The slow confirmation in bitcoin is because the network is crowded and by the time, the number of bitcoin users is increasing significantly. You may conclude that those altcoins seem to have better network and speed if you compare to bitcoin, there's nothing wrong with it, but, if those altcoins are having as many users as bitcoin have had, then I'm sure their speed will be as slow as bitcoin.
According to this site:https://blockchain.info/charts/transactions-per-second Bitcoin are now generating about more than 300,000 transactions a day which is overwhelmingly above any altcoin ever existed.
And 1 thing, as I said that the number of bitcoin users increasing by the time means it's not right to compare the speed of bitcoin back then when Cryptsy still "alive" and now.
BTC is SLOW, because it was Designed to only produce 2016 blocks every 2 weeks, which breaks down to a new block every 10 minutes.
This was stupid on their part and limits their transaction capacity, LTC has 4X the capacity of BTC because they have a 2½ minute block speed.
# of users does not really matter, it is the # of transactions that count.
The Alt coins would handle BTC # of transactions easily.
FYI:
To Increase BTC Transaction Capacity all they had to do was the following.
Increase BlockSize or move to a Faster Blockspeed , either or both would work
BTC Transactions Congestion Problems
Simulation Example
each block has 1 MB of transactions with a theoretical Limit of 4200 transactions per block with a 10 minute BlockSpeed , [] is a block
One Hour of Blocks
[1] 10 minutes [1] 10 minutes [1] 10 minutes [1] 10 minutes [1] 10 minutes [1] 10 minutes
6 Blocks * 4200 Transactions = 25200 Maximum Theoretical Transactions per Hour
BTC Transactions Congestion Solutions
Simulation Example Updated with Larger BlockSize and Shorter BlockSpeed
each block has 2 MB of transactions with a theoretical Limit of 8400 transactions per block with a 2½ minute BlockSpeed , [] is a block
One Hour of Blocks
[2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes
[2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes
[2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes
[2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes
[2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes
[2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes [2] 2½ minutes
24 Blocks *
8400 Transactions =
201600 Maximum Theoretical Transactions per Hour
Compare Updated Simulation with Original
201600 / 25200 =
8Updated Version can handle
8X the Transaction Capacity.
Now the educated asshats that live in these forums will tell you it can't work or it is a security risk, (They are Lying!)
Real World Examples.
PoW coin LTC has a 2½ minute block time with no problems whatsoever from it.
In Fact Chinese Mining Pools are over 51% of the BTC Hash rate , and are also over 51% of the LTC Hashrate.
In Fact some alts run at a 30 second blockspeed.
Oh, they also will complain, it will affect the Block Reward and Halving Dates,
(All of that are Variables that can be modified to compensate for the changes)
If they make the Blockspeed Faster,
then they will have to increase the Final Supply Number of Bitcoins or allow it to get to the Final Supply Number 4X faster than it would have.
If they only increase the BlockSize ,
then the Block rewards and halving dates are not affected, and will not need modification.
But Transactions grow will be directly proportional to the increase in BlockSize.
IE: 2 MB Block only Double the Transaction Capacity
8 MB Blocks would increase by
8X also