Best arguments to make your friends understand that altcoins are not good

[HideYourKeys]

Hi all!

Lately, as Bitcoin approaches to 100,000$ I’ve found myself in discussions with friends who are intrigued by altcoins (not only Bitcoin), particularly those tied to AI, and other trending narratives. Many of these projects come with flashy promises, and while I often point out that 99% of altcoins are scams, Ponzi schemes, or poorly designed experiments, but I’d like to build a more well-rounded argument.

I’m seeking solid, fact-based arguments to explain why Bitcoin remains the superior option and why altcoins often fail as alternatives.

If anyone has good articles, podcasts, or research papers on these topics, I’d love some recommendations. I’d like to arm myself with more than just the “99% are scams” argument to engage in thoughtful and productive discussions.

Thank you in advance for any insights!

 

[Japinat]

As long as there is bitcoin dominance in the market, altcoins will never make a significant place in the market. Although some altcoins are quite competitive like bitcoin, but they are always below the level of bitcoin. Why? Because there is no clear utility case with altcoins, unlike bitcoin that serve as a highly profitable asset aside from being known as a good currency. And altcoins do have regulatory uncertainty, the reason why they become less reliable from its investors, reason why they cannot compete well with bitcoin.

[vladimirhf]

no arguments because they are good.

it's not the price it's the usability.

some people need updates, it's not 2010 anymore guys

[headingnorth]

My number one rule for investing is, don't invest in anything you don't fully understand.

To me bitcoin is very easy and simple to understand. All bitcoin is is an extremely secure and decentralized store of value, that can be sent and received instantly anywhere in the world.

But whenever I read the description of any altcoin to try to understand its purpose and value, the language used to describe it usually extremely technical, abstract and convoluted. I doubt any ordinary person can understand it. Many have described it as techno-babble. I always think to myself, what the hell is this shit even for? It sounds like they pull this crap out of their ass to make it sound impressive but also to hide what it really does behind a bunch of techno jargon. Like how lawyers try to sound impressive with legalese that no ordinary human can understand.

Similar to how slimy lawyers  (is their any other kind?) try to hide their shenanigans under a mountain of legalese.
At  the end of the day shitcoins are little more than a bunch a high-tech ponzi schemes.

That is why I invest primarily in the stock market and bitcoin. When you read about a company in the stock market it is pretty simple and straightforward to understand what the company does. But whenever I read about some altcoin it makes my head spin with the amount of techno babble used to describe it.

Altcoins are also easily manipulated by the founders and VCs. They can print unlimited number of tokens and dump them on you at anytime. That is not possible with bitcoin.
My number one rule is, don't invest in anything you don't fully understand! If you don't know who the sucker at the table is who is about to get dumped on, then the sucker is you!

[Ambatman]

Well the Best argument would be they are not Bitcoin.
Mind you not all are useless or scam
Take monero for example, if you need privacy it's your to go.
Well They are not really decentralized and can't boast same security as Bitcoin.
Hence they lack the adoption and sustainability to be held in the long term.

[Nwada001]

When it comes to arguments like this, I don't really think I should be busy trying to convince anyone about what is and what's not because the fact you make might sound convincing to them as long as it's not about how much Bitcoin can pump over a short period of time as Altcoin promises them.
 
The side truth also is that many people you might be arguing with don't really know the difference between Bitcoin and Altcoin; they define what's better based on how much profit that can be made from which coin. 
 
If we are to go by real differences to back up your argument, then Bitcoin is completely decentralised; there are no ownership rights to anyone; it's censorship resistant, has a limited supply, and has the largest market capitalisation among other cryptocurrencies.

[BitMaxz]

I don't think altcoins are not good maybe new altcoins or tokens are useless because most of the new altcoins don't have any unique features, and most of the features you want in an altcoin is already on the market. So why would you invest in new altcoins/tokens?

That's the thing that I think is better to argue than including old altcoins that are already on the top 100 in Coingecko and CMC. The chance of getting profit on these old altcoins in altcoin season is higher than the new altcoins.

About Bitcoin, then, as we all know, Bitcoin is the king since that is the first crypto created since 2009. Altcoins are just a copy source with additional features and algorithms to make their coins more advanced than bitcoin, but even they created an altcoin that can't beat bitcoin in terms of development and current marketcap.

[PrivacyG]

You know what.  It is sometimes useful to simply let them be.  Many of us learn through mistakes.  Maybe this is what your friends need.

Way too many people think they can make a lot of money with no experience just by tossing Money at a particular Shit Coin and waiting for it to do its thing.  Tell them when they are wrong but do not insist on it.  Let them learn.

[SatoPrincess]

In my experience I think it’s best to just let them be. Allow them to learn the hard way because you can go into a debate of what’s the best cryptocurrency to buy and give them factual information to back your argument and still would not be able to convince them. They are looking for quick profits and their greed will not allow them to listen to anything else that will disrupt their plan.

[notocactus]

You know what.  It is sometimes useful to simply let them be.  Many of us learn through mistakes.  Maybe this is what your friends need.

It's more than true. No matter how big your effort is to warn them about risk of altcoins, and more like risk of Margin and Futures trading, they will mostly ignore your warnings and want to explore these things by themselves. They will experience all these by themselves and learn their own lessons with money, then either profit or loss or both like profit today and loss tomorrow. The bottom line is they will end with either net profit or net loss, but by engaging in this market, they will learn more valuable practical lessons that mean more for them than just learn from paper.
If anything to share about risk of altcoins, I would recommend.

• Dead coins: How many cryptocurrencies failed?
• Dead altcoins.
• Failed cryptocurrencies by year.
• Cryptocurrency historical snapshots that show even how weak top altcoins are.
• Bitcoin vs. Altcoins – projected Marketcap

[headingnorth]

Ask your friend do they even know the purpose of the shitcoin or memecoin of the day that they are investing in?

I would be surprised if anyone who invests in a shitcoin could give you a straightforward answer of any useful purpose of that shitcoin,
other than being a ponzi scheme or means of money laundering through NFTs.

It's always a good laugh when you ask a shitcoiner to describe the useful purpose of their shitcoin.
The totally befuddled and confused look on their face is priceless.

[Darker45]

That "99% of altcoins are scams" argument is a generalization. That isn't factual. But that's more or less enough to make the point. The point is that most altcoins are founded upon shallow promises and that they don't survive long. You can then proceed to present them the history of the altcoin market. Where are the altcoins that came out 12 years ago? Where are the top 10 altcoins 10 years ago? Where are the solid altcoins 8 years ago? Are they still in the top 100, 200, 300? Or are they still alive?

You can also point out to them the various trends in the altcoin market. These trends come and go. And then there's also profitability. Many solid altcoins haven't recovered from their ATH in BTC many years ago.

[Obari]

I really don’t know the set of friends you have but to be frank with you, I don’t think it’s even worth it trying to convince someone to invest in a certain project especially bitcoin.

You also have to understand that, just as our faces are different, so are our heart and choices in life and know this and just have peace and don’t be even surprised that, your friends might be making some incredible profits from these altcoins especially if they’re doing it right.

@op, I’m sounding it very clear again to you to only state your points to them and let them make their choices so you wouldn’t get directly or indirectly responsible for any of their actions because human being, naturally don’t like taking blames and always seeks who to blame at every little opportunity.

[reagansimms]

Most altcoins are designed with a different vision or use case that is used in their respective blockchains to achieve something. Altcoin popularity is lower and market capitalization is smaller than Bitcoin, besides, many altcoins are scams or have lost the interest of developers and communities. The future of altcoins is impossible to predict because market activity is lower, resulting in thin liquidity, which can ultimately lead to more complicated and confusing investment decisions, and some altcoins even fail to grow and end up sinking investor funds.

[PrivacyG]

It's more than true. No matter how big your effort is to warn them about risk of altcoins, and more like risk of Margin and Futures trading, they will mostly ignore your warnings and want to explore these things by themselves.

This is a situation where the best thing to advise the friend is by convincing them it is not a good idea to throw much Money at Altcoins, Margin or Futures.  Or any thing they do not understand really.  Most of the people who cried after losing were crying because the amount they lost was way over what should of been the limit.

Limitless Trading or Investing is a big mistake with big consequences.  Sure.  There is a chance the big consequence will be a positive one.  But this really is a situation where you are better safe than sorry.  I do not understand why it is so hard for the human brain to acknowledge the risk of possibly abruptly steering the direction of your life to a much worse one before jumping right in with the risks.

[X-ray]

just give them simple graph of most of the alt tokenomics and let them find out how much VC is holding compared to the circulating supply, any sane person would instantly realize that they're in the losing game.
it's different to bitcoin where everyone have the same chance and opportunity to obtain BTC whether through mining or buying, there's no allocation to VC under the hood, nothing, just fair and square game.

but can't deny that there are plenty of alts that actually live up to the expectation so I guess it depends on how you choose the alts.
in general, we can just simply hold BTC and the performance could already surpass alts though. did you know that despite the big rally, very few alt surpassed their ATH?.

[Smack That Ace]

Bitcoin is the best long term investment but the bull season is here and making profits from altcoins is quite easy. Is it right to advise people to stay away from investing in altcoins at this time?
I am not a maximalist and I came to the financial markets to make money, not to worship, so as long as there is an opportunity, I will not let it go. What's wrong with investing 80% in bitcoin and holding for the long term, then speculating the remaining 20% ​​in altcoins during this bull season to make a profit? Bull season is here, many altcoins are at very good prices to invest, it would be a pity to miss this once in 4 years opportunity.

[HideYourKeys]

My number one rule for investing is, don't invest in anything you don't fully understand.

To me bitcoin is very easy and simple to understand. All bitcoin is is an extremely secure and decentralized store of value, that can be sent and received instantly anywhere in the world.

But whenever I read the description of any altcoin to try to understand its purpose and value, the language used to describe it usually extremely technical, abstract and convoluted.
I doubt any ordinary person can understand it. Many have described it as techno-babble. I always think to myself, what the hell is this shit even for? It sounds like they pull this crap out of their ass to make it sound impressive but also to hide what it really does behind a bunch of techno jargon. Like how lawyers try to sound impressive with legalese that no ordinary human can understand.

Similar to how slimy lawyers  (is their any other kind?) try to hide their shenanigans under a mountain of legalese.
At  the end of the day shitcoins are little more than a bunch a high-tech ponzi schemes.

That is why I invest primarily in the stock market and bitcoin. When you read about a company in the stock market it is pretty simple and straightforward to understand what the company does.
But whenever I read about some altcoin it makes my head spin with the amount of techno babble used to describe it.

Altcoins are also easily manipulated by the founders and VCs. They can print unlimited number of tokens and dump them on you at anytime. That is not possible with bitcoin.
My number one rule is, don't invest in anything you don't fully understand! If you don't know who the sucker at the table is who is about to get dumped on, then the sucker is you!

I can totally relate to this response. A friend of mine mentioned Fetch.ai as an example, so I decided to look into the project. As I read more about it, I kept asking myself the same question: why does this even need a token, a currency, or a blockchain? The explanations were full of technical jargon and abstract language, making it feel like they were trying to sound impressive while obscuring the true purpose (get our money?  ). Just like you said, if you don't fully understand what you're investing in, it's best to stay away. Bitcoin's simplicity is refreshing compared to the confusion so many other projects create...

This is a good point, I feel like so many people are investing on "AI projects" just because they are "trendy"

[Felicity_Tide]

Do people still spend time arguing in this 21st century?, Well I'm not sure about that, because it's quite odd IMO. The truth is, you can argue about 99% of altcoins being a scam and defend Bitcoin very well, and still miss out of what Bitcoin has to offer. Arguing that Bitcoin is the best and better than others won't help your accumulation in any way. You ought to focus on ways to accumulate as much as you can or maybe even study about Bitcoin itself, rather than looking for ways to convince, because from what you've said, it seems there's nothing that can change the minds of your friends.

But if you still insist on arguing, because I know for sure that most people don't like lossing a fight or argument, then you should try to know and understand Bitcoin not just as money, but as a technology. But, you should understand that trying to overshadow other people's idea with yours won't do much, especially to your accumulation.

[Z-tight]

If your friends want to buy altcoins, let them go ahead. You do not have to go out of your way to convince someone to buy BTC and not altcoins, on the off chance the altcoin your friend wants to buy may pump and he or she will be looking at you with ire if that happens.

It is obvious that BTC has utility, in addition to the fact that it is decentralized, censorship resistant and is a long term coin; however, people have what they seek from the crypto market and if your friends look for that in altcoins, let them be.