Do we have too many alt coins?

[NeedsMoreBTC]

Yes, and 99% of them unnecessary 

[Possum577]

The US had multiple currencies when we were a collection of colonies. Europe had multiple currencies before the EU was formed. If we're thinking of multiple crypto coins as currency, medium of exchange, I think it's fine to have multiple versions and then as the ecosystem matures some or many of those currencies will be abandoned. If you're thinking of these currencies like stocks, where some will appreciate in value, i think that's a dangerous way to think about it. Maybe you can make some money on speculation but that's clearly not the ideal purpose for their creation.

[CozyLife]

Many alt-coins exist, but the alt-coin boom brought in a lot of junk coins that don't really have any really purpose. There are still some great coins being released every now and again adding value such as P2P marketplaces, built-in wallet trading platforms via APIs, and some integrate ZeroCoin for added anonymity. I once heard someone explain it as "alt-coins are the testing grounds for new features." Even if the coin really sucks, it could have a few nice features that favored coins may some day implement.

[Microbit001]

I believe there are too many alt coins right now. Most of them are completely unnecessary and have no purpose whatsoever.

[Lucky Cris]

Look at this.  I think we can squeeze out a few thousand more turds:
http://mapofcoins.com/

Ok, that's a cool ass map. But damn, 52 in one month!!! This shit has got to stop!

[Benjig]

Well most of the altcoins are pump and dump schemes.. and there are people who like that, thats why some devs make a shitty alt.. got it into an exchange, dump it and repeat the process once again..

[btcguys]

Some have good features but most of them (99%) are introduce for pump and dump so avoid all other coins and focus on BTC only

[cowandtea]

Its ok to have too many alt, just need more innovation and not scam coin..

[Bitsaurus]

Look at this.  I think we can squeeze out a few thousand more turds:
http://mapofcoins.com/

Ok, that's a cool ass map. But damn, 52 in one month!!! This shit has got to stop!

As long as there are new users driven by greed who will listen to some raving lunatic they don't know talking about how Buttcoin is going to be the next Bitcoin then there will be pump and dumps.  They steal money that should have been invested into reasonable coins - ones where the devs have credibility and are actually working towards a goal.

[faiza1990]

Its ok to have too many alt, just need more innovation and not scam coin..

But no one can stop these scam coins because we have no authority or department for this

[Velkro]

Yes we have too many of them, and many of them dying.... litecoin included, it never go up after bubble

[pandacoin]

We have way more than too many altcoins. 1 year before we already had too many altcoins, now things are out of control. I only use Monero but there are thousands of altcoins out here.

[Zebra]

Look at this.  I think we can squeeze out a few thousand more turds:
http://mapofcoins.com/

Ok, that's a cool ass map. But damn, 52 in one month!!! This shit has got to stop!

As long as there are new users driven by greed who will listen to some raving lunatic they don't know talking about how Buttcoin is going to be the next Bitcoin then there will be pump and dumps.  They steal money that should have been invested into reasonable coins - ones where the devs have credibility and are actually working towards a goal.

Sadly this is the truth.
Most of the people getting into those new coins understand the coins are likely made for pump and dumps, and they are expecting to get profits with the pump and dumps...

[Wekkel]

We have way more than too many altcoins. 1 year before we already had too many altcoins, now things are out of control. I only use Monero but there are thousands of altcoins out here.

So you hold an altcoin but complain about altcoins? You'd better work on your logic in that post.

[Mr Tea]

Yes, and 99% of them unnecessary 

That's an understatement. 99.9% of them are unesessary  . They're only ever made with one thing in mind and that's for the devs to get rich quick. People should just leave them alone and they'd die off.

[valvalis]

We just have 2 altcoin, legitcoin and scamcoin.
But, most of altcoin is scam LOL 

[Zebra]

Yes, and 99% of them unnecessary 

That's an understatement. 99.9% of them are unesessary  . They're only ever made with one thing in mind and that's for the devs to get rich quick. People should just leave them alone and they'd die off.

99.9% sounds too high to me.
I can think of at least 4 innovative coins like litecoin, namecoin, peercoin and darkcoin within a minute, but I don't think there are 4000 altcoins out there.

[grendel25]

No, you can never have too many "alt" coins.  You can have too many useless coins which in fact, we probably do have today.  I just saw a guy advertising that for as little as .3 BTC he'd generate a new algo coin (X11 I think).  So this means that for as little as around $200 you can start up your own little alt coin.  Really, it's about the same for businesses.  But this is a publicly traded entity.  As soon as people start mining the new coin (that may have costed $200 or less to start) there is value being generated because the ledger is being built.  The more that coin gets traded the more that ledger grows and again the value goes up. 

The problem is with coins that have no clout but for some reason have value.  Coins that are not integrated to a business or some sort of goods/services exchange but still have "hyped" value are a problem.

As you get into the smaller coins, look at what they are actually doing.  Doge coin is so frigging cool because they are in the headlines every now and then for charitable goods.  I totally respect Doge because of that.. and it makes me laugh

my 2-cents

[tpcc]

I think personally we have to many alt coins and there is not point for so many. But there's nothing we can really do about it unfortunately.

[MajidBC]

It's interesting that this topic was created on May 29, 2013 but the question is still valid. Actually it's more "valid" now, having too many altcoins.