How we crypto-geeks get it wrong & the reality of altcoin success.

[kattekop]

Example: POTcoin
Multipools dump it once in a while, and addicts buy the thing up again to spend in the stores..

[First.Bitcoins]

Saw this post by <gustav> in another thread discussing new coins with new features, and agree with it completely.

"features are secondary as long as they are not gamechangers and mayor (happens maybe once a year maximum). Money doesn't need 'features' - money needs 'security', reliability, solidity, stability and userbase/ acceptance"

[First.Bitcoins]

Quoted from a thread in the Bitcoin discussion section:

There is one step that is known to make it more "likely" that a U.S. consumer will purchase and use Bitcoins.

• Motivate them to download a Bitcoin wallet.

"I don't want to download anything to my PC, it could have a virus". Surprisingly this is the number one objection we get from new users.

So in the building the user community, we have created a simple two step process to get them started:

1. Sign up for the online wallet (less scary for them)
2. Go to our faucet for some coins to get started.

Once they do that, they are curious, so on our forum they can find places to spend their coins, we can teach them that a downloaded wallet is more secure, etc.

[djarot]

Saw this post by <gustav> in another thread discussing new coins with new features, and agree with it completely.

"features are secondary as long as they are not gamechangers and mayor (happens maybe once a year maximum). Money doesn't need 'features' - money needs 'security', reliability, solidity, stability and userbase/ acceptance"

agreed, though i would moderate with a comment i read here http://cointelegraph.com/news/112425/new-cryptocoin-to-sponsor-serie-a-football-team by "Alexandre" - "How many telephone numbers in the yellow pages? How many websites? How many business cards? The right question is : which one serves the right purpose?" - nice!!

[First.Bitcoins]

Ah yes the saga continues even in the anon coin race...

Quoted from a post by nomoreheroes7 in another thread: "why the fuck does XXXcoin (real name deleted)  get so much attention on these boards? It's anonymous...so the fuck what? Anon coins are last season, no one gives a fuck"


I remind everyone of how I started this thread back in July:
"The other day on the Poloniex Troll Box, I saw a brilliant comment that summed it all up, "What difference does a new algo make for XXX (insert name here) coin, when next week there will be a newer one?"


It is not the "innovation" that gives long term value to a coin, it is the real user community!

[digitalindustry]

IN SUMMARY: We crypto geeks have to get reality! To succeed longterm, a coin must address these issues:

1. Users only care about ease of use & security, they really don't care about our x1186SHAPOWPOS, inverted 3x algo
2. Recognize the two disparate economies of cryptocurrencies (Miners vs Users)
3. Solve how a coin gets into the real users wallets, not the miners/traders
4. Give the users something do with the coin

Quark partially achieved all this, which is why it is the success it is now.

there is more than can be done, and there are many other crypto working towards this no doubt.

but just at the moment Quark is the leader.

[DieJohnny]

why do we use amex over visa.... the benefits

for payments the only reason to choose one currency over another is how it benefits you. Acceptance, speed, money back/miles...

Those are the only reasons alts exist is to try and beat bitcoin on benefits to the end user

bitcoin for now wins on acceptance, loses on speed, and other benefits, so be careful bitcoin.

[First.Bitcoins]

XMR is yet another example of exactly what I meant when I started this thread.

I have nothing against it, know very little about it, and don't believe all the fud,
but I remember at the time I started this thread, it was the current darling of the new coins.

To paraphrase the Clinton campaign of years ago,  (it is the economy stupid)
it's not the technology, it's the user community that matters!

[CT_Rick]

Example: POTcoin
Multipools dump it once in a while, and addicts buy the thing up again to spend in the stores..

So pot coin is actually used in weed stores? get out of here?

that is a big thing for crypto no?

[TheMage]

I'm amazed that out of all of these posts Litecoin was not mentioned once considering it is the "Bitcoin of alts".

OP, I agree with you 100%!

[CoinHoarder]

I've spent more time debating this than I'd like to in the past (days and days), but I just thought I'd say... this crypto nerd disagrees with you. There is also a difference in between innovations and gimmicks, knowing how to tell the difference is the key to ALT coin investing. Most coins people suggest as being innovative are simply not, and even if they are it has to be innovative enough to break network effects. Relying on only one or several small innovations will have trouble competing with network effects, unless it is just truly revolutionary. Yet, an Alt coin needs a good combination of innovation and marketing to be successful. Leaving one or the other out is a recipe for disaster.

[devphp]

99.9% of users of altcoins only care about one thing; Bitcoin.

Only when price of Bitcoin rises all the time without long stagnation/sideways movements, like the one we're witnessing now. You argument may have been valid for 2009-2013, but 2014 has changed a lot of things.

[Oscilson]

99.9% of users of altcoins only care about one thing; Bitcoin.

Mining of Bitcoin is concentrated by big farms. We can only mine altcoins. We are searching for the next mineable/profitable all the time.

99.99% altcons do not have long life expectancy.

[marpom]

Mining of Bitcoin is concentrated by big farms. We can only mine altcoins. We are searching for the next mineable/profitable all the time. 99.99% altcons do not have long life expectancy

What do people think of NXT coin?

[devphp]

What do people think of NXT coin?

It's one of few alternatives to Bitcoin, designed to fix Bitcoin's flaws and bring new use cases to the crypto currency world.

[marpom]

From Ntx.org

.... and just keep your Nxt wallet open and online, you are forging! Forging is making the Nxt network stable and decentralized. When you are lucky, you will be able to generate a block and you will earn all the fee inside that block

Sounds great but uehhh.....no mining software and / or hardware.....just the wallet?!?!
 

[devphp]

From Ntx.org

.... and just keep your Nxt wallet open and online, you are forging! Forging is making the Nxt network stable and decentralized. When you are lucky, you will be able to generate a block and you will earn all the fee inside that block

Sounds great but uehhh.....no mining software and / or hardware.....just the wallet?!?!
 

Yes, just the wallet, to solo forge successfully you need at least 50k NXT (~$1000), the more you have - the better chance you have to generate a block (with 50k you will hit a block every 2 weeks on average). If you have less than 50k NXT, better lease to the forging pool so you don't get frustrated that you don't generate a block for a long time and the pool will calculate your average contribution. Leasing your balance to a pool means you're in full control of your NXTs, you only give away the forging power to the pool, not the actual coins.