Newbies, stay away from altcoins. please

[qh34rt]

Trading alt coin to BTC is new commodity, open a new market.
I just try invest in one alt coin, wait and see.. Invest in BTC big risk, Big profit.

[Sage]

Hear me now believe me later...

Bitcoin & Litecoin will be replaced.

The only question is what replaced them.

There will be a time to trade out your Bitcoins & Litecoins for something else.

Since when has the Beta ever got it perfect?

[dinky1s]

So what makes BTC and LTC better than anything else?  OP states they are both "better supported"....well, going off that, if another alt is "better supported" wouldnt it overtake BTC/LTC? 

Its like saying you should only buy gold or silver, but not diamonds, rubies, emeralds, or oil futures or apple stock.  they're currencies and will be worth whatever the market provides.

what about 42coin that is worth what 100x BTC?

[CryptoClassroom]

So what makes BTC and LTC better than anything else?  OP states they are both "better supported"....well, going off that, if another alt is "better supported" wouldnt it overtake BTC/LTC? 

Its like saying you should only buy gold or silver, but not diamonds, rubies, emeralds, or oil futures or apple stock.  they're currencies and will be worth whatever the market provides.

what about 42coin that is worth what 100x BTC?

The thing about the gold, silver, gems and stocks is that they are are relative to the dollar, in the same way that altcoins price directly correlate with Bitcoins price. Because altcoins are exchanged for Bitcoin rather than actual physical currency, the price of altcoins will always be dependent on Bitcoin to succeed.

Of course, the amount of a Bitcoin each altcoin is worth is dependent on other factors, such as popularity and acceptance. The reason 42coin is worthless to mine is that it has neither of those two - sure it's worth a lot, but its far more profitable to mine something such as Dogecoin.

[dinky1s]

Right, but the dollar used to be relative to gold; then that changed and the dollar now fluctuates based upon amount of fiat printed (simply put). So while BTC is the standard NOW, what happens when it falls out of favor or there is a coup of multiple alts?

I would agree that BTC may be better to mine, but not everyone of us are mining.   Some of us are speculating and trading, so there are some ALTs that show great promise, at least short term...as the popularity rises, so does price.  Buy low, sell high.

[postingthatsmypurpose]

Thank you that's very useful. And may I ask, how can I make btc? Im new here

[GAML]

I can vouch for this; don't ever trust anyone pushing a coin that isn't Bitcoin (or possible Litecoin.)  The scheme is to create a coin just to short it and abandon it; this requires people to put their time and effort into adopting the altcoin and putting it on an exchange.  It's nothing more than a movement of wealth to the original adopters (sometimes involving a pre-mine) from whoever decided not to cash out.

I do agree that there are a lot of altcoins that are a waste of time.  The only issue I have is how I can possible mine bitcoin when I am a GPU miner with a hashing speed of 2190kh/s.  When I looked at mining bitcoin with my rig by using pools such as middlecoin the amount of BTC I would get doesn't cover the electric cost.  I would be mining at a loss?  Is it still possible to profitably mine BTC using GPU?

[gustav]

if you are not prepared to be sherlock holmes on your investements stay away. But if you are capable of independant thinking, proper learning, analysing and research and are also prepared to stay cutting-edge information-wise you can seriously earn your ass off with those alts. (remember nxt made 3,5 MILLION PERCENT for the early investors - that makes it one of the best investements at that time in all of human history)  
First learning certainly will cost you some in the beginning. Altcoins are not for everybody - 90%-swings can be seen nearly every day in both directions and the scammers are everywhere.
But if you are of above average intelligence and are ready to invest a lot of time on learnig and researching - yes you can earn a lot.  


have you guys seen aurora? from less than a dollar to more than 25$ a coin in under 3 days. That was crazy. Things like that will happen again.
Sure someone will hold that bag with aurora when it crashes back to 1$ ... but that were the people not doing their research and thinking or it were people that gambled and lost.

op, it is not congruent to push mastercoin while you talk bad about other altcoins. But yeah, what ever ...

[dinky1s]

Amen brotha gustav

[OlliBrandt80]

I was thinking that Litecoin and Dogecoin is good altcoin! And now after MtGox crash Bitcoin is more volatile and it's more difficult to mine

[jabo38]

What is the hold up with mt gox adding LTC? I thought it was supposed to happen in August?  They do not seem to be very vocal on the issue.

I would preffer if MtGox start sending people withdrawals in timely fashion. For now, MtGox is big no no for me.

You became my hero of the hour! Great insight on MtGox man.  BTW... What coin do you suggest? hehehe

[Istaria]

Bump.(will delete even if no one replies within 24 hrs)

=snip=
Something to read:
http://themisescircle.org/blog/2013/08/22/the-problem-with-altcoins/

That was an AMAZING read. Please don't delete this Muhammed. I don't agree with 100% of the points in it, but it's intelligent, clear and raises some great questions.

Definitely deserves to be on page 1 of the Newbie forum (so that people like me can read it )

Thank you!

Ist.

[favdesu]

I think 2-3 altcoins are fine. I recommend bitshares & NXT + respective Assets. You need time to do a proper research though!

[Istaria]

I think 2-3 altcoins are fine. I recommend bitshares & NXT + respective Assets. You need time to do a proper research though!

I think what you really need to do is not to go in more than you can afford to lose - completely.

[mrhelpful]

If any newbie is to decide on a alt coin, I suggest who actually needs or uses them.

eg: Just-dice - huge dice site that only uses alt clam coins, that would be your only reason to jump on alt coin.

Unless its a similar scenario, I wouldnt jump on any alt coin unless its being actually used in demand at a high volume.

[gentlemand]

If any newbie is to decide on a alt coin, I suggest who actually needs or uses them.

eg: Just-dice - huge dice site that only uses alt clam coins, that would be your only reason to jump on alt coin.

Unless its a similar scenario, I wouldnt jump on any alt coin unless its being actually used in demand at a high volume.

I think that's where a surprising newcomer might appear from. There are certain apps and sites with millions of loyal users. If a coin was introduced to them it would instantly become a major player.

[lyth0s]

Most altcoins are completely junk I'll give you that.

There are however some altcoins that fill roles that bitcoin currently does not.

For example if you want a truly anonymous coin you'd need to have Monero.
If you think that decentralized assets will become a bit hit then either Counterparty, Etherum or Aetherum would be a few good choices.
If you think that SuperNET will succeed potentially having a small amount of bitcoindark would be a good investment.

Stay AWAY from Ripple centralized scamcoin and pretty much every other altcoin out there.


Bitcoin is 100% guaranteed to succeed in my opinion. After that I give Monero a good shot due to its anonymity. Whether or not a small amount of counterparty and bitcoindark is worth it to you depends on how much you want to gamble/speculate.

Don't gamble any of your coins. Don't believe any investment site. Keep your coins on your own secure trezor/cold wallet etc. Come back in 5 years and profit

[favdesu]

I think 2-3 altcoins are fine. I recommend bitshares & NXT + respective Assets. You need time to do a proper research though!

I think what you really need to do is not to go in more than you can afford to lose - completely.

indeed, but that counts for every investment.

[exoexo]

It's impossible to "invest" in bitcoin only. Investment portfolio should be diversified, you know. One should access risks and mine different coins, bitcoin is good, but it is not everything.

[gondel]

Just giving you a heads up, 99% of the alt coins are a waste of time and do not fulfill the main concept of the digital currency concept.

Invest only in Bitcoin (BTC) , it has more support and interest than any other coins(projects).

Although you might still find other projects with great support (either in great developers or they are heavily invested by many), like

Litecoin (which suffers from a few big holders that manipulate the price, but you might earn a bit of $ from it in the short range aka mt.gox announce to add it to their trading). and

Mastercoin   /  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.0;topicseen (which has already been funded with 5000BTC to kick off with the development)


Don't make the same mistake I did wasting my time on other failing alt coins.. 


Hope this info helps you decide where to start.

Good Luck.

I am not sure if this is the right advise.
Newbies can also experiment with mining and trading and learn the alternative points of crypto world.
Also do not want to advertise, but think that Stellar is great project and the price is really stable for months now. It can be a good way to invest. You can check it out.
BR
G