Why Newbies Must Know the Difference Between Bitcoin and Altcoins

[Xackie]

For sometimes now I have noticed that many  newbies often have the idea that Bitcoin and Altcoins are basically the same thing (For context I also thought it was the same when I first got the idea of Cryptocurrency). They think that the only difference between them is just their price and name. I have noticed some newbies on this forum making that mistakes alot. The important thing is to understand the difference early because it can help newbies avoid unnecessary mistakes and unrealistic expectations.
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‎Bitcoin is like a rare mineral, it's decentralized whereby nobody can think of controlling it, doesn't need hype to perform, trusted and backed by big institutions,  gaining massive adoption from people and some governments especially from Countries like El Salvador, who are using as one of their main payments system. Apart from that it has strong security, Scarcity (21 million Total supply) , and finally a strong reputation amongst other forms of crypto. For over many years now, people have been using it as a long term store of value and wealth growth. Bitcoin has proven itself from time to time or should I say has survived the worst type of market conditions, without ever failing unlike Alts that crashes anyhow.
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‎Altcoins on the other hand are just  cheap copies of Bitcoin, they try to do what Bitcoin does at faster rates but fails. They don't have good utility because 99.9% of them are driven by speculation and hype from its communities. Without hype, they die off, which is why it has higher risk rate. Their dev can decide to dump on their community. One mistake many newbies make, is assuming that  some Altcoins can be the next Bitcoin. Because of this kind of nonsense mindset, you will now see them jumpimg into random projects blindly without even thinking about the risks involved.
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‎Yes both of them are risky, but Altcoins have more risk than Bitcoin. Newbies who wants to begin that investment journey should not  put their focus on these Altcoins at their early stage of investment. Because they are not good as long term projects except you are someone who wants to make quick money off them ( You will lose a lot). Invest what you can afford, be patient and disciplined and doesn't let your mindset or people (e..g. fake influencers) deceive you that you can make quick money off Bitcoin or Altcoins. I think knowing this difference early helps beginners make better decisions instead of following hype blindly or expecting every coin to perform like Bitcoin.

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[Creeper0]

For sometimes now I have noticed that many  newbies often have the idea that Bitcoin and Altcoins are basically the same thing (For context I also thought it was the same when I first got the idea of Cryptocurrency). They think that the only difference between them is just their price and name. I have noticed some newbies on this forum making that mistakes alot. The important thing is to understand the difference early because it can help newbies avoid unnecessary mistakes and unrealistic expectations.
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You will never be able to make a child understand the difference between good water and bad water until that child understands the difference between good water and bad water through knowledge. For this, he needs to gain knowledge about both waters.

A new person in Bitcoin has to start from the beginning, that is, from the word crypto. So it is important for them to gain knowledge in both Bitcoin and Shitcoin, at this time they will think of Bitcoin and Shitcoin as the same, this is normal. But it is important whether they understand the difference between Bitcoin and Shitcoin by gradually gaining knowledge. Learning comes from mistakes, so it would be wise to view the mistakes of beginners positively. I do not expect a newbie to know everything at the beginning.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

‎Yes both of them are risky, but Altcoins have more risk than Bitcoin. Newbies who wants to begin that investment journey should not  put their focus on these Altcoins at their early stage of investment. Because they are not good as long term projects except you are someone who wants to make quick money off them ( You will lose a lot). Invest what you can afford, be patient and disciplined and doesn't let your mindset or people (e..g. fake influencers) deceive you that you can make quick money off Bitcoin or Altcoins. I think knowing this difference early helps beginners make better decisions instead of following hype blindly or expecting every coin to perform like Bitcoin.

Are you saying all of this from your personal experience or are you simply saying this based on what you've read other people say?
As much as I completely agree with you and generally that investing in bitcoin is much safer than investing in altcoins, like we all know that altcoins investments comes with a great deal of risk, but then you didn't talk about that difference also in profit potentials.

I completely agree and will never advice any newbie to invest in altcoins first because their chances of making the wrong choice of altcoin to invest in Is very high, but then, they should not fail to explore the market when they finally have gained a very good knowledge of how the market is and operates.
Investing in bitcoin can give your money the security it needs with the good profit potential in the long term.
But carefully investing in the right altcoins is also a true risky investment than can earn you great amount of profit in the short or long term depending on the altcoin.

[New Judgement]

Firstly 99.9 of Altcoins are not driven by hype and speculations. There are Altcoins out there that have real life utility and their prices are driven by the products. It’s unfortunate that some Altcoins and meme coins out there are giving bad names to the genuine Altcoins out there that are solving real life problems. Altcoins like BNB, Ethereum, Solana to mention only few has proven to solve real life problems. So it’s entirely wrong for you to say that all Altcoins are bad and have no real life utility. If you are saying newbies should avoid Altcoins it’s understandable, but trying to make all Altcoins look bad is not is misleading and false.

[Silverstonez]

To cut the whole story short bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, while altcoins refer to every other cryptocurrency created after Bitcoin, And the word altcoins means alternative coins.

Bitcoin was created to act as clear peer to peer electric cash system, when Banks collapse during the global financial crisis and government belled them. But, altcoins on the other hand are created for different purpose beyond payment.

Bitcoin is also the most trusted cryptocurrency worldwide,  but adoption of altcoins depends on the specific project.  Although, there are a lot more to say on this topic, but I will end it here and allow others to share their own views.

[Chinesebaby]

‎Yes both of them are risky, but Altcoins have more risk than Bitcoin. Newbies who wants to begin that investment journey should not  put their focus on these Altcoins at their early stage of investment. Because they are not good as long term projects except you are someone who wants to make quick money off them ( You will lose a lot). Invest what you can afford, be patient and disciplined and doesn't let your mindset or people (e..g. fake influencers) deceive you that you can make quick money off Bitcoin or Altcoins. I think knowing this difference early helps beginners make better decisions instead of following hype blindly or expecting every coin to perform like Bitcoin.

And not only should newbies not focus on Altcoin when starting their investment journey, but they shouldn't invest in altcoins at all, due to its high volatility and the chances of its developer dumping it at anytime, unlike Bitcoin which is fully decentralized and it's growth is fully backed by its community of active users who believe in the project, due to the fact that it offers investors the privilege to have full control over their assets, and likewise some people here in Nigeria invest in Bitcoin as a way or medium to avoid inflation. So Bitcoin is the best asset newbies should prioritize, rather than focusing on multiple shit and meme coins.