What's the purpose for other alternate cryptocurrecies?

[knight22]

Just asking

[smoothie]

Insight into the testing of bitcoin code in different manners.

Bitcoin is just an instance of an idea. Tweaking block rates, coin amounts, difficulty adjustments, proof-of-work...etc.

That's why.

[Bitcoin Oz]

The purpose is to show how perfect bitcoin is of course.   

[Revalin]

There are many other ways to do things (proof-of-stake, demurrage, different inflation schedules ... ) which MIGHT be better and which people want to try, but which are too much of a fundamental change to be appropriate for Bitcoin.  Thus alternate cryptocurrencies are born.  Most will be niche currencies that are mostly proofs of concept, but it's possible that one will get just the right combination of stuff to overcome Bitcoin's first mover advantage and replace it.

[Bitcoin Oz]

I can see a cryptocurrency that uses the sha-3 winner as its hashing function as a good idea.

[markm]

I found the ones that can be merged-mined useful for testing mergedmining. I learned for example that the extremely short block time of GeistGeld was bad for merged mining along with all the other coins, so I had to drop GeistGeld from my merged-mining mix.

It would be handy to have more coins to try adding to the mix, however I expect that if they try to use block time as short as GeistGeld's they will prove unsuitable.

DeVCoin has been very useful for financing free open source stuff, which is its purpose.

I0coin has had problems, maybe once we get to the root of them there will be something to learn from them.

-MarkM-

[smoothie]

I found the ones that can be merged-mined useful for testing mergedmining. I learned for example that the extremely short block time of GeistGeld was bad for merged mining along with all the other coins, so I had to drop GeistGeld from my merged-mining mix.

It would be handy to have more coins to try adding to the mix, however I expect that if they try to use block time as short as GeistGeld's they will prove unsuitable.

DeVCoin has been very useful for financing free open source stuff, which is its purpose.

I0coin has had problems, maybe once we get to the root of them there will be something to learn from them.

-MarkM-

I never was a fan of merged mining. Yes security is the big reason why.

I call it inflation of cryptocurrencies. Freely produced as a byproduct of producing say bitcoins...

[doublec]

I never was a fan of merged mining. Yes security is the big reason why.

I call it inflation of cryptocurrencies. Freely produced as a byproduct of producing say bitcoins...

Merge mining seems like a great idea for non-currency blockchains to give them security. Unfortunately there aren't any. Namecoin comes closest but people still use it as a currency. For currency based blockchains it seems to make that currency pretty much worthless.

Maybe a currency could be done that merge mines up to block X to seed the coins widely, then at X it switches off merge mining and uses a different proof of work (like litecoin) from then on. The 'goldrush' during the merge mining phase might be fun to watch.

[doublec]

Just asking

Other than testing different ideas, none really. They're somewhat useful to see what will happen to bitcoin down the track. For example, geistgeld is pushing the memory limits with its large blockchain. i0coin is also getting up there. i0coin also shows that the code to halve coin subsidies works since it hit that a while back.

[knight22]

Well, thanks for the answers!

[bulanula]

Pump and dump !

[Come-from-Beyond]

Just asking

Depends.
For a person who launches an altcoin the purpose is to pick up easy money with premine. For miners it's to pick up easy money while prices are high. For traders it's to pick up easy money while there is demand on new coins.
If u r asking what the purpose from God/Universe/Mankind point of view... There is no purpose. It's just a toy (including Bitcoin) and it'll be replace by a better toy when the time comes.

[markm]

I never was a fan of merged mining. Yes security is the big reason why.

I call it inflation of cryptocurrencies. Freely produced as a byproduct of producing say bitcoins...

Merge mining seems like a great idea for non-currency blockchains to give them security. Unfortunately there aren't any. Namecoin comes closest but people still use it as a currency. For currency based blockchains it seems to make that currency pretty much worthless.

Maybe a currency could be done that merge mines up to block X to seed the coins widely, then at X it switches off merge mining and uses a different proof of work (like litecoin) from then on. The 'goldrush' during the merge mining phase might be fun to watch.

Instead of focussing on the minting of coins, try focussing on just processing transactions. The main reason so many merged-mined chains, and even chains that are not merged-mined, are so low in value is that it is hard to "back" millions of coins minted by third parties.

Miners are so "spoiled" by all the "free money" that it is hard for a "backed" chain to get enough transaction volume to attract miners. Thus most of them have moved to Open Transactions for now, hoping to eventually move back to a blockchain format once they have enough transactions going on that transaction fees will suffice to pay the relatively low cost of adding yet another chain to a merged mining operation.

-MarkM-

[JTurner]

Pump and dump !

Yup. It's for people who missed BTC's early adoption window and who want to try to get rich by becoming early adopter of a useless altcoin...

[bulanula]

Pump and dump !

Yup. It's for people who missed BTC's early adoption window and who want to try to get rich by becoming early adopter of a useless altcoin...

Just look at LTC and the huge pump and dump last week with 43K BTC buy wall manipulation.

Disgusting ...

[HorseRider]

so you have a reason to persuade other people give his Bitcoin to you.

[Dargo]

Non-ASIC will need something to mine in the near future. 

[smoothie]

Non-ASIC will need something to mine in the near future. 

It may be a slower transition that you might think. This is all dependent on how fast BFL delivers preorders.

[Brunic]

Different uses for different needs. It's not because a market is still in development that the use doesn't exist. Bitcoin was still "useless" a couple of years ago, and people found some interesting way to use it. It's hard to say for a specific cryptocurrency, but it gives another method to create a virtual currency.

Overall, I think it proves the concept of cryptocurrency that different people tries to create new version of it. Seeing that Litecoin and Namecoin are going relatively well show that the model behind Bitcoin work and is not simply a one-hit wonder. There's still a LOT of work to do, but I'm pretty confident we're going to see more uses for cryptocurrency.

[BlackBison]

Pump and dump !

Yup. It's for people who missed BTC's early adoption window and who want to try to get rich by becoming early adopter of a useless altcoin...

yea just like google was for people who missed the yahoo early investment window and wanted to try to get rich becoming an early investor of a useless search engine..