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- Alts work like a testnet for bitcoins (looking forward seeing Litecoin with SegWit)
- Once an alt feature looks working it might get adopted no matter onchain or in a side chain. (RSK)
- Alts mostly need bitcoin to trade and some bitcoins might be always reserved / locked for this.
- Alts might help to generate a closed bitcoin economy
My favorit comes here:
- Alts work like an infinite fear generator (Hydra) against any try of regulators to bring bitcoin down, since there are too many to kill and its very easy to just create a new one (like a Hydra cannot be killed by chopping off some heads, even the biggest one!) > crypto world is anti fragile and it will stay on this solar system from year 2009 on.
Any other things missing here?
Alts work as a sandboxes to experiment out new concepts and theories.
Once they are found workable, they will be transferred to the Bitcoin-Blockchain mainframe.
Thereafter the alts will be phased out, ignored, and left to die (along the way price will be pumped up and down to slaughter gullible traders).
Alts also function as distraction to the gullible to trade on, with the false hope that they will strike it rich (those who are rich are the insiders).
Governments will not ban Bitcoin for long as their decision to ban is just a temporary drama to create confusion and suspense.
When the time comes for the emergence of the Phoenix currency, governments around the world one by one will adopt Bitcoin.
Edit:
Not to forget, altcoins are also used to 1) get rich quick by the insiders and 2) spread adoption and awareness of cryptocurrencies.