Are altcoins, in general, worthless and pointless?

[kekek]

It's actually kind of funny to see someone get this defensive about their bad investments, but I feel I should be able to clear up a lot of your misconceptions.

1. This is not an altcoin forum. It is an altcoin subsection of a Bitcoin forum hence the name bitcointalk
2. If all altcoins die out this forum does in fact have a future, it's called bitcoin
3. The altcoins that get thrown away aren't the coins that will allow you to make millions, maybe 3 cents max
4. If being removed from one of the many exchanges kills a coin then quite frankly it doesn't deserve to be alive

[runpaint]

Yawn, as if bitcoin isn't an alternate currency and also a cryptocurrency

Blah blah blah this coin and this coin will be worth 3 cents max let me tell you exactly what will happen in the future blah blah blah

If mtgox blah blah blah then quite frankly blah blah blah doesn't deserve to blah blah blah

I've already made more than 3 cents on the coins Poloniex delisted, so your prediction is already wrong.  But I can tell you some things that will happen in the future: 

#1, the U.S. dollar and many other fiat currencies will continue to be worth less, year after year.  The price of all surviving cryptocurrencies will therefore likely rise, even without the other deflationary features of the coins.

#2, some currency will be thousands of times bigger than Bitcoin currently is.  Maybe the dollar, or Bitcoin itself, or another coin, but the plain fact is that Bitcoin is almost nothing right now compared to the money being spent every day by 7 billion people.  So for an altcoin to surpass Bitcoin would only require that coin to be something 99% of people have never heard of, instead of 99.9% like Bitcoin.

[rokkyroad]

Altcoins are certainly not worthless and pointless. They make a few on the inside a lot of money. 

[Agestorzrxx]

most of altcoins are garbage, but some of them are really innovative

[hashman]

Altcoins are great.

They allow experimentation and learning about consensus networks.  They are worthless which is also great becaues it gives us freedom to play with things.  If you are in it for the money you are claiming your life is also worthless.     

[rikkie]

I find altcoins as well great. I have a lot of them and i've never sold one of them. I'll keep them all and i will see within a few years where they are. If they are still alive or dead. Maybe there is one good one between them. You never know. Bitcoin also started very low and look now.

[runpaint]

I find altcoins as well great. I have a lot of them and i've never sold one of them. I'll keep them all and i will see within a few years where they are. If they are still alive or dead. Maybe there is one good one between them. You never know. Bitcoin also started very low and look now.

Exactly.

If 1 of your coins ever becomes 10% of the small thing Bitcoin now is, you'll be a millionaire.

[menlatin]

Are altcoins, in general, worthless and pointless?

Yes
Yes

Why?

Zero barrier to entry ..
.
.
.
Triff ..

I think this is exactly how some altcoins will survive; (near)zero barrier to entry. A coin like this can be distributed to new users with relatively low cost, and used to educate the masses and put cryptos right into everyday peoples' hands. With the right distribution model combined with an actual use outside of buy/sell/trade, an altcoin can become very relevant, even thrive IMHO.

[HeroCat]

Some people with altcoins make a great profit - they know which altcoin to buy and sale 

[unusualfacts30]

Crypto is in experiment stage.

In 10 years..only few crypto will survive.

People who profited most from bitcoin were the ones who bought it 2 years ago before price boomed to $1200. We have handful of altcoins who're only one year old.

Only time will tell the rest.

It's never bad idea to throw some change in altcoins you believe in because you never know what will happen in 10+ years.

[rikkie]

As i said a few posts here before. I keep all my altcoins for a few years and see what happened with them in the future. If there is only one good one between them, i have luck. If not, so it is.

[djm34]

As i said a few posts here before. I keep all my altcoins for a few years and see what happened with them in the future. If there is only one good one between them, i have luck. If not, so it is.

you can always do that, doesn't cost anything...
but good luck sincyng your wallet in a few years (took 2 days to sync jpc wallets after 2 months without syncing)

You might also have some surprises: the coin getting swapped (and/or taken over by some dude) while you were expecting to just let them sleep...
(happened to me with MRC, 36M coins lost... many I bought actually)

you might have some good surprise, but if you mined millions of shitcoinA by AnonDevA and the coin never took off, there is little chance it will in 3 years (especially since the dev will most likely stop developing after 1 month...)
And the main problem now, is that there are people who want to take over dormant coin (supposedly for the community) and who will probably change everything, making the coin in your wallet completely useless... happen too often at the moment.

What you say might work only for coin which have a strong dev team, very active etc... (so not the usual shitcoin...)

edit: and actually this is probably another reason why so many coin gets release, some dev think that some random coin, will become the new bitcoin while they are not doing anything... this really not the way how things work... (it didn't work this way for bitcoin, nor for any successful coin... randomness still have some limit)

[reRaise]

From all the altcoins only less than 1% is serious and brings innovation so it has a chance to a bright future actually. Look for those build on top of Bitcoin with serious devs with connections, ambition and some deep pockets.

[djm34]

You mean why Bobs and his mates make so many useless scam coins ? Even old Litecoin guys do this just for lulz.

for once, I wasn't thinking to the bobcoins but rather some genuine newbie coin... which gets abandoned after 1 or 2 months because nobody cares and/or he found a new hobby...

[BitcoinBoost]

If the entire alt section of Bitcointalk was flushed down the toilet tomorrow, it would be step in the right direction for mainstream adoption.  The major projects such as NXT, Counterparty, and Bitshares would find a way to collaborate on a new forum or some other free market idea that distance themselves from the complete trash. Anyone feel the need to take a shower after spending 15 minutes around some of these posts?

[cocales]

 answer to the question.

   No and Yes.

[runpaint]

If the entire alt section of Bitcointalk was flushed down the toilet tomorrow, it would be step in the right direction for mainstream adoption.  The major projects such as NXT, Counterparty, and Bitshares would find a way to collaborate on a new forum or some other free market idea that distance themselves from the complete trash. Anyone feel the need to take a shower after spending 15 minutes around some of these posts?

Do you think the 16 coins that were just delisted by Poloniex were all trash, with devs either being scammers, incompetent, or irrelevant?

[BitcoinBoost]

If the entire alt section of Bitcointalk was flushed down the toilet tomorrow, it would be step in the right direction for mainstream adoption.  The major projects such as NXT, Counterparty, and Bitshares would find a way to collaborate on a new forum or some other free market idea that distance themselves from the complete trash. Anyone feel the need to take a shower after spending 15 minutes around some of these posts?

Do you think the 16 coins that were just delisted by Poloniex were all trash, with devs either being scammers, incompetent, or irrelevant?

I don't dig into smaller projects. This is a reference to the alt section in general that makes Nigerian scammers looks like angels in comparison. If this section disappeared tomorrow, I don't think it would be a huge loss for the type of projects I follow personally. To each their own.

[runpaint]

If the entire alt section of Bitcointalk was flushed down the toilet tomorrow, it would be step in the right direction for mainstream adoption.  The major projects such as NXT, Counterparty, and Bitshares would find a way to collaborate on a new forum or some other free market idea that distance themselves from the complete trash. Anyone feel the need to take a shower after spending 15 minutes around some of these posts?

Do you think the 16 coins that were just delisted by Poloniex were all trash, with devs either being scammers, incompetent, or irrelevant?

I don't dig into smaller projects. This is a reference to the alt section in general that makes Nigerian scammers looks like angels in comparison. If this section disappeared tomorrow, I don't think it would be a huge loss for the type of projects I follow personally. To each their own.

Well you said Bitshares was one of the few major projects, but Poloniex just delisted Bitshares DNS. 

So is there any difference between Bitshares and all the other trash, even to Bitshares supporters?

[Spamela Anderson]

answer to the question.

   No and Yes.

They're worthless and pointless if they don't offer anything new, but if they offer something different they likely will, but 99% don't and are just pump and dump scams so I'd avoid them.