Topic: Best arguments to make your friends understand that altcoins are not good (Read 292 times)

Also, not all altcoins are scams, there are many altcoins that bring significant returns and are worth speculating on in the short and medium term for profit.


I also never give investment advice on altcoins because the risks involved and everyone's investment appetite is different but I don't see any problem if they are thinking of investing in them. Because at the end of the day, as long as they make a profit, there is nothing wrong with them investing in altcoins or whatever investment they make. It's their money and they have the right to do whatever they want as long as they know what they're doing.


If we cannot guarantee or take responsibility for someone, do not force or order others to do what we think.

Bitcoin, the only investment with low risk and high return profile right now.

I often heard a quote like this "invest in gold, you will never be in loss."

But this time, that quote should be for Bitcoin.

I think most of people are like that, they want to make money faster by buying altcoins and then the profit they use to accumulate Bitcoin. But, some people that I heard regret with that strategy because the profit they made from trading altcoins is smaller than just holding Bitcoin.

Yeah, with the recent price surge of Bitcoin, some people that criticized it have been disappointed and Bitcoin is already making name for it self. Anyone that doesn't see Bitcoin for its capabilities is yet living in the dark because already the US new president have plans of keeping some Bitcoin as federal Reserve and the fact that Bitcoin ETF is also live and so many other big firms stacking up more Bitcoin, we should know that the price will still get to $500k sooner or later.

Although I fully support people investing in Bitcoin but when they also invest in altcoins, it does not mean that I forbid them. Because this is what we call investment with upholding freedom. People have the right to put their money in altcoins and make a profit, but after that they use the profit from altcoins to buy more bitcoins. So sometimes the point of view that gives people a perspective on investment cannot be determined arbitrarily. As long as you can do research and make a profit in altcoins, go ahead. Your job is to educate others about the benefits of bitcoin, not to dictate to others what decisions to make.

Instead of trying to convince or argue with them, why don't you prove yourself by producing better results than them? Because when it comes to investing, profit is definitely the last thing people care about, no one cares about our plans and strategies.
So let them invest in altcoin and you invest in bitcoin, whoever makes more profit is right instead of wasting time arguing with each other. Because everyone has a big ego and trying to convince or impose your thoughts on others is never a wise idea.

Just don't argue with them, let them face the harsh reality that bitcoin is more better than any of those hype altcoins they discover. Since its nonsense to argue with them and teach them what's best for them if they are not really accepting any side comments that you want to point out with them. For now they see those altcoins as great since they are been blinded with those hoax they read somewhere else.

But if they experience to lose their money and see for their selves that what they expect from those altcoins didn't come up for sure they might be careful on their next investment approach.

If you are still seeking for good articles that can make them realize that Bitcoin is better than altcoins you can find a lot of articles in google will write samples below.

https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/research-and-insights/bitcoin-vs-altcoinsa-5-step-guide

https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/investing/what-is-altcoin

For podcast I think you need to watch this from Michael Saylor itself, he explains the difference between bitcoin and altcoin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VgrmNZ40qI

When I discussed Bitcoin with my friends, they all got a good idea about Bitcoin. I told my friends that there is no coin more popular than Bitcoin in cryptocurrency. I told them that Bitcoin is the king of all coins, no other coin compares to Bitcoin. Those who have listened to my advice or my words are all with Bitcoin and those who have not listened to me have found proof for themselves by holding Altcoins instead of Bitcoin. If we look at the current market, it can be seen that Bitcoin has increased the most, except for some Altcoins, other coins have not increased their prices with Bitcoin, most of them are far behind. So if you analyze the current market for friends who do not like Bitcoin but like Altcoins, they will understand that Altcoins are not good.

It can also end up being a big trouble due to many Altcoins changing.  Migrations, Hacks and what not, chances are you are going to end up forgetting to take action when necessary and can possibly end up losing your Coins.  This is something that never happened to Bitcoin.  Even if we now have more Secure Addresses than we used to, Bitcoin still stored on old Addresses can still be transferred to the more Secure ones.

Unless you hold only a bunch of Altcoins and Bitcoin, it can become very troublesome.

yeah altcoin is an arena for people who have lesser capital to grow their capital, some even say that altcoin is specifically for people who want to grow their BTC holdings through investing and convert the profit back to BTC.

personally I also find giving advice to people who are so hellbent on investing in alt as a waste of time, because I personally invest in alt as well but I know the risk and I think for OP instead of trying to argue with OP's friend about not investing in altcoin, it's better if he can just explain the risk of investing in alt, definitely can help better.

also occasionally giving heads up about the friend getting FOMO'd might help.

You do not need to convince anything to them.

Let them think and invest according to their information. Because, if you try to influence their investment decision, it can affect your friendship.

Personally, I feel that both bitcoin and altcoins have own merits and demerits. They can however coexist together like they had been doing for last 10 years. One should stick to what works best for him.

I very much agree with what @headingnorth already wrote. Altcoins aren't bad per se, but you should really understand what you're investing in. I'm not against altcoins but I think for conservative-leaning or inexperienced investors Bitcoin is much better.

Here's a list of arguments I know which hint to a superiority of Bitcoin versus most (>90%) of all altcoins:

1) PoW/PoS Security: In the case of PoW altcoins, the difference in security between Bitcoin and even its nearest competitor (Litecoin/Dogecoin, which are merged mined, so they are "symbiotic" in some way) is already very big (factor 50). In the case of PoS, the model is not 100% proven and is perhaps vulnerable to identity theft-based attacks due to its "weak subjectivity" approach (the "ask a friend for the best chain" principle).

2) Human mind: There will not be 100+ altcoins with a similar adoption level than Bitcoin, because there will always be less than 10 recognized by the common human being, due to limitations of our memory. No one can remember 100 different brands of the same product (or very few people can).

3) Lack of long-term growth: There are only two altcoins, Ethereum and Ripple (XRP), which had a long term growth similar in the order of magnitude than Bitcoin. Both have centralization problems. Litecoin and Monero are two examples of relatively successful altcoins which are even older, but their ROI (e.g. if we compare the price 2015 and 2024) was much lower than Bitcoin's. Most altcoins tend instead to lose steam after a few years of growth and then end up as almost dead low-caps (examples: BitShares, NEM, Nxt ...).

4) Centralization: Linked to the first argument. 90% of all altcoins are premined, enabling the founders to manipulate its consensus in many cases (e.g. threatening to sell if they don't like an upgrade by an independent developer).

5) Risk of technobabble scams: In the case of smaller altcoins, many try to sell their "technology" aggressively as something groundbreaking, but the fact is that there have been only few real technological breakthroughs in the altcoin sector (examples being XRP, Grin and perhaps Ethereum). The problem with "AI coins" which don't need blockchains to work, which was already mentioned in the thread, is related to that issue.

6) Most altcoins don't solve real-world problems: Even Ethereum struggles to justify its smart contract feature. There are very few killer apps, most of the dApp stuff is DeFi circlejerk aimed to traders ("trade a DEX token on another DEX" ). Tokens and even simple DEXes can also be realized with Bitcoin Script.

If your friend want to take profit by investing in altcoins in short term, you do not have to discourage them since altcoin can indeed surpass the percentage of profit Bitcoin offers in a short term investment but rather remind them to do their deep research about their investment.  Also remind them to cash out when profit is seen or when their target price is met and don't be greedy bagholding much altcoin waiting for it to be at the price like Bitcoin.

There are altcoins that can give investors huge profit in short period of time although we can't deny the fact that many of these altcoins are scams.  Here is a scenario that your friend might blame you for stopping him to invest in altcoins

Like for example Grass, it was trading @ $0.67 more than a month ago and peaked at $3.89 a month after that, if your friend happen to asked your opinion about investing in that altcoin during its lowest price and you happen to told him not to and a month later the price peaked at $3.89  wouldn't he blame you for telling him not to? What I am trying to say is just tell him the advantage and disadvantage of investing in altcoin and investing in Bitcoin, let your friend do the thinking for himself.

Maybe this articles can help you explain things more clearly to your friend:

https://tiomarkets.com/article/bitcoin-vs-altcoins-diversifying-your-crypto-portfolio
https://zebpay.com/blog/bitcoin-vs-altcoins-comparison

I used to defend Bitcoin that it's not a scam if I was around people that were not into cryptocurrency and talked down on Bitcoin. I also defend it when I'm in the midst of those that are into cryptocurrency but prefers altcoins for different reasons. Frankly it got me nowhere, most people will argue and defend what they think is right, until they learn from experience, so with my experience now I don't get into arguments anymore, I can only discuss Bitcoin with people that I feel that they share the same interest. I wouldn't blame people who are still skeptical about Bitcoin because I was like them, I thought that Bitcoin was a Ponzi scheme when it was created.

Bitcoin is a store of value and it's awareness and adoption is increasing everyday, so it's making a name for itself. It's not all altcoins that are scams, but you have to DYOR before you buy.

They need to see the possibilities of BTC - both profit-wise and not in that regard.
Only then they would choose it over alts.

People don't care with decentralization and security, so I find it's hard to make an argument when they're not care about that.

They're looking to make money, which is a fair reason why they shift from Bitcoin to altcoins. They actually can make money with Bitcoin by trading futures with huge margin, but it might be not their choice.

They may find predicting unknown coins is easier than predict Bitcoin price in short interval.

This.
I dig this approach. Nobody should be forced to invest or believe in something - rather, they should come into that territory instead and make their own conclusions on what happened.

Giving financial advice is always challenging and headish too. I very agree with you, that don't give any financial advice is better because people mostly won't feel that your advice is helpful if it helps them to avoid loss. They mainly care about whether your advice helps them to gain big profit or not.

If your advice causes to profit missing because you prioritize safety and against "high risk, high gain", they will not feel happy with your advice. Very few people value your advice to help them secure their fund.

If you're not giving such advice professionally, my advice is to not give it at all - because why would you convince someone that option A is better than option B or C? What can happen to you (and probably will) is that some of the altcoins you claim are scams will have a maga pump at some point and then your friends will tell you that you financially damaged them with your advice.

People invest in alts because they want a much higher profit than they can expect from investing in BTC, because today who is satisfied with x2 or x3 when they know there is a possibility to get x50, x100 or x1000?

Proving Bitcoin is superior to altcoin is simple, just show your friend the market cap, I think that should be enough. However, if your friend insist on buying some altcoins then you don't need to try real hard to prevent it. Bitcoin is definitely a lot safer than altcoins, but buying small amount of altcoin for diversification on a project that he truly believe is not all bad, the only thing you should do is  warn your friend that with altcoin he should be ready to lose all of his money instantly, overnight, if the project turns out to be a failure or the team actually is a bunch of scammesr who finally decided to rug pull. My point is that 'his money his choice' you shouldn't feel worry too much.

simple: because they’re alternatives

Bitcoin is established and seen as the trusted reliable friend of investors. we already know that bitcoin exists and works so why go seek out others? if other people want to use other altcoins it is only a small amount of the overall amount of investors out there because no one wants to invest in something unknown and risky

so in terms of value, altcoins do find it difficult to reach bitcoin’s level or even come close to but i wouldn’t agree that altcoins are just mostly scams maybe memecoins but not altcoins some may even argue that they like a certain altcoin/s more than bitcoin maybe because of a specific use case