Some of them are serious attempts at alternative currencies to bitcoin.
Some of them are pump and dump schemes.
Some of them are just for fun.
People are exploring the capabilities of the new technology, just as people explored the capabilities of the internet with the first websites on geocities.
The reason alt coins are generating interest is because bitcoin's price has leaped, and because the common man can't mine bitcoin anymore due to its vastly increased hashing difficulty. Scrypt coins have put hashing back in the hands of the coin hobbyist. A currency is only as valuable when people use it. Well, tons of people are using alt coins now because they're cheaper, able to be mined by GPU, or just plain fun. Will they be around in 10 years? 20 years? Who knows? This is the start of a new era. Creative uses of the new technology enabled by Satoshi's paper are to be expected.
/thread
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