.

Says the bbq man!

Undoubtedly NEXT

I think you will like Particle  ;)
the new wallet

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=392804.0

https://i.imgur.com/H2gLNE2.png
https://i.imgur.com/GDcwHD9.png

Pretty much all of them.

test the Nxt Decentralised Asset Exchange here (http://nxtra.org/nxt-client/#) ;)

DarkCoin supports GPU mining

Basically it works like a Bitcoin Mixer

https://i.imgur.com/XuVcAkt.png

I definetely agree with you. The fastness only of a coin is not important, actually quite the opposite if it creates unstable network.
However if you find a coin that is fast ´+ the network is safe, you have found something that is a serious threath to Bitcoin because BTC network is safe but the transfers are slow.

Actually I am glad there is one coin that is both safe and fast. It challenges BitCoin after it has matured a little bit... The first confirmation takes 30 seconds or less and there are less than 2 % orphan blocks.
Fastness combined with secure network is something that will take the throne of bitcoin when BTC collapses completely.

Short answer: None

The worst argument is faster blocks. I have spent bitcoins purchasing vpn service, acsess to different newspapers, gambling at bitbook.biz, poker at satoshi poker and all of those purchases have been confirmed instantly. Withdrawals from bitbook, satoshi poker, sealswithclubs etc is also very fast and much faster then sites using fiat currency.

The next worst argument is that there is so few bitcoins and they are so expensive making it hard to pay 0.00345 btc for your purchase. Lol just change you wallet to mBTC and you are fine.

The biggest advantage bitcoin have is security. Most alts are very insecure because of low hashrate and can easily be attacked making them insecure.

The amount of services already developed and under development for bitcoin is massive. Bitcoin got a bright future because of that and because of the need of a payment system adapted to our new digital world.

But do we need alts?

I belive peercoin and litecoin will survive. Peercoin is innovative with the proof of stake minting and it is stabil with slow and predictable development. It have been around for a few years and established itself amoung the market leaders. In long term it got the ability to become the preferred instrument as a store of wealth. Litecoin is similiar in many ways. It is old, stable and established as a market leader. More widely adopter then peercoin and to big to fail.

Others that can survive and have significance is actually doge because of the widespread adoption. It have brought cryptocyrrency to so many new people who had never even heard of bitcoin. The importance of that should not be forgotten.

If there is one feature that bitcoin don't offer that could be improved upon in an altcoin it is anonymity.

We have several contenders the main one beeing: Zerocash supposed to launch in mai, Anoncoin and Darkcoin. We know very little about zerocash and if it will launch at all. Anoncoin is undoubtly the most exiting contender now. They are implementing the old zerocoin code and seems to be very competent and truly devoted to offer anonymity because of their political views. It is also very well distributed and fair. If they are succesful this coin might survive it and thrive in dark markets.

Darkcoin is trying to implement and improve coinjoin. This is an old method of trying to achieving anonymity that have been tried implemented in other coins before, but have failed because of lack of anonymity. But we can only hope that the devs have found solutions to the flaws in coinjoin and are able to deliver what they promise. Darkcoin is also heavily instamined with blocks size starting at 500 and quickly descending. Because of this darkcoin is probably the most overvalued coin (beside aurorascam), but it must be mentioned as a long shot.

I no longer trade BBQ coins, but I can't change my avatar. Plus, it's a tasty-looking logo :P

Oh yeah, and BBQ coins are the only proof-of-steak crypto!  ;D ;D ;D

None . Because if they have features much different form bitcoin they will no longer be called "altcoin" .

I think in a few years, the top three coins will be Bitcoin (BTC), Goldcoin (GLD), and Litecoin (LTC). (in that order)

Bitcoin and litecoin get the nod because they were early pioneers and managed early market penetration. Goldcoin because it has a developer not unlike Satoshi. He keeps to himself and spends his days quietly rewriting and improving upon the early work of Satoshi. His first achievement was to solve the 51% attack riddle and integrate a solution into the GLD client. Now he is secretly writing a new java client that will be the first of its kind in the crypto world. It will be modular, plugin ready, multi-threaded, and multi-platform.

The other reason I like Goldcoin is because the name tests #1 with consumers. Try this on someone that knows nothing about bitcoin: Give a brief explanation of what a cryptocurrency is and then ask the person which one they would rather own - offer three or four coin names along with Goldcoin. What you will find is that no matter which coins you put up against Goldcoin, the average consumer will 100% of the time pick Goldcoin.

So, here we have a coin with a brilliant and unique developer, plus the best name, trading at one cent. If you look up the meaning of the phrase "no brainer" there should be a photo of the Goldcoin logo on that dictionary page.

Not true.

Op asked for coins that have *in any way* a superior feature. Einsteinium, for instance, automatically gathers 2 % of all coins mined. These funds will be donated to projects furthering science. As well as a neat 'wormhole' feature.

That is a vastly superior feature. Now, BTC is better then EMC2 in a plethora of other ways, but to deny that the feature just mentioned isn't innovative would be wrong. Imagine if BTC had that? It would do wonders for its press. Every month hundreds of thousands (if not millions since BTC price is so high) of dollars being donated.

The only coin on the horizon that has even a remote chance of overtaking BTC at this point is not a coin. Its called ethereum.

It hasnt even been launched. ::)  ...and yes it is a coin, among other things. Ether will be what will run the contracts

I am going to add a new part to the OP.
"Notable coins"

I would be more concerned about the impact of Scrypt ASICs later this year (and where the GPU miners will turn to). For this reason n-factor Scrypt coins have the required features to survive as they an immune to ASICs.

We have seen the impact of ASICs for SHA-256 and this is soon to happen to Scrypt (LTC and all it's clones. Which is OK for LTC, but not for the rest). When this occurs I would suggest holding some Vertcoins, Execoin or Darkcoin. I have more faith in Vertcoin though.

Ahh yes , this is an outcome I did not foresee.

I don't trade in altcoins , but for anyone who does , this is worth noting.

However , I foresee LTC actually rising due to the increasing pump of capital into Scrypt ASICs

Why?

Allowing general purpose CPUs to mine effectively enables more people to mine, which distributes mining power more widely and makes 51% attacks less likely.

I'm guessing it makes it harder to run more efficiently on GPUs and ASIC.

As to the original question, I think most altcoins have features that make them superior to Bitcoin, but so far the improvement doesn't seem significant enough to derail Bitcoins momentum. With the possible exception of proof-of-stake systems, which I'm still learning about; on the face of it, it does seem to be a cheaper approach to mining and a benefit in the long term.

I dont like CPU only mining because it is paradise for botnet operators. Most fair coins are the ones requiring ASICs to be competetive in mining

Myriadcoin seems superior, as it offers 5 independent of each other algos to mine:
Scypt, SHA256D, Qubit, Skein or Groestl

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=483515.0