Do you think any of the other "alt" currencies will overtake bitcoin?

[kitaco]

Unless there is a vulnerability in bitcoin, I don't think any will ever overtake bitcoin. Bitcoin needs faster transactions though.

[DeathAndTaxes]

So there is no way to compress it? I heard that compressed addresses use less space in the blockchain? What does that mean?

No but there are ways to prune it.  The pruned database is currently ~12% of the size of the full historical database that % will drop over time.   

Compressed keys are public keys where only the x component is listed.  The y component can be recreated as needed.   There is no reason to use uncompressed keys, likely Satoshi was unaware of the advantage of compressed keys at the time Bitcoin was first created.  Today all wallets use compressed keys by default, support for uncompressed keys only remains as "legacy" support for existing active uncompressed keys.

[nahtnam]

So there is no way to compress it? I heard that compressed addresses use less space in the blockchain? What does that mean?

No but there are ways to prune it.  The pruned database is currently ~12% of the size of the full historical database that % will drop over time.   

Compressed keys are public keys where only the x component is listed.  The y component can be recreated as needed.   There is no reason to use uncompressed keys, likely Satoshi was unaware of the advantage of compressed keys at the time Bitcoin was first created.  Today all wallets use compressed keys by default, support for uncompressed keys only remains as "legacy" support for existing active uncompressed keys.

So are pruned db's used right now?

[DeathAndTaxes]

No not fully.  There are some issues to resolve it is on the "to do" list.  At the client level the wallet does maintain a pruned copy of the database to speed up transaction verifications but the full copy is still shared with other nodes.

[I_AM_AT_WORK_NOW_]

Not a chance.

There are alts that have promise, but none will take over bitcoin.

Alts with promise:

* PPCoin
* Primecoin
* Namecoin
* Litecoin (not for any real reason, just because it's second on the list).

[Lethn]

I think they will definitely rival Bitcoin maybe getting to Litecoin's level but people seem to see Bitcoin as the sort of 'mastercoin' for now, it will take some pretty clever people and unique thinking to get past Bitcoin and improve on it but I think any currency dev that at least tries and stays active will let the currency they made hold some sort of value.

[b1nary]

I dont think any coin can overtake bitcoin. As i see it they are all valued by it.

[ko]

maybe.. but it definitely won't be for a long time

[cerleo]

Well,it's hard to say something like that.Sure there may be some kind of competition between bitcoin and other coins but I think that bitcon as well as some of the other coins would be put in use and each will have its use.

[n691309]

Very unlikely some altcoin overtake Bitcoin. Altcoins are usefull just for testing purposes how Bitcoin could be improved, and if something will be usefull, Bitcoin implement it. Do not forget Bitcoin has most devs working on software improvements

[cerleo]

Alt coins may compete with bitcoin and some of them may have the chance to come to the level of bitcoin,but bitcoin may as well be in the first place and go up.So we'll see what will happen.

[shadowpk]

Not a chance, Bitcoin was the first. Only Licecoin can equal to it, because it's slightly diffrerent technology. I think alt cryptocurrencies will exist to specific purpose only.

[reannypleas]

Not overtake Bitcoin, but altcoins can be used to mine with my CPU and GPU profitably. So definitively altcoins will be usefull

[JayQuery]

DogeCoin maybe will! 

https://i.imgur.com/FlqdWCj.jpg

Just see this, only 9 days old still have more active users on reddit than peercoin and litecoin, ofc bitcoin have a lot more user because it is the biggest, but DogeCoin is more popular at reddit then tha 2nd and 3rd biggest cryptocurrencies!

Why DogeCoin could be a big hit:
-Because there will be more than 100billion coin, and people often more like to see a currency with nearl 1$ = 0.01 or 0.1 or 1 than 1$ = 1000 rate like bitcoin etc...

[reannypleas]

Why DogeCoin could be a big hit:
-Because there will be more than 100billion coin, and people often more like to see a currency with nearl 1$ = 0.01 or 0.1 or 1 than 1$ = 1000 rate like bitcoin etc...

Useless feature. You can use mBTC instead for price 0.75 USD / mBTC
Bitcoin smallest unit is Satoshi, talking about Bitcoin coins is misleading because physical coin is not divisible but Bitcoin is to 8 decimal places

[TimTimTim]

i have plans for new kind of coins, dat can be more popular, than bitcoin, yeah

[deltree]

It seems Dogecoin might make the hit after all thanks to the Chinese coming in.

http://dcgcrew.com/dogecoin/

[hilariousandco]

I want to get into this thing. I think that bitcoin has quite a few flaws and that some other currencies address a few of those flaws. Is bitcoin too popular to be overtaken? Is there room for multiple coins to have value (in the long run)? I imagine most of the established ones will stay around in some form or another, but will any alt coins ever become mainstream?

I guess this is a loaded question, but I'd like to hear some perspectives. I'm thinking an alt coin is a better gamble because it would have larger growth opportunities, but bitcoin might still give a really good ROI.

Invest a little in both. There is potentially a lot of money to be made in backing one of the up-and-coming alt coins. Just do some research and see what makes a particular coin stand out from the rest. I think a good development team and community behind a particular coin is worth a lot.

[neoKushan]

I don't think I'm under any illusion on getting rich. I looked into BTC years ago and like many couldn't be bothered with it after mining a few thousand coins. Kind of regret not doing it further but hey, shit happens.

So why not invest a little in alt currencies? What have you got to lose? Like this dodgecoin shit, mine for a few days, get a few thousand coins and sit on it. If it takes it, wahey, if not, you've lost maybe 20mins of your time and a weekend's worth of CPU time?

[Mitchell]

i have plans for new kind of coins, dat can be more popular, than bitcoin, yeah

I lolled.