Theory: Which other cryptocurrency would people choose if Bitcoin would fail?

[Frost]

Which other cryptocurrency would people choose if Bitcoin would fail?

[saturn643]

Most people would probably jump to Litecoin as it is one of the most well known altcoins.

[mexicantarget]

Would say LTC as well, then DRK. (Dash, duh!..)
The older coins have bigger potential, but who really knows. It's the smart money that decides about all this.

[Slark]

Realistically, if bitcoin would fail then any of the existing altcoins won't be a good choice. Can you imagine imagine bad press after this incident? Cryptocurrency market will be in pieces.
People would be scared to invest in ANY cryptocurrency ever again, because if the biggest and most renowned of crypto of them all could fail then every lesser altcoin can fail too!

[countryfree]

I don't think there could be another one right away. If BTC were to fail, all cryptocurrencies would be on a death bed, and it would take years before another one could gain any sympathy from investors. Then I guess only an entirely new cryptocurrency could succeed BTC, not one which already exists.

[ArticMine]

The critical question here would be what caused Bitcoin to fail? If an alt-coin were to replace Bitcoin then one would expect that the alt-coin in question would have a solution for the problems that caused Bitcoin to fail in the first place. Futhermore the alt-coin should be otherwise fairy similar to Bitcoin.

So what problems does Bitcoin currently have? Two come to mind:
1) The blocksize debate. When we have numerous major Bitcoin businesses calling for a hard fork of the Bitcoin network over this issue, I would say this is a serious problem.
2) Privacy / fungibility. The risk of tainted coins held by innocent people in Bitcoin is very real.

Now look for alt-coins that currently have a solution for both 1) and 2) above and are otherwise similar to Bitcoin and one has a likely candidate or candidates. This is the kind of analysis that I suspect the "smart money" is doing right now.

[randy8777]

i won't choose any of the current altcoins. if bitcoin will fail as you say, it might be due to the fact that there is another coin that completely leaves bitcoin behind when it comes to global adoption and the features, plus security. i would choose that one.

[ArticMine]

i won't choose any of the current altcoins. if bitcoin will fail as you say, it might be due to the fact that there is another coin that completely leaves bitcoin behind when it comes to global adoption and the features, plus security. i would choose that one.

Bitcoin has a massive network effect lead. So if Bitcoin is "good enough" it will very likely not fail.

[franky1]

if bitcoin were to fail.. id just not transact for a few hours until they patch/fork it..

its been done before quite quickly.. so i wouldnt lose my head. id just go out for the day and see what has been updated in the evening..

thats the beauty of bitcoin.. its not a fixed system

[junglist.massive]

from existed now I thing biggest chance have dash, bitshares, ethereum and xrp. But no one knows

[Raimonn]

If bitcoin fail, I think that people would not choose another crypto coin, almost one of we have now. If it fails, we will need something very different. But i didn't expect that bitcoin fails.

[maokoto]

Litecoin very likely. In fact, I see litecoin being used as a secondary currency even if Bitcoin succeeds. If BTC succeeds, its price will raise a lot and a less valuable coin will be useful for small amounts.

[OROBTC]

...

I am not in a position to judge how resilient Bitcoin is vs. a failure, but were it really to FAIL, I'm GONE.  "AMFs!"

No alts, no thanks.  At least not until I saw something that would be easy to use, yet offering more privacy than BTC.  And I do not see that happening anytime soon (but what do I know?  Not much).

BTC fails?  Gold is where I would put excess FIAT$.

[Yakamoto]

As the crypto currency projects currently stand, if Bitcoin fails, there will be no accepted replacement. They will all fail alongside Bitcoin due to the fact most ride alongside Bitcoin's popularity, and none have the same sort of following that Bitcoin has. Most other cryptos are also less valued, and thus would interest other people far less than the dreams of earning $400 in a single coin, or striking it rich and watching an increase to $1000 and make about $600 from that, per coin.

The good news is that it is incredibly difficult for Bitcoin to fail at this point, and considering that some people are bringing out the tin foil hats and saying a collapse is due in "x" days or weeks, there will be a backing of cautious investors.

Not to offend any tin foil hatters, they are always welcome.

[crazyivan]

Yes, litecoin is an obvious choice but I think some more liquid PoS coins might also have a shot in the future. After all staking is much more advanced IMHO then classic PoW mining. No heat, no electricity cost, no environmental externalities, etc.

[NorrisK]

Litecoin is only an obvious choice if the failing mechanism isn't part of litecoin as well.. And since litecoin is bascially bitcoin in most ways except for the mining algorithm, a problem to bitcoin may therefore also cause  a problem to litecoin.

A coin with a new code that has been time tested and very little concerns regarding insta/premine might than be stepping up.

[owm123]

my bet also goes to litecoin. maybe for those wanting more privacy, maybe monero would be good.

[Amph]

if bitcoin would fail why the other altcoin would not follow? i can't see them surviving if they do not offer anything

so most likely if the king would fail any other alt would fail too, and it's mean that the whole crypto thing did not worked as expected

[Mickeyb]

if bitcoin would fail why the other altcoin would not follow? i can't see them surviving if they do not offer anything

so most likely if the king would fail any other alt would fail too, and it's mean that the whole crypto thing did not worked as expected

Exactly, especially since 95% of all coins are based on Bitcoin technology. Also all these coins have too small of the communities. Bitshares forum has 10,000 registered users. NXT forum 5,000 registered users.

There is no so many support for all these coins as you can see. Bitcoin is here to stay and will stay a king for a while!

[Nahl]

it's obviously Litecoin because i think this altcoin have the second largest market in Huobi and almost in every exchange after bitcoin and if Bitcoin would fail i think the best choice is Litecoin