Why every coin needs its "Coin Road"? I explain...

[X_X_X]

I will try to explain why IMO every coin needs its own "Coin Road" and without it, it is dead. I DO NOT want to encourage anyone to do something illegal or to open a virtual drug store, just some considerations of mine about how Silk Road helped bitcoin.
It seems quite obvious that we're living a coin bubble. New coins are appearing every day, but there's something that makes the difference between Bitcoin and every other coin. BTC is the only one that you can use for purchasing goods and services. Every other coin is just an unintentional scam (unintentional, because they have no will to deceive, but they're promoting a useless creation) because they will vanish when people realize that they are, as I said, no use=useless.

As I see, one the main reasons that led BTC where it is now is the fact that when the first news about bitcoin arrived to the "real world" outside the internet, it had already a millionaire real market behind backing BTC as real money. Silk Road owner "forced" (probably, wasn't his main intention, but he did it) people into wanting to have bitcoin, so they could buy things that cannot be bought online with euros or dollars, by its own nature Silk Road has no competitors and the high demand of the kind of goods sold on SilkRoad is well known. So it's clear as day.
Right now, all of the other 99% cryptocurrencies have no real use and you can only speculate with them, they are orphan-coins and they're begging for a (SERIOUS) market. You can always try to open a pottery shop and accept payment in an unknown-highly-underground coin hoping that as a result it rises TO THE MOON (such..., wow) someday but probably you will die waiting for that day to arrive.

Why a Coin-Road? I often read that Silk Road gave bitcoin a bad name. That's not true and it's unfair. You can hire assassins and buy drugs with euros and dollars from the beginning of times and people don't say euro is a bad thing because you can use it to buy cocaine. So with all due respect, anyone who use this argument to attack bitcoin is just an ignorant.
I had read it even from supporters of some newborn coins. They say their coin have to keep away from "illegal" business, but I would say them to stay out of that kind of moral issues because that's just ideology and it has nothing to do with money or economics. It's not the job of a currency itself to fight against crime (we're paying the police for that) and you may consider smoking pot something bad, but surely there are people who want to smoke pot. There are places where it is legal and there are places where it is not. 

In short, illegal activities with any kind of money cannot be avoided (specially if we want a free, anonymous money), moral concerns about currencies are just bullshit and IMHO a Silk Road clone with a solid reputation would be a huge boost for any coin in a short period of time. I'm absolutely sure!

[faithdealer]

Silk Road gave Bitcoin a mystique and a dangerous reputation that has brought in more people than it's pushed away. The only downside is it gives the media, the government and the banks a reason to bash Bitcoin, as if the currency itself is somehow tainted because people bought drugs with it.

If buying drugs makes BTC bad, USD must be absolutely filthy with all the blood that has been spilled for it. But people don't see it that way.

[exapted]

I think a Zerocoin anonymous market would work. People would prefer to use Zerocoin for an anonymous market as long as there was a large enough transaction volume. I think there would be enough good will and hype in the beginning to get it started. I bet all of the anonymous markets will accept Zerocoin.

But a Dogecoin (or whatever coin) anonymous market would be less convenient and possibly less anonymous than a Bitcoin anonymous market. And it would require a lot of "team spirit" to get off the ground because users would need to exchange / tumble / etc. prior to deposit.

[exapted]

When Megacoin first came out I thought maybe Kim Dotcom was behind it and would offer Mega services primarily in Megacoin. But that would be less convenient for Mega users and probably hurt the Mega business.

I can see the general idea: Offer a service that people want, but only offer it to them in your cryptocurrency. That could work but it could make your business less successful. If your business is not successful, it won't make much difference to your cryptocurrency.

So I think it makes sense to not force people to use your cryptocurrency on your market unless it has an advantage over other cryptocurrencies. Instead, offer a discount for using your cryptocurrency on your market, but still accept Bitcoin so that your business remains competitive.

[Nullu]

I see BTC as akin to the Gold standard that props up fiat currency. Altcoins are indirectly strengthening Bitcoin because it's pretty much the universal coin that you trade your coins for to then convert to fiat or to spend.

I expect that when the bubble bursts that the altcoins with no merit whatsoever will be worth drastically less, and the coins with unique aspects or that have services will be worth drastically more. When altcoin trading hits the mainstream markets, worthless altcoins will be akin to penny stocks.