Are altcoins holding back blockchain development?

[ttookk]

This may sound a little counterintuitive at first glance, but lately I got the feeling, that all these new altcoins are holding back blockchain development as a whole. My reasoning is this:

Most ideas don't need their own blockchain. Actually, a lot of ideas can be realized by utilizing bitcoin sidechains and colored tokens.
 
The problem is, that there doesn't look to be money to be made, at least no fast money. It is very temtping to create yet another dedicated token and sell it over an ICO.

This creates all kinds of problems, probably the biggest being that money, knowledge and developing power is segregated, distributed thinly over a lot of small projects, most of which fail at some point. Now, you can probably "harvest" some ideas from those projects, but it would be more effective to have fewer projects with bigger teams working on them.

I don't see this changing in the future. It seems just so much more attractive to start an own project, that is paid out directly via an ICO, you don't have to read up on other developers code, you are your own boss, you don't have to compromise and so on.
Working on bitcoin sidechain projects just doesn't seem tp be lucrative, I get it. Who is supposed to pay a dev, who is working on a project, that is not holding any worth on its own? The fact that ICOs are so popular right now, makes donating for projects without prospect of getting at least some money back look downright foolish.
The ones able and willing to fund projects like that, are companies. I don't now about you guys, but I don't like that idea very much…

[freshman777]

Is Bitcoin holding back cryptocurrency development, taking a lion's share of knowledge and money to work on an inferior convoluted protocol?

[Johnyloco]

I don't think altcoins hold back blockchain development. In fact, I believe that they are actually good for the blockchain development in general, although there could be much less.

[Spoetnik]

I have long said, Who needs a block-chain ?
Why does no one have the foresight to look past it and code a new system ?
All i hear is crows cawing about all this "innovation" being put out..
Where ?

Further more the rampant sickening abuse of Crypto with mass ICO's
Is in fact a thousand steps in reverse..
They are MORE centralized and spit on the concept of block-chain tech.

ICO = SCAM

I have no respect for people that condone them.
Let alone get involved with them.

The very concept of douche bags making it standard practice to "front" money is fucking sickening.
If you don't have the money ? THEN FUCK OFF !

The god damn nerve of little assholes holding their hand out here porting all of crypto into a Kickstarter Ponzi Multi-Level-Marketing Scheme Pyramid Scam scene is ridiculous.
They should know better..
Seeing how scammy and greedy it was BEFORE mass ICO's took off it should have been crystal clear this should be avoided.
But all you stupid scammy ass greedy little cunts wanted to make a buck.. A REAL BUCK  - AKA: FIAT $$$
So you all collectively lowered the bar.. so bad it's been dragging on the ground !

If you had anything to do with any ICO coin then you share in the responsibility in fucking this shit up bad.

Enjoy.

I slow clap for your kidiot investard crypto-dregs of society.

[densuj]

I don't think altcoins holding back Blockchain development, because it is depend on innovation developer its self and not depend on altcoins developer. Although there are many new altcoins every weeks, usualy they can not be survive because mostly of them are scam coins.

[NorrisK]

In my opinion you are wrong. Altcoins are acutally helping to try out new things with blockchain technology.

Without altcoins, a lot of things would never have been tested yet. If the risk is too big on the main chain, it is better to try it on a new chain.

Also, investments in altcoins are still investments in blockchain development. Only not in the bitcoin blockchain.

[greenuser]

Most of these alts are only a database.  They are not even PoW blockchains.  Eth is not a blockchain, nore; MAID... or do i have much certanty over many others. Etc will stop being a blockchain in about 5 hours time. Not sure about Monero it's so secret.
BURST looks ok.

I think many will fall very soon and the value will go back to Bitcoin and Litecoin.  Future development will be ON TOP of these because increasing bitcoin blocksize is pointless unless it is a move to a blocksize of 100MB. Why that big?  Thats how big it needs to be to compete with Access and Visa. That is not going to happen. 2MB is pointless. Bite the bullet and get used to bigger transaction fees as oneday mining will end. We could also fill the blocks more effectivly.

So altcoins are holding back blockchain development! YES, in bitcoin.

[ttookk]

I feel like you guys are missing my point.

You don't need a dedicated token with it's own value and an independent PoW/PoS/Whatever system to create neat things with blockchain. You can build all that stuff by utilizing Bitcoin, or maybe Ethereum. If you need a faster blocktime, you could create a token on a sidechain that is backed by bitcoin: you buy it with Bitcoin and you can get the exact amount back (minus fees). The worth of those tokens wouldn't change on its own, their worth would be determined by Bitcoins worth. You wouldn't have to bother with altcoins and their shortcomings, like volatility based on speculation and pump and dump schemes.

Additionally, those smaller blockchains are far more vulnerable to attacks, while utilizing a big blockchain with lots of mining power keeps the blockchain from getting attacked.

I get the "testing out" part and I am not saying, that altcoins do not contribute to blockchain development (maybe I didn't say it right…), but I think, it could all go more rapidly, when people would concentrate on fewer projects, instead of starting new projects all the time.