A warning about Alt-Coins

[tysat]

Almost all of the alt-coins out there are going to be a waste of time.  They're being created to take advantage of people who get super excited about different things and then get pumped and dumped.

Be careful about wasting time with too many alt coins.

Be careful about downloading files, seems like there's plenty of wallet stealers around hidden as alt coin miners.
Seen some more of this recently, so wanted to highlight the point.

Here's some good info from later in the thread:

1) Don't just trust the status of a member, anyone can write 500 posts and be a hero member in a short period. This just means that he invested some time on his membership. He can always decide that a profitable scam will be a good payment for his time.
2) Never deal with anyone without doing a search in the forum with his nickname, in order to check if he has scam accusations.
3) Ask for his coin address and always search it on blockchain.info or www.cryptocoinexplorer.com to verify if his address has the amounts he is claiming.
4) Be very suspicious about proposals well under market price or if he accepts your proposal under market price with no negotiation.
5) Look for the reputation of the member (his successful trades, in the form of vouches from the other party on the deal).
6) Even if he has some reputation, never send all the money in one transfer: send one first very small tranche (0.1 btc might be a good start) and wait for his payment. Send a second little higher tranche and wait again, etc. Small increments, because he might decide to pay you the first and second, to scam a bigger tranche. Always suspect if he doesn't accept to trade in small tranches.
7) If he has no reputation (including most cases when he is a newbie or a Jr.), even small tranches are a risk. Better use an escrow system, like the one of bitmit.net, or a trusted member, or you might need to send over 10 very small tranches. It can be annoying, but loosing your money will be more.
8] For big amounts always use an escrow system, unless the member has an excellent reputation.

Since this thread is a sticky, I decided to post this here. Any moderator or member feel free to move, copy or improve these rules at will.

[doom309]

Almost all of the alt-coins are there are going to be a waste of time.  They're being created to take advantage of people who get super excited about different things and then get pumped and dumped.

Be careful about wasting time with too many alt coins.

tysat, if you believe they are pump and dumps, seriously who do you think is behind it?  mtgox?  the btc elites?  honestly, if someone is pumping and dumping in an organised way, as a means of screwing new investors then the entire alt community should hunt them down

[Aosana]

Almost all of the alt-coins are there are going to be a waste of time.  They're being created to take advantage of people who get super excited about different things and then get pumped and dumped.

Be careful about wasting time with too many alt coins.

I bet thats the kind of thinking many had about Bitcoins in the beginning but look where it is now. I am not bashing you in anyway, I just feel like qualifying your statement. People should really research what their going into because maybe one of the Alt-coins will have a boom like BTC.

[zacho56]

Almost all of the alt-coins are there are going to be a waste of time.  They're being created to take advantage of people who get super excited about different things and then get pumped and dumped.

Be careful about wasting time with too many alt coins.

I bet thats the kind of thinking many had about Bitcoins in the beginning but look where it is now. I am not bashing you in anyway, I just feel like qualifying your statement. People should really research what their going into because maybe one of the Alt-coins will have a boom like BTC.

Agreed. Many alt-coins out there have great potential and some-not all will hit it off big.

[netzwerg]

I think it's easy to mine now. Better now than later.

[jmferbs]

Its always worth taking a look at

[elgeo]

Almost all of the alt-coins are there are going to be a waste of time.  They're being created to take advantage of people who get super excited about different things and then get pumped and dumped.

Be careful about wasting time with too many alt coins.

why u say that?

[miningusa]

Most Alt coins are completely pointless and just poor replicas of what's already out there with little to no improvement.

[kaiwahine]

Almost all of the alt-coins are there are going to be a waste of time.  They're being created to take advantage of people who get super excited about different things and then get pumped and dumped.

Be careful about wasting time with too many alt coins.

Agree, but it is more satisfying to be able to mine whole coins for newcomers, who often don't have much of a setup or GPU. I love the alt coins. They're fun (even if just for now).

[Aosana]

Almost all of the alt-coins are there are going to be a waste of time.  They're being created to take advantage of people who get super excited about different things and then get pumped and dumped.

Be careful about wasting time with too many alt coins.

Agree, but it is more satisfying to be able to mine whole coins for newcomers, who often don't have much of a setup or GPU. I love the alt coins. They're fun (even if just for now).

True that. It is kind of discouraging when you can only mine .00001 of a bitcoin. Mining a whole Litecoin or something is much more satisfying.

[miningusa]

More the merrier. Can't get enough of those alt coins 

[kaiwahine]

True that. It is kind of discouraging when you can only mine .00001 of a bitcoin. Mining a whole Litecoin or something is much more satisfying.

Absolutely. And if you're starting with a cpuminer or small gpu, the transaction fees can really take a bite. Smaller value coins automatically have smaller fees - or at least you can cash out quicker and feel like you're accomplishing something, even if it's in millipennies.

[Aosana]

True that. It is kind of discouraging when you can only mine .00001 of a bitcoin. Mining a whole Litecoin or something is much more satisfying.

Absolutely. And if you're starting with a cpuminer or small gpu, the transaction fees can really take a bite. Smaller value coins automatically have smaller fees - or at least you can cash out quicker and feel like you're accomplishing something, even if it's in millipennies.

I feel that you also make more if you can save those Alt-Coins, you never know when they might have a huge hit.

[tysat]

Almost all of the alt-coins are there are going to be a waste of time.  They're being created to take advantage of people who get super excited about different things and then get pumped and dumped.

Be careful about wasting time with too many alt coins.

tysat, if you believe they are pump and dumps, seriously who do you think is behind it?  mtgox?  the btc elites?  honestly, if someone is pumping and dumping in an organised way, as a means of screwing new investors then the entire alt community should hunt them down

Most Alt coins are completely pointless and just poor replicas of what's already out there with little to no improvement.

The second quotation explains why, very few actually do something new.  Most coins are just a slight tweak of BTC or LTC then a new name is given to it.

[kaiwahine]

Most Alt coins are completely pointless and just poor replicas of what's already out there with little to no improvement.

The second quotation explains why, very few actually do something new.  Most coins are just a slight tweak of BTC or LTC then a new name is given to it.

As long as you can trade across the digital currencies, they're all basically an extension of Bitcoin. Notice how Bitcoin dropped $40 right after Feathercoin moved onto exchanges for trading? Alt currencies are a slick way to dilute Bitcoin.

[thebitboy]

Almost all of the alt-coins are there are going to be a waste of time.  They're being created to take advantage of people who get super excited about different things and then get pumped and dumped.

Be careful about wasting time with too many alt coins.

Agree, but it is more satisfying to be able to mine whole coins for newcomers, who often don't have much of a setup or GPU. I love the alt coins. They're fun (even if just for now).

+1

[cschroeder23]

what about NameCoins? will those ever be worth anything?

[kaiwahine]

what about NameCoins? will those ever be worth anything?

They're worth something now. You can trade them for Bitcoins.

[bujiraso]

Alt coins can become useful, I think, if people start accepting them for services or goods. That's all that is missing.

[jamesnine]

It's true that there's a huge saturation of alt coins in the market now, which is devaluting a lot of them.  It's hard to say which coins will gain in value in the future; sometimes you never know.