bitcoins and altcoins difference

[Naitik]

What could be the major difference between bitcoin and altcoin? That everybody should know.
How could you differentiate between bitcoin and altcoin.

[sabbathhawk]

What could be the major difference between bitcoin and altcoin? That everybody should know.
How could you differentiate between bitcoin and altcoin.

Hey there

There are lot of differences between bitcoin and other alts:
1. Bitcoin has best and most skilled developers
2. Bitcoin has biggest and most secure network
3. Bitcoin has been the first crypto created
4. Bitcoin created blockchain (basically thanks to bitcoin we have blockchain as technology)
5. Bitcoin is a father of all alts. If bitcoin will succeed a lot of alts will succeed with it. Otherwise all crypto will be pushed back

[sp564]

Bitcoin is associated with a particular function: storage and transfer of value. Altcoins can be associated with many other projects; each project or application can have an alt coin, kind of like different companies do different things and have different stocks.

[jorinu]

bitcoin is bitcoin
The rest are altcoin: eth, xmr, litecoin .....

[waqarkahloon]

Bitcoin is first digital blockchained currency introduced so when it got famous,  then many other new cryptocurrencies were introduced.  All other are called altcoins coming from alternative coins like ether, dash,  monero and others. Bitcoin is main coin which is traceable against fiat currency and all other are exchangeable with bitcoin.

[helper123]

Altcoin is definitely an abbreviation of "Bitcoin alternative". Currently, many altcoins are forks of Bitcoin. The most prominent altcoin is Litecoin. Litecoin introduces changes for the original Bitcoin protocol like decreased block generation time, increased maximum number of coins and various hashing algorithm.

[dietmarfritz59]

It depends on which altcoin you are talking about. All the altcoins have different purposes. So you just need to research each altcoin individually before you invest.

[uberproteam]

Some altcoins have promising value such as ETH. Altcoins are basically coins which have a unique ability to transfer value. Some have zero fees such as Iota. Store some alts and experiment with it.

[ZCoinTalk]

What could be the major difference between bitcoin and altcoin? That everybody should know.
How could you differentiate between bitcoin and altcoin.

There are lot of differences between bitcoin and other alts:
1. Bitcoin has best and most skilled developers
2. Bitcoin has biggest and most secure network
3. Bitcoin has been the first crypto created
4. Bitcoin created blockchain (basically thanks to bitcoin we have blockchain as technology)
5. Bitcoin is a father of all alts. If bitcoin will succeed a lot of alts will succeed with it. Otherwise all crypto will be pushed back

I can only agree with number 4.

1 & 2 are subjective, most skilled developers? most secure network?
3 is incorrect, it is the first decentralized crypto, read about DigiCash
5 is also incorrect, a lot are tied to Bitcoin, some are using very different tech though (e.g. IOTA)

Altcoin, as a word, just helps to make the distinction between Bitcoin and other crypto coins.

[Sutters Mill]

All you need to know about bitcoin is set out in satoshi's orginial whitepaper, but basically bitcoin is bitcoin and alt coins are alt coins. The keyword here is 'alt' in that they are alternatives to bitcoin and all alts have something different that they offer or at least try to offer. Most alts to me are nothing but crapcoins (an apt term for most of them), but there are ones that at least try to better bitcoin in certain aspects. If you want to know about alt coins then you should take them on a case by case basis and judge them all on their own individual merits because they are all vastly different. You never even know that one of the other alt coins could actually surpass bitcoin and many like Litecoin, Ethereum and even bitcoin cash have gained significant ground and value over the past year or so and especially within the last few months. If you would have invested even a few thousand in those three coins at the beginning of the year you could have been a very rich man by now (though lets not forget about the gains bitcoin has grown because it's still the most valuable and used crypto out of them all as it stands today but that could easily change.

.

[Ninja Sword]

The Basic is the following thesis, Bitcoin is the first currency, what is not Bitcoin is alternative currency.

[nebuch]

I would like to differentiate first the altcoins.
Altcoins  was/is created not to surpass bitcoin.
It wasn't made to take the lead but to lead and can be use in a specific project.
And I think altcoins helps to promote bitcoin or vice versa.

Bitcoin is the major coin ever. Everybody wants it. As the day, months, or year passby btc's
Value become amazing. Even its price is not so stable.
This is all my opinion.

[Roon]

I think there are so many differences between the altcoins now, that to say the useful categories of cryptocurrencies are "bitcoin" and "everything else" seems awfully simplistic. But, trying to understand the differences between coins is certainly not newbie-friendly. It could be anything from a different business model (mobile mining!) to a highly technical point of blockchain protocol (segwit!) and beyond.

I've been thinking about how to make sense of the cryptocurrency landscape for a couple months now, and I've got an idea - but to make it work, I need knowledge and understanding I don't yet have. I've created a survey at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdGvCVIFHeXxPUrURdUXoGWZnfUfjXjmcPKfhwdi-C3Ln9APQ/viewform?usp=sf_link to help gather some of this knowledge and understanding, but so far haven't had very many good responses.  Certainly, you are all welcome to take it, but I'd even more appreciate tips on where else I could post it and the future versions of the survey.

[eddie13]

Bitcoin is associated with a particular function: storage and transfer of value.

Nah, Bitcoin also has the most secure blockchain to record basically any even in..

[Hashew]

Bitcoin is the only and only coin. If you are buying a Bitcoin you are buying that one coin. (BTC for short)
Any other coin you would be purchasing a Altcoin, which vary from $0.00001 to $2000.

[$--Perfect. Exchange-$.]

Each alternative coin has its own objectives.Before investing in one or another coin is to study for what purpose it is aimed and to draw conclusions whether it has the potential.In some cases, such investors are very profitable.Do not forget that the price increase may take a certain time.Not all at once.

[daviejoneslocker]

Bitcoin was the first crypto currency to use a blockchain as a means of proving transactions and where the coins came from. All subsequent alternate coins also use a blockchain, but they have different rules that change the block times, transaction times, coin total and so on.

[Marteel]

this is the most smiley post I've read in forum so far. In the right place written by the right person.Welcome to the cryptoworld my friend! nothing will be ever same again!

[paulmaritz]

What could be the major difference between bitcoin and altcoin? That everybody should know.
How could you differentiate between bitcoin and altcoin.

The major difference is that altcoins are alternatives to Bitcoin. You could also see altcoins as tokens that came to life after the launch of Bitcoin.

[primecrypto]

bitcoin is the first crypto after which other altcoins were made.
bitcoin is the base currency to trade and if your holding,
its best to keep your funds in bitcoin as altcoins are very unstable, 
iv lost a lot on holding alts