article The Fate of Altcoins: A Short Insight

[kyoukage01 3181]

Since the birth of the internet, attempts have been made at introducing digital currencies that can be used faster and more reliable than traditional ones. Many have failed to outlast the passage of time, but those failings were lessons taken to heart.

 

And so, digital currencies took its next step further when Bitcoin was introduced. It proved to be successful enough that nearly every digital currencies that were created after have emulated or improved some of its features and aspects in one form or another.

 

But what of these currencies called "altcoins"? Will they content themselves on being Bitcoin's second fiddle? Or will they become more utilized to the point where Bitcoin's actual use becomes marginal?

 

Arguments on Creating Altcoins

 

Bitcoin, despite its popularity and widespread use, has its own drawbacks, something that the cryptocurrency community has long acknowledged.

 

One of its most scathing weaknesses is its transaction speed, with the size limit of only 1MB per block. This has been much argued upon by its early proponents, which has resulted in the creation of Bitcoin's hard forks. Some entities also took it upon themselves to offer altcoins that provide faster transaction speeds.

 

Related to this is Bitcoin's use as a mode of payment. Due to limits on its transaction speed, various altcoins have been offered over time that allows wider acceptance and faster transactions, to the ideal point where these coins can compete with other centralized government-owned systems like credit cards.

 

The Effects of ICO

 

With Bitcoin's various negative traits pointed out here and there, various attempts have been made at introducing altcoins that can solve these issues. The most prolific time for these attempts was during the ICO boom of 2017. With ICO, enterprising entities can obtain funding to help in the creation of new altcoins. Or so it was, had not for some disturbing incidents.

 

The ICO craze provides some appaling stories of investors becoming disillusioned after being frauded. Indeed, there were many reports of most ICO projects labeled as scams. This in turn has implicitly made ICO become deridedly synonymous to scam projects. The resulting negative feedback can thus prove to be a hindrance for legitimate ICO projects today.

 

Bitcoin Pushes Back

 

Despite weaknesses being pointed out, and the core Bitcoin code itself can be difficult to update without serious repercussions, some projects that may supplement Bitcoin's usability itself without altering its code were created.

 

For an example, Lightning Network offers scalability solutions to Bitcoin. A SegWit soft fork, this is currently in the development phase. If fully implemented in the future, this may radically change the current status quo for altcoin usage, something that the developers of altcoins should watch out for.

 

Future Prospects

 

Any future attempts at new altcoin creation will be met with extreme difficulty, both from the feedback of scam projects and the stiff competition among current existing altcoins. For new altcoins to succeed, they need to exceed those negative expectations and offer some groundbreaking features not present today in others. This may also hold true for countries that contemplate on making their own crypto-based digital currencies.

 

For current existing altcoins, there may be a need to step up their game to keep up to cryptocurrency users' demands. In the case of Ethereum, with their upcoming 2.0 updated version, it is expected that this will help deal with its networks' congestion due to the DeFi craze. Other altcoins may follow suit to ensure that they will not fall behind.

 

Whatever may happen in the future should Bitcoin ever fade away, the altcoins must be able to stand their ground in the financial world. Especially if they somehow manage to usurp Bitcoin's position as the current gold standard of cryptocurrencies today.

 

Quote

Do not copy this article to other websites without my permission.

Linking to this article, or quoting it (link included), is allowed.

 

The following links were used for reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethereum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_coin_offering

 

Text has been checked for uniqueness before publishing. (link to report here)

 

Edited November 13, 2020 by kyoukage01
spacing fix

[Atiqkhan0 71]

1 hour ago, kyoukage01 said:

Since the birth of the internet, attempts have been made at introducing digital currencies that can be used faster and more reliable than traditional ones. Many have failed to outlast the passage of time, but those failings were lessons taken to heart.

 

And so, digital currencies took its next step further when Bitcoin was introduced. It proved to be successful enough that nearly every digital currencies that were created after have emulated or improved some of its features and aspects in one form or another.

 

But what of these currencies called "altcoins"? Will they content themselves on being Bitcoin's second fiddle? Or will they become more utilized to the point where Bitcoin's actual use becomes marginal?

 

Arguments on Creating Altcoins

 

Bitcoin, despite its popularity and widespread use, has its own drawbacks, something that the cryptocurrencycommunity have long acknowledged.

 

One of its most scathing weaknesses is its transaction speed, with the size limit of only 1MB per block. This has been much argued upon by its early proponents, which has resulted in the creation of Bitcoin's hard forks. Some entities also took it upon themselves to offer altcoins that provide faster transaction speeds. Related to this is Bitcoin's use as a mode of payment. Due to limits on its transaction speed, various altcoins have been offered over time that allows wider acceptance and faster transactions, to the ideal point where these coins can compete with other centralized government-owned systems like credit cards.

 

The Effects of ICO

 

With Bitcoin's various negative traits pointed out here and there, various attempts have been made at introducing altcoins that can solve these issues. The most prolific time for these attempts was during the ICO boom of 2017. With ICO, enterprising entities can obtain funding to help in the creation of new altcoins. Or so it was, had not for some disturbing incidents.

 

The ICO craze provides some appaling stories of investors becoming disillusioned after being frauded. Indeed, there were many reports of most ICO projects labeled as scams. This in turn has implicitly made ICO become deridedly synonymous to scam projects. The resulting negative feedback can thus prove to be a hindrance for legitimate ICO projects today.

 

Bitcoin Pushes Back

 

Despite weaknesses being pointed out, and the core Bitcoin code itself can be difficult to update without serious repercussions, some projects that may supplement Bitcoin's usability itself without altering its code were created.

 

For an example, Lightning Network offers scalability solutions to Bitcoin. A SegWit soft fork, this is currently in the development phase. If fully implemented in the future, this may radically change the current status quo for altcoin usage, something that the developers of altcoins should watch out for.

 

Future Prospects

 

Any future attempts at new altcoin creation will be met with extreme difficulty, both from the feedback of scam projects and the stiff competition among current existing altcoins. For new altcoins to succeed, they need to exceed those negative expectations and offer some groundbreaking features not present today in others. This may also hold true for countries that contemplate on making their own crypto-based digital currencies.

 

For current existing altcoins, there may be a need to step up their game to meet up to cryptocurrency users' demands. In the case of Ethereum, with their upcoming 2.0 updated version, it is expected that this will help deal with its networks' congestion due to the DeFi craze. Other altcoins may follow suit to ensure that they will not fall behind.

 

Whatever may happen in the future should Bitcoin ever fade away, the altcoins must be able to stand their ground in the financial world. Especially if they somehow manage to usurp Bitcoin's position as the current gold standard of cryptocurrencies today.

 

 

Of course I can gate with you. And that is the date of altcoins. And one day these will boom someday that it will be a surprise for bitcoin too. And I can say that if I have been working here in crypto for almost 3 years.

[rekter 8129]

6 hours ago, kyoukage01 said:

...

The ICO craze provides some appaling stories of investors becoming disillusioned after being frauded. Indeed, there were many reports of most ICO projects labeled as scams. This in turn has implicitly made ICO become deridedly synonymous to scam projects. The resulting negative feedback can thus prove to be a hindrance for legitimate ICO projects today.

...

 

Current rug pulls and 10x with every new DeFi project are pretty much same thing that happened during top of the ico phase.

 

Good icos / ieos / private sales still get funded, but as they are based on the old funding model, they are left out of the hype and people think that they have failed. But what newcomers don't see is the fact that now they have to stand the test of time.

 

Most people don't see the relevance of groundbreaking tech because most people don't understand it. So they choose the copy paste projects of last successful ones and even though they are irrelevant, they are making money for a while and that takes all the media focus on those. Usually only the original project will survive in a long run because it solved something new. Others just ride with the hype.

 

And to be fair, it's difficult to understand the tech no matter how long have you been in here if you don't study it hard all the time. And most of the people don't just have time for that.

[Froshk 1828]

Many of these alternative coins arent living upto expectations. Although few have proof that they are here to stay, I think the percentage needs to rise, with the introduction of (iod)'s. These coins should have taken over the whole market by now

[Whited35 15285]

@kyoukage01 I am more concerned regarding the future of random Altcoin without any purpose. Some altcoins are coming up with their own blockchain but if their codes are weakly managed, what will be the cases more awful than a whole blockchain network hack? It is the fact that if I can not trust mathematics, I can not trust blockchain so in order to trust the blockchain of specific altcoins,I need to take acre of so many things.If we expect the best altcoin in existences than we will be obviously expecting a solid blockchain backed currency. 

[kyoukage01 3181]

On 10/17/2020 at 6:55 PM, rekter said:

Most people don't see the relevance of groundbreaking tech because most people don't understand it. So they choose the copy paste projects of last successful ones and even though they are irrelevant, they are making money for a while and that takes all the media focus on those. Usually only the original project will survive in a long run because it solved something new. Others just ride with the hype.

This is the problem with the computer tech industry at large. There are just too many terms that are too unfamiliar with most people. In the case of cryptocurrencies, what the masses usually understand and accept are terms such as "get rich quick" and then ignore difficult terms such as "ICO", "blockchain", etc. and thus tend to get easily duped by scam projects as a result.

 

AFAIK, original projects tend to lean more to technical terms that most laymen may not understand, while scam projects appeal more with easier to understand language to better grab a few more victims (correct me if I am wrong on this one, please). Scam projects do get exposed, but not after they've dealt enough damage on the public trust to make the remaining legitimate ones suffer.

 

On 10/20/2020 at 4:18 PM, Whited35 said:

I am more concerned regarding the future of random Altcoin without any purpose. Some altcoins are coming up with their own blockchain but if their codes are weakly managed, what will be the cases more awful than a whole blockchain network hack?

That, and a few thousand or more dead coins and dead projects that litter the cyberspace.

On 10/20/2020 at 4:18 PM, Whited35 said:

It is the fact that if I can not trust mathematics, I can not trust blockchain so in order to trust the blockchain of specific altcoins,I need to take acre of so many things.If we expect the best altcoin in existences than we will be obviously expecting a solid blockchain backed currency. 

New altcoin projects therefore are going to have a lot to prove. Besides establishing their case that the project offers new solutions, the developers should also be able to show the actual workings of their coins to remove doubt. New secretive projects might not be such a good idea with all the scam accusations on older projects flying around these past years.

 

[Whited35 15285]

13 hours ago, kyoukage01 said:

New secretive projects might not be such a good idea with all the scam accusations on older projects flying around these past years.

If the new projects with the new altcoins want to be established in the crypto world for a long time, my suggestion will be, they might better hire the best experts with the blockchain expertise to design the excellent blockchain architecture. 

[Liliz 529]

These are currencies that are presently valued at less than $2 apiece.  Some of these currencies will definitely hold firmly or fall in value. One is sure likely to increase in value rapidly leading to an overall profit for the whole portfolio. The returns on some of these altcoins can be unencouraging tho as they ain't given enough well valued prices yet. They are most likely to experience large price spikes as they are very versatile.

[Teminali69 1081]

I think bitcoin would be replaced in the end like you said these alt-coins did not just follow the feature of bitcoin but they improved a lot and in most part bitcoin seems to improve nothing.

[adem1 294]

There are many altcoins on the market. Most of them don't meet expectations. I do not know what will happen in the future.

[Brushless4500KV 4214]

Talking about the destiny of altcoins is a very broad and complicated subject for discussion because altcoins can include any coin except bitcoin. This definition covers a large amount of coins but most of them don't share any features. This is what makes it difficult to discuss about what may happen to them in the future because we have to deal with hundreds of coins which are all exclusive. Each project will receive a different degree of popularity and based on this, the level of success or failure can vary from one coin to another.

[AL SHAIMON 1293]

This post will be very helpful for new comers. I think bitcoin is the mother of alt coin. The market of alt coins fully depend on bitcoin. They trade on bitcoin pair. But alt coins plays a very important rule. Without it we can not imagine bitcoin. So everything is inter connected.

[kyoukage01 3181]

9 hours ago, Brushless4500KV said:

Talking about the destiny of altcoins is a very broad and complicated subject for discussion because altcoins can include any coin except bitcoin. This definition covers a large amount of coins but most of them don't share any features. This is what makes it difficult to discuss about what may happen to them in the future because we have to deal with hundreds of coins which are all exclusive.

I don't mind about the subject being broad, complicated, and difficult. We can discuss things one at a time, a bit here and a bit there, as we go along.

 

9 hours ago, Brushless4500KV said:

Each project will receive a different degree of popularity and based on this, the level of success or failure can vary from one coin to another.

Indeed, this can happen with coins where prominent celebrities are actively promoting such coins. But what will make the difference is the usability of the coin itself. If what today's altcoin project offers very little else to other older existing altcoins are already offering, then there is the certainty that that project is doomed to fail. And not even those celebrities can do anything to save it; in fact, they may be the first ones to drop it in disgust.

 

On the other hand, even if the altcoin has a solid foundation, if barely nobody is using it, then the altcoin would be something of a waste.

 

Take the case with DOGE. It is cheap, and it has been derided as a gateway to other shitcoins (I can no longer find the post mentioning this). Yet it is still surviving on thanks in part to its association to a popular meme. Which is quite amazing given the widely know fact that this coin was created just for fun.

 

And there is the case with DGB that claim to offer a lot but have not been seeing as much use as expected. The founder was even so frustrated with the way the crypto community is acting back in May that he stepped down from his position. (link here). The article in the link do have some valid points, especially the part where crypto users only take notice of an altcoin when it is mooning.

 

[Froshk 1828]

The foremost Altcoins created have stood the test of time, and these s true in coins like the Ethereum, litecoin etc but as time passes so is the quality of coins too, most recent ICOs have turn scams and these has further affected the view at which most individuals see Altcoins. 

[tienda 8776]

The majority of altcoin project are not survived for long time, all depended on who are behind the such project. Some are created by the scammers, a scam project its goal is steal money to people, and other project created by some groups' person without any experience or less expertise. However, Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin...etc behind them there are good managers expert in cryptocurrencies and investors with high amount of capital.

[Upright 2688]

It's quite good to acknowledge the different components on Cryptocurrencies as well as addressing them, as we know of bitcoin quite all right on its high usage and popularity, but on occasion it kills when having to wait on a transaction to through,

[Steffqing 77]

So many Altcoins, especially the ones that comes with a single and important use case tend to have more longevity. Among them, some beats the use case of Bitcoin by it's fees and speed. Maybe because Bitcoin is seen as the main else, it should have been edges out of place

[Imdadullah 19]

Altcoin was going well with ethereum in the last few days. But then i see that it goes down. Now it is again altcoins time to move on. I am looking to matic this year. Thanks

[Ridam 7455]

Well altcoins seems to come with great idea and new innovations but they lacks the attention that Bitcoin has already managed to gain over this long period of time. And here comes the matter of sustainability, we have seen many altcoins performing great are dead at the moment and those whose development is happening are sustaining and doing good. 

And Talking about altcoins surviving without Bitcoin, I don't think this is going to happen ever. If Bitcoins fade away, in my view altcoins will go with it.

[kyoukage01 3181]

On 12/17/2020 at 9:13 PM, Ridam said:

And Talking about altcoins surviving without Bitcoin, I don't think this is going to happen ever. If Bitcoins fade away, in my view altcoins will go with it.

It is only a 'what if?' situation. If that ever happens, I am hoping that the altcoins are up to the challenge. ETH 2.0 seems to be holding its ground quite well even without its full functionality, it may be able to fill the vacuum that will be left by BTC.

 

On 12/17/2020 at 9:13 PM, Ridam said:

Well altcoins seems to come with great idea and new innovations but they lacks the attention that Bitcoin has already managed to gain over this long period of time. And here comes the matter of sustainability, we have seen many altcoins performing great are dead at the moment and those whose development is happening are sustaining and doing good. 

Bitcoin has the age and popularity advantage, being the cryptocurrency pioneer. Most other top coins haven't aged beyond a decade yet. Give them a few more years, once they get to survive that long, they may be able to rival or even surpass Bitcoin's popularity. The year 2030 would be a good time to review which coins by then are the most popular.