I admire Serje for being able to do this.  I sadly have only a 1/10 of his skills. 

At the same time this is why I am worried about the future of bitcoin.  Many people have even far less skills than me.  Really for it to be great, we need to have one wallet that is extremely safe, and extremely easy to install and use, and extremely fast.  Until then, this whole having to use multiple wallets, and/or have multiple backs really hinders bitcoin (paper, and encrypted wallet backed up different places).  Having to make cold wallets on an offline computer and then redoing it every time there is a transaction.  That is ridiculous to somebody who just wants to buy a hotel room online. 

for email, BitMessage is the gold standard. 

Every time one of these major sites accepts Bitcoin it is a big win.  More and more it is becoming normal.  Then people won't think of it as fake money when we are buying jewerly, hotels, plane tickets, meals,  and computers with it.

Bitcoin's numbers in China are faked.  But here is the problem.  Almost all Litecoin is based in China and Bitcoin is based around the world.   But a huge part of Bitcoin is based out of USD, and a lot of that isn't faked.  

Litecoin http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/v2/coins/show/ltc

Bitcion  http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/v2/coins/show/btc

Also, you are right that the easiest way to buy Litecoin is to first buy bitcoin on Coinbase.  So in effect, Coinbase is already making lots of money off of Litecon.  Every time somebody wants to buy Litecoin, they get 1% of that purchase via the buying of Litecoin.   If they sold Litecoin, directly yes they would make more money, but it would cut into their bitcoin sales a little.  

Ultimately, it just isn't in Coinbase's interest to list Litecoin.  

When and if China's Willy and Marcus go solvent and pull a Gox, there won't be a recovery for Litecoin like there was for Bitcoin.  And the dudes running the exchanges in China really won't care.  They will be rich and they won't have legal repercussions because they haven't broke Chinese law.  The will keep your bitcoin and tell you that somehow a glitch in the system ate all your Litecoin.  Everytime I am in any exchange based out of China, I get in and out as soon as quickly as possible.  

If Coinbase starts processing Litecoin, that would be a huge bump for Litecoin and in the short term Coinbase would make more money.  But in the long term they would be supporting a fractured economy.  I am pretty sure Coinbase wouldn't add Litecoin.  It goes against their goal of building a solid, unified, and fundamentally strong bitcoin ecosystem.  The last thing Coinbase wants to see is Bitcoin compromised.  

My guess is that they will add it when and only when it is a forgone conclusion that Litecoin is here to stay.  That simply isn't the case.  The price dropping and this thread is great proof of that.  

Under the hood Litecoin has some tech that is better than Bitcoin, buuuuuut it simply just doesn't have the wide spread adoption.  It is adoption and community that makes bitcoin valuable, not its hash or 10 minute block times verses 2.5 minutes.  

Also, the it is well known that all the Litecoin numbers out of China are totally faked.  They are straight up lying.  Charlie Lee has even openly admitted this.  So when you look at the charts and see great Litecoin volume and believe it and think that is an indicator of Litecoin's great success, you are sadly being scammed.  On top of that I am guessing the Litecoin bots in China make Willy and Marcus look like a joke.  Again, Charlie Lee has openly admitted it is a huge and openly known problem that China is scamming.  

If bitcoin gets a huge market share, some government or large financial institution will find a way to make debts.  Maybe through colored coin bitcoins. 

In 5 years from now, people will still have computers in the rich countries, but the primary device will be the smart phone.  For people in the developing world, it very well might be the only device they have and need.  At that point bitcoin as an international, quick, easy, and universal currency might just be very attractive.  Most of the poor countries have informal markets which are actually ideal for bitcoin transfers phone to phone. 

That is a long way away.  Lots of development to bitcoin with apps and infrastructure need to be developed.  But yes, if I was a fruit stand seller in Zimbabwe, or half a dozen other countries, bitcoin would be more favorable than the national currency.  In the US, the dollar is the world currency so it is fairly secure.  But in a small African nation, that country can't really support its own currency and it is easy to fail.  Money is a confidence game and the people can have more confidence in bitcoin because it is used worldwide. 

The early versions were open source.  They have been reviewed and updated and some are still open source.  The concept is solid.  As long as it is open source, and vetted, does it really matter where it came from?

Getting married by blockchain is pretty awesome.  That is ground breaking, but it seems like to me this will indeed be the rule.  

As much as bitcoiners don't like it.  I can even see each country setting up some kind of account for each citizen on the blockchain at birth, where public records about that person can be stored.  Graduations, marriages, public elections, certifications, criminal convictions...... Once on, they can't ever be erased!  Asking somebody for their bitcoin ID and seeing a picture of them posted on the blockchain every few years, even some biometric data would be an identity that couldn't be faked.  

Scary yes, but once we the community unleashes the block chain on the world for our needs and the governments are stuck with it, surely they will find a way to make it meet their needs too.  If somebody doesn't believe that governments won't someday exploit the blockchain, they are not paying attention to history.  

It will be a slow process and people will have time to adjust.  Cash didn't ruin gold, checks didn't ruin cash and credit cards didn't ruin checks, though there was a lot of displacement.  Bitcoin is a more radical technology for sure, but the trend is similar.  It will be a fairly smooth transition. 

Two things will make a coin valuable.  

The first is its network for sure hands down.  Bitcoin has by far the largest network, with the most end points for users and roads to get there.  This is what a currency is about.  It will be a loooooong time before it is challenged.  

To some extent this is true for Litecoin, but not really.  There isn't really any need for Litecoin.  Anything that a person could do with Litecoin as far as currency goes, a person can do with bitcoin.  I won't touch Litecoin.

The second thing that makes a coin valuable is what is its tech.  Even if it doesn't yet have a lot of end points for users or roads to get there, does it do something important.  The original poster mentions Vertcoin, Monero, Darkcoin, Karma, Dogecoin, NXT.  Of these Dark and Monero both offer a function that is neat, that is anonymity.  But it is not full anonymity from the NSA, but just casual anonymity from regular people trying to track you.  Right now Bitcoin is developing these features (zero coin, dark wallet, coin join).  Maybe these will work, maybe not, or maybe new tech will come.  The point is that people are working on anonymity for bitcoin.  It will happen and when it does, bitcoin will have the function of Darkcoin and Monero but all the end points for users and roads to get there.  That will make Darkcoin and Monero just as obsolete as Litecoin.

One coin does stand out.  That is NXT.  It is adding feature after feature and function after function.  I am in wonder to think what it will be doing in a year or two from now.  By that time Bitcoin will still just have evolved a little bit, maybe have finally got multi-sig and anonymity working perfectly smoothly. I think NXT will shoot up.  The guys over there don't want to beat bitcoin, they want to take over the world.  I am also watching for NEM which will be released soon.  They also want it all and have a better back story, but a later start.  

Ah right.  That makes sense.  If I buy when everyone is buying, it is not nearly as good as buying before everyone buys. hahaha

Some of these are very helpful.  Thanks guys!  I still would like to see a day by day aggregate in a chart, but this is a good start. 

In that case go for NXT.  Darkcoin has one extra function.  NXT has like a dozen and has had a $75,000 bounty for a person that can add Darkcoin's single extra function.  Darkcoin = one trick show.  NXT = Swiss Army knife of crypto.

Right now it is not the fastest to make a payment, but it certainly is the fastest to clear for the end user receiving.   Bitcoin might take 10 minutes to send.  I can pay with a credit card or wire money to another account that is connected to my bank account in mere seconds.  But.... for the receiver to get the money, it can take hours or days or weeks!

Bitcoin is not the easiest.  Credit cards are easier, cash is easier.  Actually... most things are easier.  But still, this is a matter of code and apps and most of us have confidence that bitcoin will be super easy in the coming years.  

Bitcoin is not the cheapest to send.  I can write checks or pay with a credit card for free on my end.  But again at least with the the receiver, fees will be paid with a credit card, and sometimes for people with checks.  And definitely with PayPal or wires.  

As mentioned then, one benefit is that merchants can offer a small discount for people that spend in bitcoin.  No charge backs, money arrives quickly, and fees to receive.  It is a huge win for merchants and they can pass that one to customers.  The OP says that suppliers won't take bitcoin, but this isn't necessarily true.  Give it time.  There are advantages for them too. 

So, bitcoin does have its advantages, especially for the person receiving the bitcoin.   There is no way that I know of to get $1000 to another person around the world in 10 minutes.  Bitcoin ATMs are coming more and more popular and soon more people will have access to not just buying, but also cashing out.  

Bitcoin is also not completely safe right now.  Lots of people have lost bitcoins.  People are working on this and making 2FA coming soon.  

The price is also extremely volatile, but that is another reason we are here. hahaha.  We all want to believe we will be millionaires in 10 years.  Unfortunately for us, the world isn't that easy.

Bitcoin is still growing, but most of us believe it will be huge someday.  

Yes, I want to invest in different coins, but I want to watch which ones go up each day in the last thirty days compared to other coins.  I won't just invest blindly, then I want to read about it and try to understand if it is something I like or not and then make a decision to invest. 

The blockchain website is nice.  But I guess I want something like that but with lots of lines for lots of coins.  Or just a chart that has them numbered in a grid fashion.  Just something that lets me compare. 

There is a great website called https://coinmarketcap.com/#BTC and it says what the daily ups and downs are.  But I want to see a chart that shows like the top 100 coins and their position over thirty days, so I can see which coins are moving up in the chart each day compared to the previous.  I could also see which coins are moving down in the chart each day.  

Is there anyway to know this, or is there a website that makes charts that compare a coins ranking day by day compared to other coins?

Thanks in advance!

I would really like to see 2FA on this site via Google Authenticator.  I am guessing it would be fairly easy for the admin to add. 

I give you a nod sir.  Great call.