Numerous altcoins and tokens also a reason for bitcoin's downfall ?

[figmentofmyass]

I believe a lot of people had the though process of "BTC is too expensive" i best buy a cheaper alt-coin.

Like saying, Berkshire Hathaway Stock is too expensive, i best buy a crappy penny stock.

Can not believe the amount of people who bought into this Ripple (XRP) shit!

to me, altcoins are mainly about maximizing speculative gains. so i actually like them for the same reason i like penny stocks. buying blue chips means most of the speculative gains have already been realized. all you can expect is a reasonable return---not explosive exponential gains as a company goes from zero to hero. my biggest trades by far (%-wise) have always come from gambling on lower cap coins, not bitcoin. i store value in bitcoin, but there are much more profitable bets to make elsewhere.

[hisslyness]

I believe a lot of people had the though process of "BTC is too expensive" i best buy a cheaper alt-coin.

Like saying, Berkshire Hathaway Stock is too expensive, i best buy a crappy penny stock.

Can not believe the amount of people who bought into this Ripple (XRP) shit!

to me, altcoins are mainly about maximizing speculative gains. so i actually like them for the same reason i like penny stocks. buying blue chips means most of the speculative gains have already been realized. all you can expect is a reasonable return---not explosive exponential gains as a company goes from zero to hero. my biggest trades by far (%-wise) have always come from gambling on lower cap coins, not bitcoin. i store value in bitcoin, but there are much more profitable bets to make elsewhere.

I know what you are saying. Great gains to be made if you're willing to take the chance. Coming back to it, i think my Berkshire Hathaway to Penny Stock Scale was too extreme.

However, It doesn't change the fact alot of people tried to "invest" not "gamble" on other Digital Currency/Token/ICO/Shit. Hence, taking $$$ away from BTC and ultimately not experience BTC for what it was meant to be a "A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System".

[Slow death]

Is it time to regulate altcoins/tokens/ICOs ? Because, they are misleading investors and by-which making hurdles on bitcoin's progress.

We have many shitcoins:

Jesus Coin

Bitcoiin (B2G)

Bitcoin Plus (XBC)

eBitcoin (EBTC)

Bitcoin Token (BTK

bitcoin2network (B2N)

Trollcoin Trollcoin (TROLL)

RussiaCoin (RC)

PutinCoin (PUT)

[deisik]

I believe a lot of people had the though process of "BTC is too expensive" i best buy a cheaper alt-coin.

Like saying, Berkshire Hathaway Stock is too expensive, i best buy a crappy penny stock.

Can not believe the amount of people who bought into this Ripple (XRP) shit!

to me, altcoins are mainly about maximizing speculative gains. so i actually like them for the same reason i like penny stocks. buying blue chips means most of the speculative gains have already been realized. all you can expect is a reasonable return---not explosive exponential gains as a company goes from zero to hero. my biggest trades by far (%-wise) have always come from gambling on lower cap coins, not bitcoin. i store value in bitcoin, but there are much more profitable bets to make elsewhere

You obviously refer to shitcoins and the coins in between as the volatility of major altcoins are not that different from Bitcoin's to actually make a valuable difference from a trading perspective. Personally, I'm using Litecoin myself as a vehicle for speculation, and sometimes, it is more profitable to trade Bitcoin's volatility as Litecoin at these times looks like being dragged behind Bitcoin's price action. Indeed, it is easier to manipulate Litecoin's price overall because there is less trading volumes and you should in fact expect it to be more volatile in general. But I wouldn't write off Bitcoin completely in this regard. It can be volatile as hell too

On the other hand, ZCash, for example, has been a dead horse recently in terms of price action (neither here nor there)

[cellard]

I believe a lot of people had the though process of "BTC is too expensive" i best buy a cheaper alt-coin.

Like saying, Berkshire Hathaway Stock is too expensive, i best buy a crappy penny stock.

Can not believe the amount of people who bought into this Ripple (XRP) shit!

to me, altcoins are mainly about maximizing speculative gains. so i actually like them for the same reason i like penny stocks. buying blue chips means most of the speculative gains have already been realized. all you can expect is a reasonable return---not explosive exponential gains as a company goes from zero to hero. my biggest trades by far (%-wise) have always come from gambling on lower cap coins, not bitcoin. i store value in bitcoin, but there are much more profitable bets to make elsewhere.

One of the main reasons I think Bitcoin maximalists that say all alts will go to 0 are wrong, is the fact that just as penny stocks that don't offer anything of substance but are still traded, all these shitcoins with no substance will get traded by gamblers trying to make money out of the pump and dumps, so you will see them come and go while Bitcoin is #1 at any rate. Non-PoW coins that is, every PoW altcoin will get attacked, so it will be just the PoS or any other system that isn't PoW which is by default inferior to Bitcoin's security as far as we've seen.

[figmentofmyass]

I believe a lot of people had the though process of "BTC is too expensive" i best buy a cheaper alt-coin.

Like saying, Berkshire Hathaway Stock is too expensive, i best buy a crappy penny stock.

Can not believe the amount of people who bought into this Ripple (XRP) shit!

to me, altcoins are mainly about maximizing speculative gains. so i actually like them for the same reason i like penny stocks. buying blue chips means most of the speculative gains have already been realized. all you can expect is a reasonable return---not explosive exponential gains as a company goes from zero to hero. my biggest trades by far (%-wise) have always come from gambling on lower cap coins, not bitcoin. i store value in bitcoin, but there are much more profitable bets to make elsewhere

You obviously refer to shitcoins and the coins in between as the volatility of major altcoins are not that different from Bitcoin's to actually make a valuable difference from a trading perspective.

see above where it says "lower cap coins"? that's where the biggest gains are, yes.

but even mid and large cap altcoins are significantly more volatile than bitcoin. let's look at the 2017 data for ethereum vs bitcoin (coinbase prices):

ethereum:

yearly open: $8
yearly high: $1420
gain: 17650%

bitcoin:

yearly open: $973
yearly high: $19,892
gain: 1944%

similar? i think not!

[deisik]

similar? i think not!

It should be evident to anyone with a half functioning brain that you are making incorrect comparisons

First, you are comparing a well-established coin with a fresh start (well, maybe not so fresh but you get the point). Further, this is not what volatility is essentially about. If some shitcoin rose 1000% in a month's timespan, it is not volatility. Volatility, as the word itself suggests, is more about oscillating prices in a certain range. In other words, to see volatility of an asset you should remove the long-term trend from its price action

And last but not least, I don't say that major altcoins are less volatile or on par with Bitcoin. They are indeed more volatile overall, but the difference is not that great. And sometimes (which is my point exactly), Bitcoin's volatility can surpass that of major altcoins. And I gave you an example of that, when Litecoin's price had been dragging behind the price of Bitcoin