[Due to the number of recent scam coins, the industry's trust problem has gotten much worse.]

Due to the number of recent scam coins, the industry's trust problem has gotten much worse.

A possible solution IMHO is a Self Regulatory Organization (SRO), like stock exchanges have. People have faith in the stocks because they are on the exchanges. Exchanges have customers because they do their homework (due diligence) before listing a stock. They are not perfect, but the system works.

For an exchange, it is all about trading volume, and that means having the hottest coins. But paid listings are worrisome.
It begs the question, Who are an exchanges primary customers? Devs with coins to list? Or, the people that trust you with their coins (Read: Their Money)

The Mt.Gox collapse was the wake up call. Hey, this is real money! Then events like the Poloniex theft, and others exposed the need for exchanges to secure and validate themselves. Now, say what you want, but Poloniex recovered and made their customers whole. That alone deserves a measure of respect. The result of these terrible events is a growing faith in the surviving exchanges.

Now we have a torrent of new scam coins, which will drive the next evolutionary phase of development: Due Diligence. If exchanges continue allowing scam coins onto their exchanges, where funds are virtually stolen from exchange customers, exchanges will soon find their customers have no funds with which to trade.

To protect traders, speculators, and investors, a measure of due diligence, call it regulation if you like, must evolve. Without some sort of regulation, the scammers will run their scams until there are no funds left to be scammed. And that will be very, very bad for the exchanges.

You see, despite the desire for anonymity, transaction size and volume will likely remain in the 2 digit $ range forever. Large transaction and or investments require a system where where Someone or some entity can be held accountable.

A well defined 'industry standard' and or set of criteria needs to be (read: will eventually be) developed. (Yes, that would be considered a regulation.) Measuring the shouting on social media does not qualify. Something, anything that will deter evildoers must be put in place. For instance, if a dev can only be reached via IM, Chat, IRC, Forum post, or Email.... that is probably not a good thing.

The alt coin future is straight forward. Self Regulation of coin developers (meaning regulation) driven by the Exchanges is the best option. Government intervention probably won't work and no one wants it. If nothing is done, it will be a slow death due by a thousands of ever smaller scam coins yet to be released. Exchanges in it for the long haul have no choice. Exchanges must immediately begin scrutinizing the coins currently listed and begin developing new regulations for any coin they consider listing. If they don't, their customers lose money and the alt industry suffers. Bottom line, Integrity and Intent count. Oh yea, and the exchanges with the greatest integrity are the ones most likely to survive. 

You can make it happen,
You can watch it happen,  or
You can sit there and wonder WTF Just happened....  (Capt. Phil Harris)

I can't wait to see the response this.... or maybe it is already being discussed elsewhere

Good day!

We know which coin came first, and second. And about a year ago there was an expansion in the number of coins, both SHA & Scrypt.
The expansion accelerated in Q4 2013, and we know some, possibly many, will fail. Some may have already failed even though they don't know it yet.

I believe some, possibly many, of the alts will succeed. But, success will not come easy or without significant effort. For an alt to succeed, significant effort on multiple fronts will be required, from hashing power, community, merchants, exchanges (like coinbase & Bitpay more so than cryptsy)  and individuals committed to going out and convincing the people in these areas to embrace their alt. A measure of financial backing may prove necessary for the team charged with said promotions. Posting on twitter is great for name recognition, but if that is all you have, I suggest revising your plan. A dedicated people and fans is great, but a deep organization and a lot of hard work will be required.

Which coins do you know to have some or all of these aspects in place and or teams in the process of making these things happen?
I'm not looking for the largest fan base, or the most popular. I want to know which ones really have some meet on their bones so to speak, regardless of their current popularity, difficulty level, or hash rate.

Thank you for your wisdom

Miners have bitcoins, and want something to spend them on. We got that.
Tech nerds (like me) have mined a few and bought a few, and spent a few.
Speculators have bought a few (and lost a few) and probably spent a few.

But the real question that I don't see addresses very often is: What forces and or factors, outside of speculation, are and or will drive long-term demand for bitcoins and or other cypto's

Are people using it to send money across borders? If they are, great, This is transaction demand, and while good, recognize that it is somewhat fleeting.
Are there other drivers of demand? Again excluding speculation because in the very long-run, it is difficult to believe speculation alone will stand the test of time. Historically it hasn't, which is why people say tulip.
The Fed, QE, fiat printing presses.... These too are good arguments. However, we must recognize the very long real world time line as to when such pressures would genuinely surface.

Note: I am not trying to make an argument against Bitcoin.
I would like to broaden my arguments for Bitcoin. To do this successfully, I need better answers than I currently have.


Thank you for your thoughts?