A warning about Alt-Coins

[elefter]

I know this is a noob question, so it gets stuck in the noob board.

I mine ltc with Bitminter, and I collect shares. So my question is, as the difficulty rises, is it harder to get shares, or does it take more shares to uncover the block?

Im sorry how to you mine ltc with bitminter?

[cryptoswag]

Thank you, great advice!

[ag@th0s]

There's a lot of hate on here to LTC, but that's mainly because the old-timers bought or mined there BTC @ sub $10 - so frankly, they've all gone crazy. They got rich so fast that there brains are gone.  LTC doesn't really figure in this world.

[timotbuch555]

There is not really a point to the alt-coins that are out there. Do any of the provide a better standard? If so the people will switch but all I can see as of now are variations of bitcoin.

[rolling]

There is no point to alt coins.  They are all ponzi schemes.  Everyone missed the boat on Bitcoin and figure they have another chance with an alt.  Not gonna happen.

[prudbow222]

There is really no point to the alt-coins that are out there. Do any of the provide a better standard? If so the people will switch but all I can see as of now are variations of bitcoin.

[love2Con]

Too many coins are getting launched ... not sure if even one of them will actually take off Cheesy

[OceanTrek]

You can use Namecoins to buy and register Domains.
Currently, the only domain you can use with Namecoins is .bit.

[ISPClutch]

You should consider the khashs and difficulty when choosing an alt.

When bitcoins aren't profitable then you should stick with your current crypto-currencies.
Maybe you should mine some low difficulty currencies to catch some value

[SoftNetwork]

Wouldn't people just switch to another alt coin as the price would be so low that miners would see no profitability in mining? It would take a REALLY dedicated community to bring it back from the dead.

[xide]

many of alt coins are made from old bitcoin miner (GPU Miners) so they can survive ...point of bitcoin is many people involved not everyone has asic so i think that there is good there is alt valute like Litecoin(scrypt coin),if some Coin want to survive there are not enough only miners and some valute..it must has USE...bitcoin has use and everything so he will survive many other altcoins dosent in few months.

[Nibiru]

A very new no yet launched altcoin -- will be launched 1 July --- Has difficulty 0.005

http://krugercoin.co

Has a few pool -- has linux, max wallets -- still waiting for the windows compiled wallet.

Krugercoin is going to be the digital coin of the future as the Kruger rand is the physical world ..... Start mining now while the difficulty is low!

[trixong]

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.

Thanks for this information, but other is there other coinexplorer for others coins?

[Pattart]

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.

Thanks for this information, but other is there other coinexplorer for others coins?

Blockchain.info is good, but the other coin has the ones that aren't nearly as extensive, and I suspect most alt-coins don't.  I'm only familiar with alt-coin on the Btc-e exchange though.

[galtbit]

Thanks!

[arc45]

Wouldn't people just switch to another alt coin as the price would be so low that miners would see no profitability in mining? It would take a REALLY dedicated community to bring it back from the dead.

The only reason I switch coins is because of a combination of a low difficulty + value against the BTC.  If I end up with a usb asic miner or the BFL miner I've been waiting on, I may take on a higher difficulty coin. 

[dimitry-js]

I think lite coin has a long way to catch up with bitcoin since the computation requirements are very different and the same infrastructures might not work well for lite coin. At the same time, I think lite coin is going to be a better digital currency compared to bitcoin since the generation is harder and more balanced in terms of hardware requirements.

[Scornflakes]

Thanks for the pointers tysat.  I had no idea some of the altcoin software could hide wallet stealing code.  I assume this has happend before and was posted on the forum here?

[JDTH]

Thanks for the pointers tysat.  I had no idea some of the altcoin software could hide wallet stealing code.  I assume this has happend before and was posted on the forum here?

Many Anti Virus and protection suites will pick up on this kind of thing now but thank you for mentioning it, another reason not to use any alt coins out of the blue, not matter how appealing it sounds.

[hany103]

I only use Bitcoin and Litecoin wallets, all other altcoins I just withdraw from pool to BTC-E/Cryptsy.