Is it worth investing time or money into any coins besides bitcoin?

[yoiesi]

It seems like now that bitcoin is really taking off, there are all sorts of other coins people are now creating and mining. But if bitcoin is already leaps and bounds ahead in popularity, it doesn't seem like these others will have much chance of taking off.
I don't want to miss out in case they do jump in value, but I also don't want to put money into something that might never increase in value.

What makes one crypto-currency better than another?
Which ones should I invest in?
And will any of them become as valuable as bitcoin in the future?

[PenAndPaper]

You can only answer your questions with speculation so be ready to take the risks as well...

[DrG]

The whole point of alt currencies was that they could bring some features to bear that BTC did not. For example Primecoin has a functional benefit for mathematicians.  If nobody ever uses the coin other than to make money then it will become adopted and will be worthless once the initial surge is over.

Having said that you can make $ with alts, but it requires time to trade them.   Trading requires exposure to risk of having currency sit on an exchange.

Buy BTC with the $ you're not willing to gamble with.  Buy your favorite alts with whatever you're willing to put on 23 (or whatever number) on the roulette wheel.  Alts can run up like BTC too, but I can't see any of them being used to trade like BTC (at least until somebody sells a Porsche for LTC).

[traiz]

The whole point of alt currencies was that they could bring some features to bear that BTC did not. For example Primecoin has a functional benefit for mathematicians.  If nobody ever uses the coin other than to make money then it will become adopted and will be worthless once the initial surge is over.

Having said that you can make $ with alts, but it requires time to trade them.   Trading requires exposure to risk of having currency sit on an exchange.

Buy BTC with the $ you're not willing to gamble with.  Buy your favorite alts with whatever you're willing to put on 23 (or whatever number) on the roulette wheel.  Alts can run up like BTC too, but I can't see any of them being used to trade like BTC (at least until somebody sells a Porsche for LTC).

Thanks for the tip. Primecoin seems like what I'm looking for (Anti ASIC and GPU.)

[anva]

I think its worth mining curecoin when it launches

[cukfung]

Yes, this is the right time.

Compare all existing alt coins with bitcoins and look for the profitability and choose yourself.

[Essex343]

very risky..... alt coins are gonna crash hard at some point