If I were the dev and I was sitting on a good $700 million worth of coin, no matter how pure my original intentions were, there is just no way I wouldn't be quietly selling off the premine. Of course people will notice eventually, and the price would drop, but maybe I'd make 10 or 20 million in the process and be setup for life. Maybe the dev is an honourable guy, but there are few who would turn down that kind of cash.

Add to that the fact that the guy is anonymous. Where's the downside for him? Would there be any actually negative repercussions, apart from angry people in internet forums? I mean, if the guy actually follows through with the plan to distribute the coins, he's a huge sucker.

Are you talking about a different coin for each country? Doesn't that defeat one of cyptocurrency's main benefits - the fact that it's not country-specific? Wouldn't it be better (in terms of convenience and stability) to have a single coin that's universally adopted?

Good analysis, OP, and your conclusion is correct.

Yeah, and this one is free!

Unless you intend to just do a bit of day trading to make some money, please don't invest in either of them for long term growth – you will lose your money. You have definitely missed the boat on both of these - they have had their initial mining booms and are now in the inevitable slow decline experienced by all altcoins.

Vertcoin - Is ASIC resistant, meaning what? That the tiny global community of altcoin miners, won't have to compete with expensive ASIC rigs, for a coin that has no demand, and that no ASICS are mining anyway? Useless.

Mintcoin - The mining period ends in a week or so, at which point miners will point their rigs elsewhere and all the interest in the coin will die. The smart people have already sold out, and most of the remaining people will try to sell near or after this date, and the price will plummet. When the minting period starts, those left with the coin will watch happily as their stash of coin increases, but seemingly unaware that the value of each coin is decreasing in direct proportion, thanks to a little economic principle known as inflation. In order for the value of their holding to actually increase, the coin will need considerable outside investment. But who would by an inflationary coin that no one in the real world has heard of?

All these “innovative features” are fine, but they absolutely have no impact on the long term value of a coin. Neither do “strong community”, “good devs”, or any of the other things that people claim as to why their coin is going to be the next Bitcoin. The *only* thing that matters is whether people going to actually use the coins, and pay real money for them. The only coin in this category at the moment is Bitcoin, and the only other coin to have remotely made an impact in  terms of popular penetration and adoption is Dogecoin. Neither of these coins has any especially distinguishing “features”, and that doesn’t matter at all. That’s not to say that a coin with some innovative features won’t one day be created and become successful. It’s just that those features have to address directly, that one question that matters– will regular people actually use and pay money for this coin.

You can still make money mining a new coin early, then getting out as soon as you can, or by day-trading and making small gains as prices go up and down. But don’t get caught up in the hype.  

Do we need a coin for every single thing that exists in the world? Serious question.

Wow, unbelievable stories. Some people have lost thousands of Bitcoins! I would like to think that if I had several million dollars worth of BTC, I would have cashed out long ago, retired and setup my kids education. Even if not cashed out, at least put the coins in a private wallet!

Doesn't a pump and dump by definition need a sucker to buy the dump when the price is high? How the hell would this work if everyone is in on it?

Is there a limit to how many informations I can buy?

Does anyone know why Doge has disappeared from Cryptsy?

Bitcoin still has a lot of potential for growth, but there's little need to hold it directly, since all other cryptos are linked in price and will go up or down against the dollar, with it.
Honesty, I wouldn't hold any of the current crop of cryptos long. Some are innovative and are attractive to miners, but none really have anything more to offer regular consumers and to differentiate themselves from the rest. The only one to hold some real promise of going big is Dogecoin, and that's really on hype and publicity alone (but hype and publicity may really be all it takes). Obviously it won't go as big as BTC due to the supply and the fact that it's inflationary. There's also a lot of people holding a lot of Doge who are ready to sell the moment the price creeps up, which is really holding the price down.
At the moment, there's a lot of good money to be made by keeping your finger on the pulse and riding the waves of various altcoins up and down. There are lots of peaks and troughs, and more money to be made buying low and selling high, then rebuying when the price drops again.
Personally, I think that the open source model will be a problem for cryptos, as any innovation can be immediately cloned, effectively increasing supply. How can even an innovative coin truly take off and grow when it can spawn 1000 alt-coins the next day? I have a feeling that the next real Bitcoin successor will be truly innovative, and not be open source.

I must be the only person who actually likes Cryptsy. It works well for me, and the fees are reasonable. The only problem I really had was with the 502 error, although that seems to have improved. I've found I sometimes get issues if I try to have multiple tabs loaded for different coins, but if I just have Cryptsy in on one tab, it's really stable. Sure, stability could be improved, but all in all, it works, and I haven't seen anything better, especially with that range of coins.

Of course you are completely correct., but your voice will quickly become lost amongst all the hype. The alt-coin market is not driven by a rational assessment of the future viability of each new coin: it is driven by the promise of instant wealth, and regret at having missed the Bitcoin boom. It’s driven by the desire that this coin – My Coin - will be the next Bitcoin. This time, I’m not going to miss out, This time, it’s my turn. I got in early. And everyone better jump on board the rocket ship, because it’s going to the moooon!

Watch as a new coin is created from thin air, instantly met with enthusiastic acceptance and viral hype (Yes! This coin will be the next big thing!). Watch as people frantically mine and buy as many coins as possible (Better buy now, before the price goes up). Then, after the hype dies down or the coin is listed on a major exchange, see the price drop to the floor as the smart people sell, and the ones with dollar-signs in their eyes are left holding the bag. See the graveyard of dead coins, each with their legion of loyal devotees, still clinging on in desperate hope (Come on guys, this coin can still make it. All we need is for more people to hear about it).

The reality, as you understand, is that there already is a Bitcoin. To the extent that Bitcoin has built trust, stability, and recognition, it has done so slowly, and it won’t be easy to topple.  It won’t be done simply by taking Bitcoin and adding a few extra features. ASIC-resistance is something that nobody in the wider world who may be thinking about using Bitcoin, is likely to care about or even understand. They are concerned about things like stability of the currency, risk, and legality. They want assurance that if they buy or use Bitcoin, they won’t lose all their money or go to jail. They don’t really understand crypto-currencies, and  are scared because of the news stories about Bitcoin (Is it even legal?). And aside from all these questions, they need to see a real benefit for using it, aside from an ideological one, before they put their real, hard-earned money into it.

Bitcoin does have its problems. It is inevitable that if it continues to grow and become more accepted, it will eventually be replaced by a superior currency. But that currency won’t simply be a derivative: it would need to offer a lot to differentiate itself and become widely accepted. Things like POS vs. POW, Scrypt vs. SHA, block halving times and pre-mines are relevant to miners, but are largely esoteric to everyone else. What is needed is something a lot bigger. And when that comes, people won’t be oblivious to the massive amounts of money to be made, like they were the first time. It won’t be released as a fair, free for all, and the ground floor will be closed off to all but a few.

Until then, there is some money to be made by riding the dreams of the naive and desperate. Pump and dump, sir. Pump and dump.

Yes Please!

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