Shades of an AltCoin War
There is no question that the last 24-48 hours the AltCoin community, particularly the three "ShadeCoin", White, Dark and Black, have been filled with an incredible amount of both positive and negative energy. There is no question that these three coins are essentially "at war". Having followed the past few days very closely, I wanted to provide my detailed perspective on what has been happening, why, and most importantly, what this means for the future of these coins.
Most of the posts on this particular forum (Whitecoin), those posted in the last 24 hours were in all likelihood SPAM, complete lies posted by people who created brand new accounts on bitcointalk to spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt... Or as I see it "Disruption), in order to capitalize on their own personal cryto-currency goals.
The tactics used however, particularly those used to question the integrity and security of the Whitecoin protocol have been by far the most disappointing.
So... The first point I want to address is:
Why would people do this?There are two reasons which I see as being the most likely scenarios:1.) If a person or small group of people can essentially "Mass-Spam" a coin community with disinformation or "lies", those which cannot be confirmed or disproved quickly, a large enough portion of the coin holders who's coins are under this attack (Whitecoin in this case) will be driven into a state of fear, and where there is fear, people sell. A mass exodus of selling causes additional panic, leading to more selling, which drives the price down.
--- So, Why do this?By driving the price down these Spamers will have the ability to buy the coins at much lower levels. Once the disinformation they have posted is proved to be false, the coin will then rally back to normal if not far exceeding levels, resulting in huge profits for the attackers.
2.) The other likely reason would be a competing coin's community, users, or even Devs, would attack their competitor with posts to forums, twitter and the like to discredit the coin in hopes to drive them out.
--- Again, Why do this? There is a limited supply of money being traded in alt-coins. Altcoin creators are essentially all competing for a piece of the same pie. More buyers mean higher prices. By spreading disinformation, uninformed and inexperienced traders will read these posts and see them as being the gospel. Fear sets in, and they sell.
Now if you're a trader, particularly a new trader, waiting on the side lines for the right opportunity is no fun. Most neophyte traders will likely immediately seek a new place to park their BTC as an investment. Right now, there is no question Blackcoin, Darkcoin, and Whitecoin are in a fierce competition for a limited amount of BTC which is within the exchanges and at play to trade with. Those very BTC are the necessary fuel for any and all growth. Lack of new BTC being fed into an altcoin means stagnation... And traders, particularly the new ones, "must" see action in order to feel they are "in the game".
Thus a coin that meerly churns, meaning no new influx of BTC, will likely trade sideways, resulting in boredom, which psychologically progresses into anxiety. This anxiety, or felling that missed opportunities are passing at every moment as their altcoin investment meerly treads water inevitably leads to selling off and looking for a new and better play.
--- CONSIDER THE FACTS OF WHAT HAS OCCURRED WITH WHITECOIN The information, or disinformation that has been posted about Whitecoin lacks credibility In my opinion for a number of reasons.
1.) Timing: The release of this so called "highly critical and important information", information by which caused mass panic, was released to the public in the middle of the night on a Saturday/Sunday. A time most likely when the actual developers would be either asleep or out to dinner, or putting the kids to bed, and not available to respond to what was being posted.
What professional developer would seriously disseminate important information to his community in the middle of the night on a weekend. And if so, why would he only do so only on this forum and on twitter, using brand new accounts with little to no posts.
Lastly, why would he chose not to post this also on his own website?
These factors in terms of timing are the main reason the information these posters provided I find to be highly suspicious and untrue.
2.) Users: All of the disinformation posted was posted by brand new accounts created within hours of the release of the said information. These users claimed to be a part of the development team.
I consider this also to be highly suspect of foul play.
3.). PoW to PoS Transition: Whitecoin recently finalized its mining phase, and has now entered into its Proof of Stake phase. This switch occurred less than 72 hours ago.
With any major switchover, there were some minor bugs that were immediately resolved.
New PoS multipools were being set up by pool operators independent of Whitecoin. New pools almost always have things to work out as in a matter of hours the user load increases by huge amounts.
The timing of this suspect information coincided with these minor issues, issues which in fact all coins have faced during a transition phase. I personally believe the attackers of Whitecoin timed their attack to exploit these minor bugs and add to any already existing stress within the Whitecoin community.
To Note: Most, if not all of these minor issues have since been resolved.
--- REALITYWhitecoin is now priced at levels that offer unprecedented opportunities to traders. This opportunity has been made available to the entire altcoin community at the expense of those who sold off and likely realized losses in their Whitecoin investments.
The price levels we are seeing right now allow traders to get in at severely undervalued price points and ride the "rocketship" as many coiners call it, as the coin begins to recover.
You have to remember: Coins like Blackcoin and Darkcoin were both at one point in time worth less than 1000 Satoshis. Yet these coins managed to skyrocket in value to levels of 90,000 and 500,000 respectively.
The truth is this growth is impossible to sustain. 10,000% returns are now 100% impossible to see again with both Blackcoin and Darkcoin. If you didn't get in weeks ago, I'm sorry you missed the boat.
Whitecoin however is a clearly different story. 1.) Whitecoin is perhaps the most publicized and rapidly accepted altcoin to hit the exchanges in months. Within a few weeks time it had been added to virtually all of the major exchanges, as well as listed on BitcoinWisdom. This alone is unprecedented.
2.) Whitecoin is the only one of the three "shadecoins", that being White, Dark, Black; that can actually grow by leaps and bounds. 1000%, 10,000%, 50,000% is certainly possible. This is what both Blackcoin and Darkcoin were able to achieve, but have since fallen considerably and become less attractive to the investment community. Whitecoin is the new kid on the block, he's gotten a lot of attention recently, and the other 2 shades aren't too happy their values have since been dropping as Whitecoin sucked up a lot of the volume and Market Cap.
Now considering all three of these coins are speculative investments; as are ALL altcoins, there being still no mainstream acceptance in terms of being used as a payment method, you have to ask yourself this question...
--- Why invest in any altcoin?- If you are investing in altcoins for the mere point of being a part of a world changing shift of how money is treated and transacted, invest in coins you see as having unique features or philanthropic aspects which appeal to your personal aspirations. You aren't in this for the money. You want to change the world. Honestly, I applaud you.
- If you are investing and trading to make money, and capitalize on as much value growth as possible resulting in huge returns, you should be looking for oversold, underpriced options.
These coins will be the ones that go from 700 to 250,000 and make you rich. A coin like Darkcoin would have to rise at its current price by a factor of 250 times to see the same growth... Growth that is a very real possibility with Whitecoin. That means that Darkcoin would have to near reach the price of Bitcoin. Personally, I do not see that as being even the most remote possibility.
MY CONCLUSION The Blackcoin and Darkcoin ships have sailed. They made people who got in early and held for the months it took for the coin to go from 1000 to astronomical levels very rich. Blackcoin in particular took roughly 32 days to move from its final 900 level to 90,000. 32 days. It takes time. Those that bought and held, I am sure are now buying very nice houses.
The past 24 hours have been filled with garbage posts which have no reliable information and lack integrity from all angles.
Whitecoin in my opinion is the next player in what I refer to as HyperGrowth Capitalization. Growth that will make millionaires out of ordinary people. It may take 32 days as it did with Blackcoin, or even longer as in the case of Darkcoin. If you remember Bitcoin took years. However, It is the only coin as of right now that has the realistic potential to see such gains. It has a strong community. It's developers are actively engaged in promoting and advancing the coin into the future. It's incredibly oversold on bad information. I wish I had more BTC to buy in.
But only time will tell. Don't take my words for the holy grail. But also don't listen to most of the negative information you will likely find on the Whitecoin board. Do research. Be a smart investor. Don't risk what you can't afford to lose.
You can follow me on Twitter @Stratobitz I frequently post tips on what's breaking out, as well as what I feel is likely to correct or crash.
Best of luck to all.
Strato
[/size]
