Do you think the alt-coin crash is hurting bitcoin?

[Edward50]

The only reason I bought bitcoins for what I consider ridiculous high prices was to speculate with alt-coins.

I actually bought quite a few of them, which I never would have bought as I think the price of bitcoins is way too high and overvalued, and you're not going to make any money at these price levels, at least not worth the risk.

I didn't sit on many of them, but the fact that I bought them and transferred them to someone who essentially created new wealth for bitcoins with the alt-coins, definitely was bullish for bitcoins. Of course if the person who I gave my bitcoins to immediately sold the bitcoins for cash it wouldn't have much effect but I am sure most people who made money/bitcoins from selling alt-coins held onto them.

So my thinking goes now that alt-coins are pretty much dead and that whole speculative alt-coin boom looks to be over, this will really hurt the price of bitcoin. Basically the alt-coins were creating new wealth for bitcoins, a big reason for someone to take fiat and dump them into bitcoin to get part of this new wealth. This is pretty much over in a big way right now.

Anothing point is the bitcointalk forum was looking at completely getting rid of the alt-coin sections at one point, but they decided to keep it and expand it. I think the reason they expanded it was that they knew the alt-coin boom was really helping bitcoin as that is the only thing most people would actually buy with their bitcoins.

My point is that this alt-coin crash is actually a very bad thing for bitcoin in my opinion. I think that was a big reason why the prices were held up for so long. I know I personally put thsouands of dollars into bitcoins because of this reason alone and I am very frugal. You can imagine what the degenerate gamblers must have put into it.

[MatTheCat]

The only reason I bought bitcoins for what I consider ridiculous high prices was to speculate with alt-coins.

I actually bought quite a few of them, which I never would have bought as I think the price of bitcoins is way too high and overvalued, and you're not going to make any money at these price levels, at least not worth the risk.

I didn't sit on many of them, but the fact that I bought them and transferred them to someone who essentially created new wealth for bitcoins with the alt-coins, definitely was bullish for bitcoins. Of course if the person who I gave my bitcoins to immediately sold the bitcoins for cash it wouldn't have much effect but I am sure most people who made money/bitcoins from selling alt-coins held onto them.

So my thinking goes now that alt-coins are pretty much dead and that whole speculative alt-coin boom looks to be over, this will really hurt the price of bitcoin. Basically the alt-coins were creating new wealth for bitcoins, a big reason for someone to take fiat and dump them into bitcoin to get part of this new wealth. This is pretty much over in a big way right now.

Anothing point is the bitcointalk forum was looking at completely getting rid of the alt-coin sections at one point, but they decided to keep it and expand it. I think the reason they expanded it was that they knew the alt-coin boom was really helping bitcoin as that is the only thing most people would actually buy with their bitcoins.

My point is that this alt-coin crash is actually a very bad thing for bitcoin in my opinion. I think that was a big reason why the prices were held up for so long. I know I personally put thsouands of dollars into bitcoins because of this reason alone and I am very frugal. You can imagine what the degenerate gamblers must have put into it.

Fads come and go.

These hundreds of Alt-coins were nothing but a FAD and now I suspect we have crypto-currency fatigue setting in. The vast majority of these Alt-coins will vanish into obscurity, a few will remain. Litecoin being the only odds on certainty to still be around and relevant for some time to come. The USD volume of these Alt's however were generally so low, I doubt that it had much of an effect on Bitcoin.

I think it is rather more the crypto fatigue that is centred around exasperation and disillusionment with Bitcoin that is proving bad for the Alt's, other than the other way around. None of these Alts have any uses whatsoever outwith speculation. Speculation that was always based on euphoric visions of Bitcoin's potential and now that this euphoria has subsided and been replaced by apathy, the Alt-coins are seemingly totally irrelevant.

[Edward50]

Agreed, I only "gambled" with alt-coins. It was actually a fun way to gamble at the time. However, I pulled out everything when it was clear that it was all going down. I never expected it to get as bad as it has. I actually made money from the Alt-coins because I pulled out early enough and got lucky with one alt-coin, which I made mostly all my money from.

[Edward50]

Alt-coins crashed?  That was long overdue.

The only effect alt-coins had on Bitcoin was to move Bitcoins from fools who wanted to gamble to people who understand where real value would end up when the game ended.

The only impact alt-coins crashing will have is mining investments will be even worse.  Look for more Mt.Gox style news from the mining equipment suppliers.

I think you underestimate how much new money came into bitcoins, simply for the reason of buying alt-coins.

I look at myself who is very frugal and bearish in general. It made me put in thousands of dollars into buying bitcoins to gamble. At the peak of the alt-coins, the forum sections were booming compared to the bitcoin speculation forums. Actually I would say that most posts on this forum were probably in the alt-coin section.

[kooke]

I think we'll see a much more dramatic crash in most alt-coin prices once the powerful scrypt ASICs hit the market. A lot of bitcoin early adopters hate alt-coins and would probably invest some money in ASICs just to 51% some of those coins.

[tonto]

altcoins (except for name coin) need to go away. 
 
And no, I'm not sitting on a fortune of name coins.  It's just that they have a value to the world, and are a complement to btc.  All my name coins are lost in the nether because I forgot to back them up
(500 coins!)

[knightcoin]

I think we'll see a much more dramatic crash in most alt-coin prices once the powerful scrypt ASICs hit the market. A lot of bitcoin early adopters hate alt-coins and would probably invest some money in ASICs just to 51% some of those coins.

I think bitcoin will be more stable against prices fluctuations, and speculators will move to alt-coin market. The interesting thing for me is to follow the scrypt asic pre-order market since there are so many altcoins....   I think many shitcoins will die. About the price in general... new hardware means new money into the industry so I really think prices goes up. If miner buy a $10.000 hardware they will not sell until they get proper profit... not like a gpu gamer-miner ... the alt mining market will become more professional.

[Undone]

I think we'll see a much more dramatic crash in most alt-coin prices once the powerful scrypt ASICs hit the market. A lot of bitcoin early adopters hate alt-coins and would probably invest some money in ASICs just to 51% some of those coins.

Much hatred, so melodrama, wow.

[Torque]

When I look over all the alt-coins at coinmarketcap.com (over 100+ and counting), I just feel sad.  If all that money that is invested in alts were added up and put into BTC instead, then bitcoin would have a much higher marketcap and much high price right now.

One of the core tenants of bitcoin being capped at 21mil is that "Some Government Mandarin cannot just whisk new coins into existence" as Patrick Byrne of Overstock.com was quoted as saying recently.  Well apparently he's wrong, as any idiot can just whisk a new alt-coin into existence, and lure fools in by trying to convince them that they are just as worthy as BTC long term.  Remember IOCoin, anyone?  Naw, didn't think you did.

I'm hoping others do indeed get "alt-coin fatigue" and start to realize that by overly investing in alt coins purely out of greed, they're hurting the overall core bitcoin agenda long term, not helping.

[Undone]

One of the core tenants of bitcoin being capped at 21mil is that "Some Government Mandarin cannot just whisk new coins into existence" as Patrick Byrne of Overstock.com was quoted as saying recently.  Well apparently he's wrong, as any idiot can just whisk a new alt-coin into existence, and lure fools in by trying to convince them that they are just as worthy as BTC long term.  Remember IOCoin, anyone?  Naw, didn't think you did.

The free market is a bitch, isn't it?

[Wekkel]

One of the core tenants of bitcoin being capped at 21mil is that "Some Government Mandarin cannot just whisk new coins into existence" as Patrick Byrne of Overstock.com was quoted as saying recently.  Well apparently he's wrong, as any idiot can just whisk a new alt-coin into existence, and lure fools in by trying to convince them that they are just as worthy as BTC long term.  Remember IOCoin, anyone?  Naw, didn't think you did.

The free market is a bitch, isn't it?

This isnt over, by a long shot.

[eiskalt]

When I look over all the alt-coins at coinmarketcap.com (over 100+ and counting), I just feel sad.  If all that money that is invested in alts were added up and put into BTC instead, then bitcoin would have a much higher marketcap and much high price right now.

It is as it is. Would a goldbug complain about silver, platinum, palladium?

One of the core tenants of bitcoin being capped at 21mil is that "Some Government Mandarin cannot just whisk new coins into existence" as Patrick Byrne of Overstock.com was quoted as saying recently.  Well apparently he's wrong, as any idiot can just whisk a new alt-coin into existence, (...)

Funny thing is, that even without alt-coins, you still have to trust the developpers, that they will never change the 21 million cap.

[FeedbackLoop]

Funny thing is, that even without alt-coins, you still have to trust the developpers, that they will never change the 21 million cap.

FFS! NO! You don't... If ANY dev changes the cap it's code is running a different coin in yet another (usually worthless) fork that won't be mined, relayed, used, by anyone.

[eiskalt]

Funny thing is, that even without alt-coins, you still have to trust the developpers, that they will never change the 21 million cap.

FFS! NO! You don't... If ANY dev changes the cap it's code is running a different coin in yet another (usually worthless) fork that won't be mined, relayed, used, by anyone.

One should never underestimate human error.

[cypherdoc]

i've been looking forward to this.

the altcoins need to go away.  this crash will serve to make that happen.  and then Bitcoin can continue on.

[Torque]

It is as it is. Would a goldbug complain about silver, platinum, palladium?

No, but a goldbug would complain if there were over 100+ other shitty PM derivatives created in the lab that were all sucking $$$ away from those 4-5 main natural ones that exist.  Luckily for the goldbug, true PM alchemy doesn't exist... yet.  

[googlemaster1]

Very few altcoins really have ever appealed to me.  I first started with Litecoin, as most people getting into Crypto in October of last year.  I was lucky to buy a few at $9 via paypal in some IRC's.  I was able to watch them almost hit the $50 mark as I assumed they would because I was seeing prices on Ebay that people were willing to pay jujst because they had no freaking way to get them!

I was then sucked into Worldcoin for a while just because it was beautifully done and I didn't understand transaction times and speeds and security and how it all played together in the blockchain.  I was still very uneducated at this point.

After selling my Scharmbeck shares at their peak and getting out or Worldcoin once I finally realized the one simple fact that "Holy shit you guys, we need to stop distracting our community with all these altcoins and preach the BTC Gospel, because in the end, its the only coin that matters".

I did my research and I am glad I didn't buy in when the peaks were high, but I have been constantly buying BTC during crashes because unless Coinbase and Bitstamp die overnight, crypto will trek on forward, with not much except huge government regulation cascading on its growth.


Now I am a BTC Miner, I have 5 Antminers, an S2 Pre-order, and I pay for almost everything I possibly can in BTC, thats no joke.  I realize the great potential of some altcoins. Tthings like Namecoin, and Vertcoin appeal to me for different reasons (I only have the latter), but in the end BTC is all that matters.  We are way too much in our infancy for anyone to care about ASIC resistance.  Way too much in our infancy for anyone to take Namecoin is the possible DNS solution of the future, and certainly way too much in our infancy to convince merchants to accept anything other than bitcoin if they aren't already taking bitcoin.

So what do we do?  We need to get our fucking hussle on and set up our friends and local businesses with Online wallets and payment services.  If they ever get a significant amount, teach them about securing paper wallets and importing them and the like.  Maybe eventually explain mining to them in rudimentary terms.  It is going to be an uphill battle.  But my recommdation is this:  if you own altcoins, thats great, don't be a leach speculator and maybe help their community when time allows, but don't kid yourself into thinking that BTC shouldn't be EVERY HODLers TOP priority.  We have a huge fucking PR problem on our hands, and you all need to set a good example by not being an asshole or pretentious exclusionary piece of shit, but really to take the time to calmly and concisely explain why bitcoin makes sense; why its an important piece of technology, and why they should at least take the time to understand it.  Getting people on board with bitcoin is much like getting a woman to go home with you; you have to be cool in order for them to care; confident in order to make them interested; and to the point in order for them to make that leap.

Aaaaaaand that just turned into a speech.... /facepalm

tl;dr:  Sure fuck around with altcoins, there are some cool ones, but make bitcoin priority!

[arepo]

are the altcoins crashing?

Litecoin's mini-bubble just burst, but that was completely due to bitcoin speculators seeking short-term profits. it's simply tracing out the same bubble pattern as Bitcoin, and i see no fundamental reason for it to trace all the way back to pre-November prices.

i think the crypto-despair is infecting the other coins, but sentiment lows are always the best time to buy

--arepo

[eiskalt]

It is as it is. Would a goldbug complain about silver, platinum, palladium?

No, but a goldbug would complain if there were over 100+ other shitty PM derivatives created in the lab that were all sucking $$$ away from those 4-5 main natural ones that exist.  Luckily for the goldbug, true PM alchemy doesn't exist... yet.  

Even then investors in PMs would have to accept the fact. Noone would complain about facts - they tend to be there despite human wishful thinking.

EDIT: If true, that bitcoin has a superior design the "shitty" alts will go away. But this is not a fact right now, it is speculation time.

[eiskalt]

The good alts won't go away. And in the next bitcoin bull run (if there's one) they will again provide greater return than bitcoin.

If a prolonged bear market develops in BTC, one could speculate that some alts will decouple and push in the opposite direction.

We never had a prolonged BTC bear market with serious alt competition.