I've never been into ALTCOINs, but would it be wise to convert some BTC to LTC?

[johnniewalker]

Honestly when Litecoins came out I thought they were something that would blow over in a matter of weeks. They seem to be holding strong, though. Would it be wise (I have a decent number of bitcoins) to convert a small portion of them to LTC? If it helps, I am "in it for the long run".

[El Dude]

Of course it would be a good idea to diversify, and the only alt coin worthy is LTC.

 

[viboracecata]

Definitely you should do this, but not much, to reduce risk, if you think both of them are stocks.

[abbyd]

Honestly when Litecoins came out I thought they were something that would blow over in a matter of weeks. They seem to be holding strong, though. Would it be wise (I have a decent number of bitcoins) to convert a small portion of them to LTC? If it helps, I am "in it for the long run".

Keep a careful eye on BTC/LTC exchange rates - it's gone through some interesting fluctuations recently. Your optimum LTC buy window might come when miners switch back to BTC... 

[Impaler]

Well from my perspective BTC/LTC are equivalent to owning stock in Coke and Pepsi, technically different companies but same sector.

And bear in mind the only thing that makes LTC viable is a stock of legacy hardware owned by people who wanted to keep mining 'something' as they were about to be replaced by ASICs.  That is not a sufficient basis to dethrone BTC from it's place of dominance due to the size of its network, but it may be enough to continue to exist alongside BTC as a second tier currency, their is even some possibility LTC will be more value stable because it won't go through the disruption of ASICs are bringing to BTC.  The numerous forks of LTC that have proliferated recently, obviously offer nothing new and most lack any semblance of a dedicated development team which I would recommend to everyone be a litmus test for holding any coin for any length of time.

The risk you run is if the whole Proof-of-Work deflationary-ratchet coin paradigm loses out to something better.  Their is already the Proof-of-Stake paradigm, the Ripple paradigm and the demurrage paradigm in Freicoin (full disclosure, I'm a principle developer of this one), these are all quite different economically and are likely to behave different in long term valuation changes.  They may have higher or lower upside or downside potentials and it's unlikely that all 'succeed' to even remotely the level BTC so you will want to do your homework, but these are the as of now the coins that stand out for having the diversity that counts.

[amincd]

I think either only Bitcoin will succeed, or Bitcoin-based cryptocurrency will become fragmented across an increasing number of networks, with its cryptocoin supply approaching infinity, so I recommend only investing in Bitcoin.

[Liquid]

go for it mate i am 100% LTC and 0% BTC right now 

[ManBearPig]

I'd advise caution. Wait until we see signs of the BTC/LTC rate reversing.

I've stopped mining LTC as the rate is worsening.

LTC is the ONLY alt with a chance of survival but then if any crypto makes it it will be BTC.

Don't hold it now. We've moved from 30 coins to BTC through 40 and are on the way to 50.

A lot of the inflated value of LTC was on the promise of MtGox adding it to their exchange, well that ain't gonna happen any time soon if ever.

[matthewh3]

I think either only Bitcoin will succeed, or Bitcoin-based cryptocurrency will become fragmented across an increasing number of networks, with its cryptocoin supply approaching infinity, so I recommend only investing in Bitcoin.

That may not turn out true compare alt-coins to languages.  Yes you get dominate ones but there can be many and small ones that are still usable.

[nomnomnom]

I would rather look into namecoin (NMC).
It seems development of NMC is picking up again recently. 

[mgio]

Definitely DON'T do this. I believe that LTC will die, and LTC can ONLY succeed if bitcoin succeeds. It offers nothing better than bitcoin and essentially is the same as bitcoin, just much less popular.
Bitcoin is the safer bet. I bet LTC won't exist at all in about a year.

[Impaler]

No you simply can not deduce coin relative values by dividing total quantity, that is stupid.  The demand for each coin and the available supply (emphasis on available as in people looking to sell it for USD, not just coins in existence) are the only things that determine price.  If LTC has 1/10th the demand then it would be worth 1/10th a BTC even if available coins were equal.

[ManBearPig]

I'm planning on changing a good amount of my BTC into LTC soon. Lots of sellers accept LTC, and I think it has some advantages over BTC in specific areas (e.g. small transactions) that make a lot of people want to use it (not just hoard it). I can see these two currencies existing side-by-side, each with its pros and cons.

The market is telling you BTC is almost 50 times as valuable as LTC.

Ignore the wisdom of the crowd at your peril

[amincd]

I think either only Bitcoin will succeed, or Bitcoin-based cryptocurrency will become fragmented across an increasing number of networks, with its cryptocoin supply approaching infinity, so I recommend only investing in Bitcoin.

That may not turn out true compare alt-coins to languages.  Yes you get dominate ones but there can be many and small ones that are still usable.

First, languages eventually combine into or give way to one when people are free to interact, as they are on the internet.

Second, language and BTC-based currency are different, in that the latter only works when its units are scarce. If Bitcoin-based cryptocurrency becomes increasingy fragmented, with new networks being launched by the day, then the coins will no longer be scarce. The cryptocoin supply will trend towards infinity, at a very fast rate, and the units will lose their value.

I think either BTC has enough of a network effect to stay dominant, or it doesn't, and an unlimited number of networks will be adopted by speculators, and this will discredit the idea that BTC technology can create currency that can store value.

The people who think that it's possible that just one BTC-alt will be seen as an alternative to BTC, and not the others, are kidding themselves. It'll either be one network that is accepted, or a gradually increasing number.

[desired_username]

LTC at this point is no more than GPU miner speculation in my opinion. Having said that I mined 20LTC a while back which I hold onto long. I think of it as gambling

[Netnox]

Ofcourse you should buy LTC, dont listen to some guys saying LTC will die, if LTC goes up only $1 you have made a nice profit if you have invested some reasonable amount of BTC in LTC. Those who haven't bought any LTC have missed many profits, thats just selfish imo

[worldinacoin]

I think there is too much correlation between BTC and LTC given that LTC aims to be the silver while Bitcoin is the Gold.  If Bitcoin suffers a sudden confidence loss, I don't think any of the alt coins including LTC will be spared.

[Stampbit]

OP has a ripplescam link in his signature and is asking if its wise to convert to scamcoins.

[abbyd]

OP has a ripplescam link in his signature and is asking if its wise to convert to scamcoins.

Oh no, he's a numismatist.

Either doesn't understand Bitcoin or he's truly LONG bitcoins.

[johnniewalker]

Except for the last 2 posts here, thanks everyone for the advice. I'm keeping my BTC.