Is it possible to build alternate Bitcoin network?

[doubush]

Hello,
I am new to bitcoin but i have some tech background i i try to understand how bitcoin works.

I am most interested in question if bitcoin protocol supports this network to be unique or it is possible to create alternative bitcoin network with some different root certificates.
I see there are some alternative systems to bitcoin. and difference is there is used different crypto function (not sha256) .

but what if some number of people wants to create alternate network to bitcoin and use everything same but only difference is they use some SALT for hash generating? it will work absolutely same but will not be compatible with current bitcoin. Like some government choose some SALT known only by him and generates 95% of all coins based on this SALT and then start to redistribute that coins as "true bitcoins" for real economy and "all other bitcoins are false, don't trust".

Is this possible to create alternative system with such way?

[Birdy]

Sure, Bitcoin is open source, so it's not that difficult to do that (if you are versed in that topic).
It just wouldn't be "Bitcoins" and getting a userbase for it will be difficult. A government could do that (and would be treating its people like idiots, if it tells them those are the real Bitcoins).

[eliza]

Look bytecoin. It is example showing you easiest way to make alternative blockchain - it has changed only logo and genesis block, all other is from bitcoin. And speaking of trust, anyone can say "here's only true coin" but you decide whom to trust.
If we compare bitcoin and closest clone (bytecoin) you should put more trust in bitcoin simply because it has much higher hashing power in first place.
Nobody would make great exchange or online shop or similar service using coin which can't be trusted enough, and since bitcoin is trustless in sense that you do not have to trust one entity, trust in coin comes solely from hashing power behind it.
Why? Because as there are more miners it gets more unlikely that all of them will collude in order to scam someone, at one point it becomes impossible in practice. Also, this is reason why coin with little hashing power won't get high price. If coin magically becomes expensive but has little hashing power, it will become economically viable for single entity to pull off double spend attack.

So, bottom line is that every coin must evolve hashpower wise and price wise in harmony in order to be trusted.

Of course, as anyone can make coin, government can do it too. From above said perspective government is not in better nor worse position than any other entity wishing to publish bitcoin based currency.

From another perspective, government can be more trusted if you expect it to defend coin from attacks maybe by blockchain checkpoints or in some other way. Also government can change block reward in flight by using same logic they use when deciding how much money to print. This can be seen as strength because you may expect some form of stability, but bitcoin idea is largely about not giving this power to central bank or any other single entity.

As I am not bitcoin guru (far from this), I would like to see comments on my thoughts here, especially about different points of view regarding possible government roles in cryptocurrency world.