Should we support altcoins ?

[BitCoinNutJob]

From a "lets make the world a better place perspective" should we support only bitcoin right now or altcoins also?

[laowai80]

From a "lets make the world a better place perspective" should we support only bitcoin right now or altcoins also?

Who is 'we'?

If you want to miss out on opportunities that currently undervalued alt coins present, sure, don't buy them, buy them later when they are more expensive That doesn't say all alt coins are ok to buy. Do your own research and due diligence.

[BitCoinNutJob]

From a "lets make the world a better place perspective" should we support only bitcoin right now or altcoins also?

Who is 'we'?

If you want to miss out on opportunities that currently undervalued alt coins present, sure, don't buy them, buy them later when they are more expensive That doesn't say all alt coins are ok to buy. Do your own research and due diligence.

To clarify, we is basically everyone in the crypto community currently.

I have alts yes but that is for selfish gain, im talking about whats best for the world politically.... some have said they prefer everyone focus on BTC right now - Im not sure & need convincing of this argument.

[laowai80]

It's always best to have a choice. Only people who have always had a choice can't appreciate how having a choice is important, regardless of the subject.

[demontn]

We should support them, but NOT all of them there are a lot of New altcoins and most of them are useless for the moment, we can keep some of them to use as an alternative for Bitcoin (small purchases , specific product- Dev for developpers , ASC for Miners ...)

[BitCoinNutJob]

It's always best to have a choice. Only people who have always had a choice can't appreciate how having a choice is important, regardless of the subject.

This is my current hunch, that choice and competition is good. Supporting bitcoin alone im not sure is optimum to change the world some might argue support 1 coin is better to not confuse newbies..... im not convinced but open to hear arguments as to why i should only support BTC currently.

Getting rich is 1 thing but change the world and you win anyway is my current thought.

[Lauda]

Yes, supporting both is the right way to go.

[og kush420]

i think as a community we should try to stay away from all pre-mined coins... (obviously mining the first block as a test, does not count as premining)

[Ecurb123]

I will support any alt-coin, I expect many will fail, but I hope at least some succeed. I think it would be good to see several different options out there in the long, say, 20 year term.

[BitCoinNutJob]

i think as a community we should try to stay away from all pre-mined coins... (obviously mining the first block as a test, does not count as premining)

yep any "corrupt" operations i agree.  Beyond a blatant premine i guess its tricky to define whats good & bad.... centralized seems bad yet if the central authority can provide something decentralized cant even if for a period maybe its ok ish.

Any other thoughts welcome, im kinda thinking bitcoin is getting too much of my promotion time : /

[Gabi]

Support them if they propose something useful. Namecoin, a scrypt coin, a coin based on the prime algorithm, these are interesting. But a bitcoin clone whose difference is only a different name? lol

[Dansker]

Only bitcoin.

Spreading mining power out will weaking bitcoin.

I think it would be near impossible to get the same sort of spread in terms of who gets coins to begin with, if we started over.

[Melbustus]

Support them if they propose something useful. Namecoin, a scrypt coin, a coin based on the prime algorithm, these are interesting. But a bitcoin clone whose difference is only a different name? lol

Agreed. The ones with meaningful technical distinctions contribute to making the crypto ecosystem better. Bitcoin shouldn't incorporate innovations without lots of testing and debate, so alts serve a very valuable experimentation function, even in the bitcoin-centric viewpoint.

I just wish alts that are effectively clones of bitcoin (ie, with just the mining alg, issuance curve, or block times changed) would die faster. To the crypto-ignorant masses, having hundreds of alts makes the whole crypto space seem silly.

[Ecurb123]

Only bitcoin.

Spreading mining power out will weaking bitcoin.

I think it would be near impossible to get the same sort of spread in terms of who gets coins to begin with, if we started over.

thats a good point, it seems like it somehow everyone dropped btc then the big miners would get a whole lot of the alt-coins real fast, but I don't know maybe it would be fine.

[indianplayers]

WE? I support bitcoin only. All others are eh 

[franky1]

just like the real world there are multiple currencies. but the international community only trade the top 4, dollar, euro, yen, pound. so when it comes to internet currencies there is room for more then bitcoin. EG bitcoin can be USA's counterpart. Litecoin can be Euros counterpart.(*)

i would say that there is room to support more then one. but by 'supporting' i mean doing the footwork of getting merchants onboard, thus making the coin useful and usable. and not simply buying in purely to help increase the market cap of that coin purely for a ramp/dump investment.

(*)to avoid the naive knitpickers that usually cant read: the example is just to show that each country can adopt a coin as their own, not that a crypto coin should be limited to a country

[LiteCoinGuy]

support Bitcoin and Litecoin and you are fine (and maybe namecoin) ;-)

[Mjbmonetarymetals]

Bitcoin is going to be absolutely HUGE far exceeding expectations........ Altcoins give legitimacy to the class of "cryptocurrency" even though many minor coins may fail CryptoCurrency will draw far more fiat than Bitcoin alone would negating fears that alt's threaten Bitcoins value.

[vpitcher07]

Only bitcoin.

Spreading mining power out will weaking bitcoin.

I think it would be near impossible to get the same sort of spread in terms of who gets coins to begin with, if we started over.

I disagree. Those who will participate in mining altcoins are already doing so. BTC is soooo much bigger than any other altcoin that there really aren't any good incentives to switch.

[beetcoin]

what would be the term for altcoins like LTC? since they are concomitant with the rise of BTC.. it wouldn't be a hedge, would it? i don't know that much and i'm not certain of many things, but i would guess that LTC is more of a speculative currency than BTC. still, though, it was going at 6 cents/coin a few months ago.. i kind of hate myself for not jumping the bandwagon.