[2014-05-25] The Role and Future of Altcoins

[bitsmichel]

Just the name “altcoin” evokes a sense of disdain–altcoin, as in “alternative to Bitcoin,” a copycat late to the scene. Why do we persist in using such terminology when altcoins and Bitcoin are all cryptocurrencies of the same basic category? Many long-time Bitcoiners accuse altcoin developers of pump and dump schemes, longing to be early adopters, and envious of their fortunes

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/13150/role-future-altcoins/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BitcoinMagazine+%28Bitcoin+Magazine%29

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[BTCLuke]

http://themisescircle.org/blog/2014/03/14/the-coming-demise-of-the-altcoins/

[Krang]

99% of alts will become worthless. There's no point to them at all.

[Mr Crabs]

They're might be some alts that come along and provide something unique, but there hasnt been many so far. Most die off very quickly.

[bryant.coleman]

99% of alts will become worthless. There's no point to them at all.

Exactly... the only exceptions may be Litecoins and Namecoins. I am not that sure about Litecoins also, as most of the Litecoin based sites have closed down (such as Litecoinglobal and Atlantis).

[SOAD]

Litecoin really needs some merchants behind it otherwise itll fizzle out.

[LiteCoinGuy]

99% of alts will become worthless. There's no point to them at all.

Exactly... the only exceptions may be Litecoins and Namecoins. I am not that sure about Litecoins also, as most of the Litecoin based sites have closed down (such as Litecoinglobal and Atlantis).

agree here: both have build a strong position in the last years. litecoin is like the silver to bitcoins gold in the cryptoworld or you can say : bitcoin is mastercard and litecoin is visa. maybe its like an insurance or little brother.
namecoin is also an interesting project but last time i have checked it, it had no good devs...

but i guess we will never see some coin which surpasses bitcoin, because there is no reason.

iam interested in the development of Zerocoin/Zerocash because they have some smart devs and the idea behind it is interesting. its not a copy cat of something. you can find some infos here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=362468.msg3878992#msg3878992

[lynn_402]

99% of alts will become worthless. There's no point to them at all.

There's no point to them? So do you think the Euro has no point because the USD existed before it?

It's actually quite relevant for each community to have it's own currency, which has a value centered solely on the economic actions of that community. In the 21st century's internet, you should not underestimate the power of niches and how each of them can benefit and become more powerful by having a currency whose growth is based on the growth of their community. There's no sense in everyone rallying on one universal coin.

[bryant.coleman]

There's no point to them? So do you think the Euro has no point because the USD existed before it?

Euro is the exclusive currency in most of the member states in the European Union, while the US Dollar is the global currency for trade. Now take the case of shit-coins. They have no important uses, and there are fewer than half a dozen websites and stores accepting them, when compared to the tens of thousands of stores accepting Bitcoin. 

[lynn_402]

There's no point to them? So do you think the Euro has no point because the USD existed before it?

Euro is the exclusive currency in most of the member states in the European Union, while the US Dollar is the global currency for trade. Now take the case of shit-coins. They have no important uses, and there are fewer than half a dozen websites and stores accepting them, when compared to the tens of thousands of stores accepting Bitcoin. 

You missed the second half of my post: they do have uses, which are related to the community which uses the coin. Bitcoin, like the USD, will be the global currency for trade, but the community aspect of the altcoins makes them relevant.

Imagine if, for exemple, there was a cryptocurrency with a fixed supply in World of Warcraft, with which you could buy items. As the userbase of World of Warcraft would grow, so would the value of that currency, and in that system every player would benefit as long as the community would grow. And the currency could be traded for Bitcoins with which you could buy pretty much anything you would like.

[Professor Plums]

99% of alts will become worthless. There's no point to them at all.

There's no point to them? So do you think the Euro has no point because the USD existed before it?

It's actually quite relevant for each community to have it's own currency, which has a value centered solely on the economic actions of that community. In the 21st century's internet, you should not underestimate the power of niches and how each of them can benefit and become more powerful by having a currency whose growth is based on the growth of their community. There's no sense in everyone rallying on one universal coin.

What community uses half of these coins? They're just made to make the devs rich. Why pay for something when you can just use bitcoin.

[lynn_402]

What community uses half of these coins?

Indeed, half of the coins have no community based around them at all, but some indeed do, like Peercoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Darkcoin, Blackcoin, Vertcoin, and perhaps a few others.

[bryant.coleman]

What community uses half of these coins? They're just made to make the devs rich. Why pay for something when you can just use bitcoin.

Exactly. Their only purpose seems to be to make the developers rich. The so called communities for these coins hardly comprise more than a dozen people in most cases.

[Silly Money]

What community uses half of these coins? They're just made to make the devs rich. Why pay for something when you can just use bitcoin.

Exactly. Their only purpose seems to be to make the developers rich. The so called communities for these coins hardly comprise more than a dozen people in most cases.

And all they do is send the money back and forth to each other. What else are they going to do with nothing to actually spend them on?

[Cryptopher]

99% of alts will become worthless. There's no point to them at all.

There's no point to them? So do you think the Euro has no point because the USD existed before it?

It's actually quite relevant for each community to have it's own currency, which has a value centered solely on the economic actions of that community. In the 21st century's internet, you should not underestimate the power of niches and how each of them can benefit and become more powerful by having a currency whose growth is based on the growth of their community. There's no sense in everyone rallying on one universal coin.

What community uses half of these coins? They're just made to make the devs rich. Why pay for something when you can just use bitcoin.

Devs is a bit generous in some cases, many of these coins are pure dupes of other shitty altcoins. All it takes is a listing on an exchange and a whale and boom "thar she blows". People see the effects on the coinmarketcap, rush on over, buy in, whale and other early buyers/miners cash out and you're left penniless.

Altcoins are there to be leveraged, only few are there to be used.

[bryant.coleman]

And all they do is send the money back and forth to each other. What else are they going to do with nothing to actually spend them on?

99.99% of the shit-coins have only one use. Exchange against Bitcoin. Without the Bitcoin, there is no existence for any of these shitcoins. They can't even be directly converted to fiat (with a few exceptions, such as Litecoin) also.

[lynn_402]

What community uses half of these coins? They're just made to make the devs rich. Why pay for something when you can just use bitcoin.

Exactly. Their only purpose seems to be to make the developers rich. The so called communities for these coins hardly comprise more than a dozen people in most cases.

In most cases, sure, but not all. Just because the majority of altcoins are scams, does not mean that all of them are irrelevent. There's many reason to use something else that bitcoin, "One coin to rule them all" is not the way to go if we want cryptocurrencies to truly be decentralized; competion is always good, and we should not promote a Bitcoin monopoly.

And all they do is send the money back and forth to each other. What else are they going to do with nothing to actually spend them on?

99.99% of the shit-coins have only one use. Exchange against Bitcoin. Without the Bitcoin, there is no existence for any of these shitcoins. They can't even be directly converted to fiat (with a few exceptions, such as Litecoin) also.

That's because altcoins are still relatively new, and more and more exchange are popping up which allows altcoins to fiat trading; like Vault of satoshi, prelude.io, and Cryptsy plans on allowing that soon.

[Cryptopher]

And all they do is send the money back and forth to each other. What else are they going to do with nothing to actually spend them on?

99.99% of the shit-coins have only one use. Exchange against Bitcoin. Without the Bitcoin, there is no existence for any of these shitcoins. They can't even be directly converted to fiat (with a few exceptions, such as Litecoin) also.

Exchanges have the power to limit the operations of these shitcoins. Trouble is that the exchanges love the hubbub around new alts, they generate them a nice sack of cash. Also, even if all exchanges refused to list a new alt, a new exchange will spring up and hold a monopoly on that coin.

Great for those who make fortunes, sucks for those who lose their investment...

[Silly Money]

Everybody takes their cut but some is always usually left out eventually when the value tanks. Usually newbies who didnt know what they were getting themselves into.

[lynn_402]

Everybody takes their cut but some is always usually left out eventually when the value tanks. Usually newbies who didnt know what they were getting themselves into.

The same could be said for Bitcoin and any commodity; some people did buy Bitcoins at more than 1000$ this winter.

[Cryptopher]

Although there are lots of altcoins out there, draining the market cap of Bitcoin, there is occasionally a new alt that crops up with something interesting to bring to the market.

Bitcoin will always be the winner in my eyes though. There's a lot of talk around Dark Coin.

[Ludi]

At least Dark coin aims to have a purpose, though I havent looked in to it too much, but at least it offers something else.

[bitsmichel]

At least Dark coin aims to have a purpose, though I havent looked in to it too much, but at least it offers something else.

Dark coin seems to grow quite a bit, not sure why. Its like twice the market cap of dogecoin now; yet the darkcointalk community forum has very few members (around 500) and no signature tracks, it has a long way to go I think 

[Cryptopher]

At least Dark coin aims to have a purpose, though I havent looked in to it too much, but at least it offers something else.

Dark coin seems to grow quite a bit, not sure why. Its like twice the market cap of dogecoin now; yet the darkcointalk community forum has very few members (around 500) and no signature tracks, it has a long way to go I think 

At first I thought that the Dark Coin price may be inflated by hype, and then I read about its features. I'm still too skeptical to buy into it, namely because its on exchanges that I'm not too familiar with.

Communities grow with the success of the coin, there's no reason why Dark Coin can't see fast growth in its community if it continues to see rises in its volume.

[Bit_Happy]

...
In most cases, sure, but not all. Just because the majority of altcoins are scams, does not mean that all of them are irrelevent. There's many reason to use something else that bitcoin, "One coin to rule them all" is not the way to go if we want cryptocurrencies to truly be decentralized; competion is always good, and we should not promote a Bitcoin monopoly...

lynn_402 is correct about avoiding a Bitcoin monopoly. I will add that most altcoins do not suffer from having a Bitcoin Foundation with a horrible reputation. Also, thanks to NASCAR literally millions of people have heard about DOGEcoin (more than 10 times in many cases) before ever hearing so much repeated exposure to Bitcoin.

[leslie.leslie]

there are alot of altcoin coming out nowadays some will evolve and some disappear so very fast. The competition between the alternative coins are very stiff may the last best coin remain. But for now no altcoin can bit the popularity and value of Bitcoin.

[Finchy]

Alt coins are called shitcoins for a reason. Nothing behind most of them at all.

[bryant.coleman]

That's because altcoins are still relatively new, and more and more exchange are popping up which allows altcoins to fiat trading; like Vault of satoshi, prelude.io, and Cryptsy plans on allowing that soon.

Some of the altcoins have been around since 2010. How many exchanges are allowing them? And regarding the "soon to be allowed in exchanges such as Vault of satoshi, prelude.io, and Cryptsy" argument.... It is all BS. They will never be allowed in any of the major exchanges. Even in 2013, a lot of people were posting rumors that Mt Gox will soon accept altcoins. Nothing happened. However, the posters benefited when the value of altcoins rose as a result of the rumors.

[lynn_402]

That's because altcoins are still relatively new, and more and more exchange are popping up which allows altcoins to fiat trading; like Vault of satoshi, prelude.io, and Cryptsy plans on allowing that soon.

Some of the altcoins have been around since 2010. How many exchanges are allowing them? And regarding the "soon to be allowed in exchanges such as Vault of satoshi, prelude.io, and Cryptsy" argument.... It is all BS. They will never be allowed in any of the major exchanges. Even in 2013, a lot of people were posting rumors that Mt Gox will soon accept altcoins. Nothing happened. However, the posters benefited when the value of altcoins rose as a result of the rumors.

What? These are not rumour. They are available in the exchange I named, and Cryptsy even already has it's Doge/USD market page. And they are a few on major exchanges BTC-e and Kraken too (which even has Doge/USD, too). Other than Bitstamp, most exchanges seem open to the idea of trading altcoins.