What is up with all the new alt-coins?

[Luposian]

I'm concerned that there are so many "alt-coins" that are just complete silliness.  Why mine coins that are just nonsense?  Bitcoin has established itself at completely legitimate in people's eyes.  Even a danger, in other people's eyes!  Litecoin is #2.  But, beyond that... I mean, I'm buying Devcoins and buying/mining Dogecoins, but how does a "coin" gain any legitimate traction?  I mean, who wants to trade Sexcoins and Cryptogenic Bullion and any other number of "coins" that seem to pop up on a weekly basis.  Why?

Is this something akin to collecting baseball cards?  How does something like Mastercoin, which just popped up a few days ago, I think, get worth over $100 so easily?  What gave it such a reputation to be worth that much?  Who stands behind it?  Why should I want it?  Will it even BE here, to trade, months from now?

What gives one coin more USD value over another?  Why are people creating new coins all over the place?  Why are people even trading them?

Isn't this all supposed to be about creating/validating a legitimate crypto-currency; alternative to the US dollar or other government-based currency?  I mean, Dogecoins are cute and potentially worth more than fractions of a penny, but people are creating things like mousecoins and catcoin and hotcoin, etc... it's getting ridiculous!

Maybe what I'm trying to figure out is...

What is the ultimate purpose of creating coins with a bazillion different names, many worth a few cents, some worth dollars, yet all seemingly similar (SHA256 or Scrypt-based) in their design?  Why are people creating them and what is the ultimate value IN them?  Unless people will trade real-world items for these multitudinous currencies with such diverse (and some crazy/silly/nonsensical) names, and the trade value is legitimate in the seller's/buyer's eyes, what is the point?

I mean, I have 100,000 DOGE now.  What can I buy with that?  If DOGE ever hits $1.00 USD, I could buy a real-world house... but at it's current value (0.00059 USD), could I buy something worth vastly more than $59 USD?  Do crypto-currencies hold value in their own realm, and not just in their representative real-world dollar value?  Is this not the goal?

Is not the creation of a bazillion different "currencies", with funny, silly and/or even ridiculous names, just a pointless venture?  At worst, is it actually destructive to the efforts of actually creating a legitimate alternative crypto currency?

Just trying to make sense of all this "coin creation" going on.

[ak84]

Some of them are serious attempts at alternative currencies to bitcoin.
Some of them are pump and dump schemes.
Some of them are just for fun.

People are exploring the capabilities of the new technology, just as people explored the capabilities of the internet with the first websites on geocities.

The reason alt coins are generating interest is because bitcoin's price has leaped, and because the common man can't mine bitcoin anymore due to its vastly increased hashing difficulty. Scrypt coins have put hashing back in the hands of the coin hobbyist. A currency is only as valuable when people use it. Well, tons of people are using alt coins now because they're cheaper, able to be mined by GPU, or just plain fun. Will they be around in 10 years? 20 years? Who knows? This is the start of a new era. Creative uses of the new technology enabled by Satoshi's paper are to be expected.

[jonanon]

Strong agree with the OP.

Too many nonsense coins coming up purely for the profit of the devs.

Unfortunately - due to this being decentralised currency - it can't be prohibited.

[kalus]

Why are people creating them and what is the ultimate value IN them?  Unless people will trade real-world items for these multitudinous currencies with such diverse (and some crazy/silly/nonsensical) names, and the trade value is legitimate in the seller's/buyer's eyes, what is the point?

After watching catcoin being released, all of the value in new coins are now established in the first few hours of mining.

people are releasing coins and spamming hype everywhere to pump up the value of the coin they're heavily invested in from t=0.  once they see a 10x, 100x etc. return purely from hype, they dump it , and buy yachts or bitcoin or something.

99% of these coins are doing nothing but making the first few people rich.  everyone else is left holding the bag.   99% of these coins are not worth holding, and not worth the hash rate to mine them.

[WillBit]

Why are people creating them and what is the ultimate value IN them?  Unless people will trade real-world items for these multitudinous currencies with such diverse (and some crazy/silly/nonsensical) names, and the trade value is legitimate in the seller's/buyer's eyes, what is the point?

After watching catcoin being released, all of the value in new coins are now established in the first few hours of mining.

people are releasing coins and spamming hype everywhere to pump up the value of the coin they're heavily invested in from t=0.  once they see a 10x, 100x etc. return purely from hype, they dump it , and buy yachts or bitcoin or something.

99% of these coins are doing nothing but making the first few people rich.  everyone else is left holding the bag.   99% of these coins are not worth holding, and not worth the hash rate to mine them.

https://i.imgur.com/Fdp5Ci4.png

[BrewCrewFan]

Yet another thread bashing alt coins.

Welcome to the free market. Even more funny is not one person is forcing you to invest time nor money onto any of these coins. Isnt that great? If more alts is what people want, by golly, give it to them. That is what free market is all about, and it also draws newbs into the mix. If it was not for an alt, which i have as my avi here, and owe many thanks to, I would not be here still mining let alone invested a few K into mining.

Anyways, you are not gonna get much sympathy form me. Your not going to change NOTHING so you might as well get that into your head.

[RenegadeMind]

Some of them are serious attempts at alternative currencies to bitcoin.
Some of them are pump and dump schemes.
Some of them are just for fun.

People are exploring the capabilities of the new technology, just as people explored the capabilities of the internet with the first websites on geocities.

The reason alt coins are generating interest is because bitcoin's price has leaped, and because the common man can't mine bitcoin anymore due to its vastly increased hashing difficulty. Scrypt coins have put hashing back in the hands of the coin hobbyist. A currency is only as valuable when people use it. Well, tons of people are using alt coins now because they're cheaper, able to be mined by GPU, or just plain fun. Will they be around in 10 years? 20 years? Who knows? This is the start of a new era. Creative uses of the new technology enabled by Satoshi's paper are to be expected.

^^ THIS ^^

Yet another thread bashing alt coins.

Welcome to the free market. Even more funny is not one person is forcing you to invest time nor money onto any of these coins. Isnt that great? If more alts is what people want, by golly, give it to them. That is what free market is all about, and it also draws newbs into the mix. If it was not for an alt, which i have as my avi here, and owe many thanks to, I would not be here still mining let alone invested a few K into mining.

Anyways, you are not gonna get much sympathy form me. Your not going to change NOTHING so you might as well get that into your head.

^^ AND THAT ^^

I started mining Dogecoins because they were fun. Then the entire world jumped on, and my mining turned to nothing.

I also mine print Bernankoins because they're just fun. Lacking serious mining equipment, Bernankoins are printable with just a CPU.

I have holdings in Bitcoins and other crypto currencies as well. But I can't mine Bitcoins, and I can't mine Litecoins... so... The new coins are fun to play with.

If they're never worth anything, they were fun. If they do turn out to be useful or worth something, hey, all the better.

We're just seeing a lot of people experimenting. That's to be expected. People that don't want to play around and have fun should avoid alts. But there are serious miners out there that are profiting from them, even when the coin has nothing substantial to offer.

2014 will be a very interesting year.

[Luposian]

Yet another thread bashing alt coins.

Welcome to the free market. Even more funny is not one person is forcing you to invest time nor money onto any of these coins. Isnt that great? If more alts is what people want, by golly, give it to them. That is what free market is all about, and it also draws newbs into the mix. If it was not for an alt, which i have as my avi here, and owe many thanks to, I would not be here still mining let alone invested a few K into mining.

Anyways, you are not gonna get much sympathy form me. Your not going to change NOTHING so you might as well get that into your head.

I am not bashing alt-coins.  But, when I see something I don't understand, I want to understand it, rather than dismiss it or ignore it... or worse, hate or resent it.  I've invested actually money into Devcoin/Dogecoin.  I mined 6.22 Litecoin and quit after a seeing my electric bill hit $130, having spent several hundred dollars upgrading my Dell computer to mine them more efficiently.

I was pleased that my interest in Litecoin seemingly paid off, when Litecoins went up from $3/ea, to $40/ea.  I had over $220 at one point!  I was literally squealing with glee!  Then it all came crashing down... bummer.

I'm investing into Devcoin/Dogecoin because they are so fractionally low!  I figure, if they even hit a mere $1.00 and I own a lot of them, I could be fairly well off!  This is all based on the people who became millionaires, owning hundreds or a thousand or more of Bitcoins, when it hit $1,200/ea.

So, I'm not doing it for pure "fun" (I don't have enough "expendable income" to throw at "fun"), but more financial reasons.

However, I also wouldn't mind seeing this experiment in "alternative currency" hit it's stride and it becomes a real thing, not just a new fad.  I believe Bitcoin/Litecoin are definitely legit opportunities.  But where do Devcoin/Dogecoin (or others) fit, in the grand scheme of things?

Devcoin seems legitimate in it's direction... to give to Developers.  Open source initiatives, etc.  However, is Dogecoin just a cute, short-term fad?  Well, it doesn't have to be...

What if it were a currency that you could use to buy pet supplies?  Or help animal shelters?  Or a dozen other animal-oriented things?  In other words, let the Shibe Inu be the representative of all animals!  Domesticated and wild!  Give this coin some real, legitimate direction!

The question is... how do you buy things with Dogecoin, that must first be bought with real dollars?  How does a business find USE in Dogecoin, so they are willing to accept it, since they can then buy other things (to sell) with it?  How does a VIRTUAL currency gain legitimate traction in a REAL world that is based on buying/selling in Dollars/Euros.  How does the realm of the virtual currency find it's OWN space in this world?

Or is it simply a matter of changing people's minds towards the intangible and making it worth more than the bits and bytes of it's existence?  I mean, people once traded stones and shells and beads for money... is this just a matter of getting enough people interested and willing to trade "something" for "something else", once again?

In summary, I don't want to invest into something that won't give me something in return.  Pool mining Dogecoin is fun, agreed.  But at some point, my electricity bill will go up and I'll have to decide at what time to stop.  "Fun" doesn't pay the electric bill.  I could no longer afford to keep mining Litecoins.  The hobby became too expensive.  Then Litecoins skyrocketed and my investment looked like it was paying off.  Will it return to that level or go beyond?  Who knows.  But I want to be able to say investing into these coins was actually worthwhile, in the end.

[Amph]

Some of them are serious attempts at alternative currencies to bitcoin.
Some of them are pump and dump schemes.
Some of them are just for fun.

People are exploring the capabilities of the new technology, just as people explored the capabilities of the internet with the first websites on geocities.

The reason alt coins are generating interest is because bitcoin's price has leaped, and because the common man can't mine bitcoin anymore due to its vastly increased hashing difficulty. Scrypt coins have put hashing back in the hands of the coin hobbyist. A currency is only as valuable when people use it. Well, tons of people are using alt coins now because they're cheaper, able to be mined by GPU, or just plain fun. Will they be around in 10 years? 20 years? Who knows? This is the start of a new era. Creative uses of the new technology enabled by Satoshi's paper are to be expected.

/thread

best post

[Kenshin]

In summary, I don't want to invest into something that won't give me something in return.  Pool mining Dogecoin is fun, agreed.  But at some point, my electricity bill will go up and I'll have to decide at what time to stop.  "Fun" doesn't pay the electric bill.  I could no longer afford to keep mining Litecoins.  The hobby became too expensive.  Then Litecoins skyrocketed and my investment looked like it was paying off.  Will it return to that level or go beyond?  Who knows.  But I want to be able to say investing into these coins was actually worthwhile, in the end.

I stop mining Litecoin, when I saw that Dogecoin is making so much more profit. But what I do is, mine Dogecoin, then exchange it to Litecoin. Because I can get more litecoin this way, then mining litecoin itself. Because the value of Dogecoin is higher, so I can exchange it to bitcoin then litecoin.

[Luposian]

Some of them are serious attempts at alternative currencies to bitcoin.
Some of them are pump and dump schemes.
Some of them are just for fun.

People are exploring the capabilities of the new technology, just as people explored the capabilities of the internet with the first websites on geocities.

The reason alt coins are generating interest is because bitcoin's price has leaped, and because the common man can't mine bitcoin anymore due to its vastly increased hashing difficulty. Scrypt coins have put hashing back in the hands of the coin hobbyist. A currency is only as valuable when people use it. Well, tons of people are using alt coins now because they're cheaper, able to be mined by GPU, or just plain fun. Will they be around in 10 years? 20 years? Who knows? This is the start of a new era. Creative uses of the new technology enabled by Satoshi's paper are to be expected.

Is there any way to determine which coins are serious and which are schemes and which are just for fun?  I sense Mastercoin, given it's sudden appearance and high dollar value right off the bat, is a scheme.  Bitcoin IS serious.  Litecoin is trying to be taken seriously.  Devcoin seems serious.  Dogecoin seems like fun.  But can a "fun" coin also be a profitable investment?

[achillez]

Some of them are serious attempts at alternative currencies to bitcoin.
Some of them are pump and dump schemes.
Some of them are just for fun.

People are exploring the capabilities of the new technology, just as people explored the capabilities of the internet with the first websites on geocities.

The reason alt coins are generating interest is because bitcoin's price has leaped, and because the common man can't mine bitcoin anymore due to its vastly increased hashing difficulty. Scrypt coins have put hashing back in the hands of the coin hobbyist. A currency is only as valuable when people use it. Well, tons of people are using alt coins now because they're cheaper, able to be mined by GPU, or just plain fun. Will they be around in 10 years? 20 years? Who knows? This is the start of a new era. Creative uses of the new technology enabled by Satoshi's paper are to be expected.

Is there any way to determine which coins are serious and which are schemes and which are just for fun?  I sense Mastercoin, given it's sudden appearance and high dollar value right off the bat, is a scheme.  Bitcoin IS serious.  Litecoin is trying to be taken seriously.  Devcoin seems serious.  Dogecoin seems like fun.  But can a "fun" coin also be a profitable investment?

Ugh ... dogecoin was made to be a "joke", and prove how easy it is to scam everyone. Within a couple days 12B+ coins had been mined (6.5%). Of all the coins I have to say that dogecoin is the worst, nastiest scam of them all. I feel very sorry for newbies that came on board and thought "oh hey I can buy 1 million dogecoin for 0.1 BTC - what a deal!".

[ak84]

Is there any way to determine which coins are serious and which are schemes and which are just for fun?  I sense Mastercoin, given it's sudden appearance and high dollar value right off the bat, is a scheme.  Bitcoin IS serious.  Litecoin is trying to be taken seriously.  Devcoin seems serious.  Dogecoin seems like fun.  But can a "fun" coin also be a profitable investment?

The answer is to do your research. Find the Mastercoin thread on bitcointalk and read the entire thing. I've read it; it took me 2-3 hours. I know the creator's personality pretty well at this point. I know who was involved with the project, who dropped out, what difficulties they faced, what design decisions and tradeoffs they made, how the original shares were distributed, and at what price. I don't own Mastercoin, but if I did, I'd at least know what I was getting into. 

Your "sense" is worthless without actual research, and you can't trust people here either because a lot of them have agendas to push. So go do your own homework and form your own conclusions.

[kalus]

Is there any way to determine which coins are serious and which are schemes and which are just for fun?  I sense Mastercoin, given it's sudden appearance and high dollar value right off the bat, is a scheme.  Bitcoin IS serious.  Litecoin is trying to be taken seriously.  Devcoin seems serious.  Dogecoin seems like fun.  But can a "fun" coin also be a profitable investment?

pick your coin based on your investment strategy.

I have no idea why dogecoin is profitable, but that's the only reason i'm mining it.  in fact, dogecoin has been a top 5 most profitable coin all week.  i'm swimming in dogecoin but i know exactly when i'm leaving dogecoin.  

I have no idea why people are mining catcoin, because there's no economic reason to back it.  this is a textbook example of irrational investors trying to get rich quick.  take a look at this coin look at exactly what not to do with a release.  

most people mine based on emotions (i like mining x coin!).  unfortunately, this strategy tends to make people hold onto investments far longer than they should.  this makes people with entry and exit strategies very rich.  

take a look at their market caps (e.g. coinwarz), profitability, and determine yourself how much of a future any x coin might have.  plan your strategy around this determination.  

If you are having fun mining, go nuts.  but if you are trying to make money, take the emotion out of it and select based on your investment strategy.  personally, what i do with money is more fun than actually mining coins.

[BitcoinFX]

I'm concerned that there are so many "alt-coins" that are just complete silliness.  Why mine coins that are just nonsense?  Bitcoin has established itself at completely legitimate in people's eyes.  Even a danger, in other people's eyes!  Litecoin is #2.  But, beyond that... I mean, I'm buying Devcoins and buying/mining Dogecoins, but how does a "coin" gain any legitimate traction?  I mean, who wants to trade Sexcoins and Cryptogenic Bullion and any other number of "coins" that seem to pop up on a weekly basis.  Why?

...

Just trying to make sense of all this "coin creation" going on.

... this is where we make the Cryptogenic Bullion - a great investment choice ihmo.

Bad to the Bone 

   

[Luposian]

Is there any way to determine which coins are serious and which are schemes and which are just for fun?  I sense Mastercoin, given it's sudden appearance and high dollar value right off the bat, is a scheme.  Bitcoin IS serious.  Litecoin is trying to be taken seriously.  Devcoin seems serious.  Dogecoin seems like fun.  But can a "fun" coin also be a profitable investment?

pick your coin based on your investment strategy.

I have no idea why dogecoin is profitable, but that's the only reason i'm mining it.  in fact, dogecoin has been a top 5 most profitable coin all week.  i'm swimming in dogecoin but i know exactly when i'm leaving dogecoin.  

I have no idea why people are mining catcoin, because there's no economic reason to back it.  this is a textbook example of irrational investors trying to get rich quick.  take a look at this coin look at exactly what not to do with a release.  

most people mine based on emotions (i like mining x coin!).  unfortunately, this strategy tends to make people hold onto investments far longer than they should.  this makes people with entry and exit strategies very rich.  

take a look at their market caps (e.g. coinwarz), profitability, and determine yourself how much of a future any x coin might have.  plan your strategy around this determination.  

If you are having fun mining, go nuts.  but if you are trying to make money, take the emotion out of it and select based on your investment strategy.  personally, what i do with money is more fun than actually mining coins.

I'm mining Dogecoin right now (I have over 1,000 DOGE at the moment).  I've bought 100,000 DOGE and 200,000 Devcoins.  Does anyone here have reason to think either of these, as fractionally low as they are right now, will hit even $0.01 USD anytime in the coming months?  Do you think they will ever be worth $0.50 or more in a year or so?

I'm looking to be invest into no more than 1,000,000 of each.  I have no interest in becoming a multi-millionaire, unless they somehow go over a dollar on their own, but if they reached even a $0.25, I'd be a very happy person.  I'm looking to be able to buy some properties/houses with my investments, to spread out my income stream.  I'd like to have just enough, that I never have to worry about money matters anymore.  Not so much that I'm flooded with money... that causes stress of a different kind... just ask how many multi-million dollar lottery winners are still happy people, if they're not already broke.

Blame this perspective on Bitcoin.  If I hadn't been thinking "If only..." over all the people who are now rich, because they bought in early, I wouldn'tr even be here.  I'm happy my 6.22 Litecoin collection is going back up in value again (over $20/ea now!)... my current investment in Devcoin/Litecoin is now almost $300!  That's not even including my collection of DOGE!

Assuming Bitcoin/Litecoin have hit their practical limits ($1,200/ea and $40/ea), do you think DOGE and Devcoins might reach a threshold of just $1.00 anytime soon in the future or...?

[markm]

Is there any way to determine which coins are serious and which are schemes and which are just for fun?  I sense Mastercoin, given it's sudden appearance and high dollar value right off the bat, is a scheme.  Bitcoin IS serious.  Litecoin is trying to be taken seriously.  Devcoin seems serious.  Dogecoin seems like fun.  But can a "fun" coin also be a profitable investment?

One approach is to find a "serious" exchange, one that doesn't just list every new scamcoin that comes out but, rather, makes some kind of serious attempt to only list "serious" coins. So far I had thought Vircurex seemed to be doing the best job of filtering out the crapcoins, and even there I have to wonder about some of their choices.

Today I just read a post in which someone mentioned some other exchange and claimed that it usually does not list coins that have not first already been listed by Vircurex. So I plan to examine that one to see if that is true and to see whether it made the same judgement calls that I have as to which coins that somehow got onto Vircurex seem kind of dubious choices. Maybe I will find that it does not list those coins that are on Vircurex that I "have to wonder about", in which case I will probably look deeper into who runs it, have they ever been hacked, what happened when they were hacked, whether they handle eight decimals (since some exchanges are rather broken when it comes to decimals) and so on and so on.

TL;DR if you can find an exchange whose admins seem well in alignment with your own judgement as to which coins might be worthwhile, maybe sticking to that exchange letting its admins in effect do your "due diligence" for you, that could save some time and brain-sweat and research. Filtering out the crap for you is a good and useful service, if they actually do it and do it well.

P.S. You can get a discount on fees at Vircurex by signing up using a "referral URL", so here is such a URL in case you would like to use it:

https://vircurex.com/welcome/index?referral_id=597-1636

-MarkM-

EDIT: Note though that adding a blockchain-based currency to an exchange is relatively simple, all the coins based on bitcoin code use pretty much the same remote procedure calls to control them so the code an exchange already uses for one can can very easily use another. Things like Ripple, Mastercoin, NXT, and Open Transactions are not simple hot-plug things an exchange can plug in interchangeably so those might take longer to get onto established exchanges than you might prefer to wait. (But letting a reputable exchange filter the bitcoin-type coins for you frees up more time you can spend doing due diligence on all those other types of systems.)

[WillBit]

https://i.imgur.com/HL73dFg.png
https://i.imgur.com/uCGYa7E.png

[MsCollec]

The best thing in crypto-currency is that it's a free market, you are your own Financial adviser and you decide which coin you want to invest based on the community support and the new features of the coin. But there will be a stage where the market will be moving away from BTC/LTC clone to something that brings innovation with a new source code not just a copy and paste coin. It's already happening with MSC, Nxt and VSC.

[alyons]

The TIPS / FEDORA issues have been resolved, not sure if the other pools have experienced the bliss and euphoria of fast findblock perf. to the cron! http://fed.notnull.org/

KITTEH coin http://kit.notnull.org/ also had a strange findblock issue, but the lag is gone now. onward! http://kit.notnull.org

HTC / HOTCOIN still running solid, pool is running about 15% of net hash rate.  http://hot.notnull.org/

DMD http://dmd.notnull.org/ - what's your opinion on this one? the pool is up, but no one cares, is this a waste?  Also http://phs.notnull.org/ another waste?
CAT http://cat.notnull.org/ is looking dead as a door nail, come get your coins if you have any at notnull.org [CAT]
QRK http://qrk.notnull.org/ what's your opinion on this one? the pool is up, but no one cares, is this a waste?

Nothing is worse than getting a pool up and no one using it, well that's an exaggeration, there are way way more worse things. Let me know, but for now, good night, and may your sharpest picks make coin!