Why would I be asking for a loan if I had an alt-coin that was equal in value to the loan i'm asking for? Doesn't make much sense to me.
Because then you can short sell, or go long on bitcoin, without needing to get out of other altcoins, since you'll get the full amount back once the loan is repaid, regardless of what the prices of both currencies has become. Normally if you think the price of something will go down, you would sell, but if you don't have any to sell, you can borrow some, and sell
that, and buy it back for less when it is time to pay it back. That's why people use altcoins as collateral.
I have 20 Smart Cash Coins, will that work?
That stuff is going for $0.057 each according to coinmarketcap, making 20 worth $1.14. Ideally you want the collateral to be worth 120% of the amount you're borrowing, which would be more like $98, meaning $1.14 isn't going to cover it.