Why not stıck to bıtcoın?

[Killiz]

Don't have any Bıtcoins, I only hold alts and only use Bıtcoin to turn ınto cash.

[mustyoshi]

Just because it came first doesn't mean it is the best thing that can exist.

I personally feel that Bitcoin was never intended to survive, but merely start the creation of a better currency.

[Killiz]

Just because it came first doesn't mean it is the best thing that can exist.

I personally feel that Bitcoin was never intended to survive, but merely start the creation of a better currency.

This.

No great power has ruled forever!

[Buffer Overflow]

Nonsense. if someone hacks SHA256 and mines all the remaining BTC in a day, the value will plummet and the scrypt coins will take over.

Oh dear.

You do realise all altcoins still use SHA256 don't you?
Scrypt is only used in block generation. The addresses are still calculated in part using SHA256 to convert the ECDSA public key to the addresses you and I see.

[erk]

Nonsense. if someone hacks SHA256 and mines all the remaining BTC in a day, the value will plummet and the scrypt coins will take over.

Oh dear.

You do realise all altcoins still use SHA256 don't you?
Scrypt is only used in block generation. The addresses are still calculated in part using SHA256 to convert the ECDSA public key to the addresses you and I see.

Oh dear
You do realize I was talking about block generation!


How about something easier for you to understand.

Say someone invents a new super ASIC that's thousands of times faster then the best ones currently on offer. They set up a farm, grab 99% of the net hash rate, attack the block chain a bit,  let the difficulty rise to a hundred times higher than it was, then switch the farm off. Bitcoin is stuck at a crazy high diff and effectively ruined, transactions grind to a halt, game over.

[FiiNALiZE]

Nonsense. if someone hacks SHA256 and mines all the remaining BTC in a day, the value will plummet and the scrypt coins will take over.

Oh dear.

You do realise all altcoins still use SHA256 don't you?
Scrypt is only used in block generation. The addresses are still calculated in part using SHA256 to convert the ECDSA public key to the addresses you and I see.

Oh dear
You do realize I was talking about block generation!


How about something easier for you to understand.

Say someone invents a new super ASIC that's thousands of times faster then the best ones currently on offer. They set up a farm, grab 99% of the net hash rate, attack the block chain a bit,  let the difficulty rise to a hundred times higher than it was, then switch the farm off. Bitcoin is stuck at a crazy high diff and effectively ruined, transactions grind to a halt, game over.

Or someone with a lot of money can amass a huge ASIC farm and 51% BTC.

[C10H15N]

Those who missed out on the initial gains of bitcoin are hoping lightning will strike again.  They will probably be disappointed.  You never know.

[erk]

Oh dear
You do realize I was talking about block generation!


How about something easier for you to understand.

Say someone invents a new super ASIC that's thousands of times faster then the best ones currently on offer. They set up a farm, grab 99% of the net hash rate, attack the block chain a bit,  let the difficulty rise to a hundred times higher than it was, then switch the farm off. Bitcoin is stuck at a crazy high diff and effectively ruined, transactions grind to a halt, game over.

Or someone with a lot of money can amass a huge ASIC farm and 51% BTC.

For sure, a disruption of the BTC network can come in a number of ways, a smart investors doesn't keep all their eggs in one basket, be it BTC, alt-coins, fiat, gold,  stocks, houses etc.

[Dorrace]

Oh dear
You do realize I was talking about block generation!


How about something easier for you to understand.

Say someone invents a new super ASIC that's thousands of times faster then the best ones currently on offer. They set up a farm, grab 99% of the net hash rate, attack the block chain a bit,  let the difficulty rise to a hundred times higher than it was, then switch the farm off. Bitcoin is stuck at a crazy high diff and effectively ruined, transactions grind to a halt, game over.

Or someone with a lot of money can amass a huge ASIC farm and 51% BTC.

For sure, a disruption of the BTC network can come in a number of ways, a smart investors doesn't keep all their eggs in one basket, be it BTC, alt-coins, fiat, gold,  stocks, houses etc.

Sadly I don't have eggs they break too easily D:

[DeathAndTaxes]

A monoculture will eventually fail, that is reason enough to keep alternatives.

If if there were some innovation with new coins, and not just a copy / paste of the old coins

Nonsense. if someone hacks SHA256 and mines all the remaining BTC in a day, the value will plummet and the scrypt coins will take over.

If someone "hacks" (as inaccurate and unrealistic as that is) then every single Crypto-currency is screwed as they use SHA-256 in the address generation.  So you could find another public key which hashes to the same address and steal all the owned coins of every coin that exists.

There is no defense in diversity if all the codebase are 99% copied from one. 

[dupee419]

If you want my opinion all the asics have made bitcoin inaccessible to the masses, to the point that the easiest way to acquire btc is to pay cash for it, which in my opinion renders the entire idea of decentralized currency

you could see how altcoins could appeal to the masses that way.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Say someone invents a new super ASIC that's thousands of times faster then the best ones currently on offer. They set up a farm, grab 99% of the net hash rate, attack the block chain a bit,  let the difficulty rise to a hundred times higher than it was, then switch the farm off. Bitcoin is stuck at a crazy high diff and effectively ruined, transactions grind to a halt, game over.

So someone has the ability to make hundreds of millions of dollars by obsoleting all other ASIC technology overnight.  They could make the hundreds of millions of dollars by mining coins themselves or they could make it by selling next gen tech to miners.  Instead they spend millions of dollars to develop the tech, build out a massive farm and then lose all the money by ruining the technology and coin.

Yeah that seems likely.

[Bitobsessed]

If you want my opinion all the asics have made bitcoin inaccessible to the masses, to the point that the easiest way to acquire btc is to pay cash for it, which in my opinion renders the entire idea of decentralized currency

you could see how altcoins could appeal to the masses that way.

There are so many ASICs being produced right now that in a few years they will be extremely cheap.  In fact it is cheaper to get a small ASIC than it is to setup a whole computer with GPUs.  Just wait...

[Dorrace]

To me alt coin mining is like "pretending"


Getting that feeling of hoarding worthless virtual coins that don't look like they will be worth anything. It's gambling!!!


Don't gamble just collect eggs and put them in baskets. Seriously guys.

[erk]

If you want my opinion all the asics have made bitcoin inaccessible to the masses, to the point that the easiest way to acquire btc is to pay cash for it, which in my opinion renders the entire idea of decentralized currency

you could see how altcoins could appeal to the masses that way.

A similar effect would occur if people that poured $millions into ASICs, had put the money into GPU farms. The problem is not ASICs, it's people with more money to invest in mining hardware will always take most of the BTC. An ASIC can cost way less than a GPU and they are available to anyone that wants them, eg a block erupter.

[dupee419]

If you want my opinion all the asics have made bitcoin inaccessible to the masses, to the point that the easiest way to acquire btc is to pay cash for it, which in my opinion renders the entire idea of decentralized currency

you could see how altcoins could appeal to the masses that way.

A similar effect would occur if people that poured $millions into ASICs, had put the money into GPU farms. The problem is not ASICs, it's people with more money to invest in mining hardware will always take most of the BTC. An ASIC can cost way less than a GPU and they are available to anyone that wants them, eg a block erupter.

fair enough

To me alt coin mining is like "pretending"


Getting that feeling of hoarding worthless virtual coins that don't look like they will be worth anything. It's gambling!!!


Don't gamble just collect eggs and put them in baskets. Seriously guys.

actually, it's more like a stock exchange at this point. most all of them can be converted to bitcoins in the end.

[FiiNALiZE]

Oh dear
You do realize I was talking about block generation!


How about something easier for you to understand.

Say someone invents a new super ASIC that's thousands of times faster then the best ones currently on offer. They set up a farm, grab 99% of the net hash rate, attack the block chain a bit,  let the difficulty rise to a hundred times higher than it was, then switch the farm off. Bitcoin is stuck at a crazy high diff and effectively ruined, transactions grind to a halt, game over.

Or someone with a lot of money can amass a huge ASIC farm and 51% BTC.

For sure, a disruption of the BTC network can come in a number of ways, a smart investors doesn't keep all their eggs in one basket, be it BTC, alt-coins, fiat, gold,  stocks, houses etc.

That's why I'm glad there are altcoins in crypto. If something happens to BTC, I'm done.

Altcoins let investors hedge their funds.

Imagine Nasdaq only had one kind of stock on there. Who would invest in that?

[intellivision]

A monoculture will eventually fail, that is reason enough to keep alternatives.

If if there were some innovation with new coins, and not just a copy / paste of the old coins

There are several Altcoins out there that aren't copy and pastes, most deal with the notion of interest on coins e.g. Peercoin (PPC) uses Proof of Stake mining and assigns those who participate interest on their coins that they use for PoS mining.
There's also Freicoin which uses the idea of demurrage which functions like a negative interest i.e. the longer you hold onto it, the fewer coins you'll have, which promotes market liquidity and spending.
And finally there's Primecoin, although it doesn't function that differently to Bitcoin from a user's perspective.

Then there are Alts that aren't based on Bitcoin such as EMUnie.

There's quite a lot of choice out there if you're looking for it, and it's not all shifty copycats.

[Dorrace]

I'm currently writing a book, it's called

"My brief sexual encounter with cryptocurrency"

      "A story about a love affair that just wouldn't end"




            "New York times: Best seller!"

[just_me]

Don't have any Bıtcoins, I only hold alts and only use Bıtcoin to turn ınto cash.

I agree with this.


For anyone who may only have 1-2 hundred bucks to invest, it really doesn't make all that much sense to buy bitcoins and hold them. The rates of return might be ok longer term or they may not be.
Whereas the rates of return are much greater for the new coins starting up, and someone with 1-2 hundred bucks can amass a large pile of coins, instead of just one measly bitcoin.

Buying the new coins, you might get 10x, 100x, 1000x your money or more, and I think it is more likely to occur than if buying bitcoins.