I'm also not clear on how does the value of coin inflate or deflate; especially when the flow is controlled by the developers?
tl;dr Any resources or pointers on the topic are appreciated.
This isn't really true, when a coin gets to a certain point it isn't really controlled by the developers anymore. I think you mean supply inflate or deflate?
When a coin launches it will have a set distribution model written into the chain by code. Say 5 coins per block from block 1-500 then 10 coins per block from 500-50000 (just as an example)
Now that version of the chain (and wallet ect) will be up on github, if the devs just out of nowhere wanted to change those numbers they would have to modify the code and put up a new release, after that its up to the community if they want to download that new release with updated code.
If a majority of the community does not update then that original blockchain would remain ongoing with the original code.
This is why you hear the statement "The strongest chain will win", developers only have control to a certain extent, they need the community to be in consensus (agreement) with them to push their releases. This is a big reason why forks happen.
Hope this helps, good luck.
Yes, thanks for the clarification
Being a newbie, I'm looking for a good direction on learning about the markets and trading. How would you decide which ICO to invest in? Cryptocurrency is too volatile, but so there is still many people who go into investment that goes even in the newest coins which are similar (not same) in the functionality that they offer (e.g. anonymity). What is the possibility on any of these coins (or digital currency in general) being successful (or profitable)? I'm also not clear on how does the value of coin inflate or deflate; especially when the flow is controlled by the developers?
tl;dr Any resources or pointers on the topic are appreciated.
The most important of all the aspects are the developers even if in paper different projects may seem similar to each other if one project has dedicated developers and the other doesn't, then the project that has the best developers is going to become a successful coin and give you profits while the second is going to disappear soon after its creation.
True, although not all coins' devs decide to reveal their information; and I assume a motivated one can go to great lengths to present dev profiles and commits to the core - till release and/or to interact. My point is although the presentation and at face value we might see many devs, how can be sure of the verify of this information?
I also considered mining, which could also be considered as an investment, but is usually controlled by ones with the highest hash rate, and hence seems like the need of having a large number of computing units (cpu,gpu,asics) to be successful.
You can still mine some altcoins if you have a higher hash rate miner but it all depends on all of your expenses in the current and the total rate that your miner can give to you. But since the difficulty level is raising it must be harder and harder for someone to mine when he got too small altcoin(s) to mine. So it could be better if you must have invested in an altcoins rather than mining, you could do some trading while investing on altcoins. Just fill your portfolio with all of the good altcoins that has a potential to grow in the future.
Yeah I'm mining for fun, but I'm mostly out of the hashrate race; especially with the new ASICs coming out every other month for new algos, GPU mining is not a profitable option.