I started researching on cryptocoins in 2013. You can do your research and find my earliest post here on this forum March, 2013. So feel free to call me that "early adopter" guy. I have been through it all: earning litecoins, bitcoins, terracoins, peer2peercoins by mining, buying them, investing them and losing them all.
Yes, correct. I lost all my bitcoins in various scams and by making dumb decisions. Some vanished @ havelockinvestments (anybody recall that?), some @bitfunder and ukyoloan, some bitcoins I lost because my harddrive crashed and some bitcoins were stolen (s.b. who bought them paid with a stolen credit card and the money was frozen on my account) or the btc went away with the breakdown of MtGox and btc-e. So you can also call me that "cryptolooser" guy.
I started mining projects, even showed people how to set up a miner on youtube ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaY4F9zQsSQ & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOcbjJjJrUg ) in 2013.
All this happened to me but I did not lose my trust in cryptocurrencies! But I lost my trust in bitcoin. And here is my reasons why:
#1 Reason: transaction fees & transfers
Bitcoin is the most expensive coin to transfer and sometimes transfers take ages. So when I go to a store and tell them "hey, I want to buy that pizza with my bitcoin!" and they answer: "no problem, that'll be 6 USD$ + 12 USD$ transaction fees and you will have to wait till tomorrow", then there is no practical use to it. More examples? Here you go: I once wanted to exchange my bitcoin to some altcoin only available on a new exchange market. So I had to register, authenticate and started my transaction. After 2 days, the new altcoin was up 200%(!) and my bitcoin still did not arrive.
#2 Reason: huuuuuuuge blockchain
So my father one day asked me how he can join the cryptocurrency movement and I told him: "just download a wallet and you are ready to go!". Sounded easy to him, but then he realized that he has to download something called "blockchain" until he can start working with it. He did not know that it will take him 2 days to download it and that there might be some more problems that "prevent" him from using the bitcoin like the question where to easily buy it.
#3 Reason: new altcoin = switch
I really like progression and the new altcoins like ripple, tron, "add any new coin name here" show, that there is some great ideas out there and with lower fees, faster transactions and more and more acceptance towards national institutions and banks, people will start to switch to these coins, so the base to support bitcoins will get thinner and thinner and lose its attraction. Do the math: why should somebody support bitcoin, when there is the danger of prohibition and regulation + all the things mentioned above. Sure, bitcoin has its fanbase (and I am and will always be a fan of the concept of bitcoin) BUT not the whole world is made of fanboys and speculation on bitcoin is not that lucrative anymore than speculation on new arriving cryptocoins like ripple, tron, etc. And you can really make money by just switching to new arriving coins, because in the beginning nearly all altcoins are starting very well and you can make lots of profit.
not fast to use, lots of scams
I have been through many scams in the bitcoin world and I am sure I will encounter more of them in the future. Reliable exchange markets have either closed their doors to new registrations or they have very long lasting authentification processes that may take ages (at least weeks to months). Sometimes they even forget about you (like my ticket to bitcoin.de is pending for 3 weeks now and I was not able to sell 0.1 bitcoins when 1 bitcoin was at 20.000 USD$, because I was not able to login anymore). This is not making any fun. Just think of your bitcoin being deposited on some exchange market and you can't login anymore to sell high because there is a) some hacker attack going on b) too many users online or c) they just don't want you to do so.
this is only SOME reasons why bitcoin is not my favorite anymore and why I decided to switch to other cryptocurrencies. This and the pending prohibition by banks and institutions in the asian markets and maybe in europe and USA, too. Sure, they can't take down bitcoin and the bitcoin network BUT they can decide to close markets, exchanges and brokers - and without them, there is no chance to participate anymore.
I want to state clearly that all this is my point of view and my personal subjective view. And that I want to read your opinion on it. This is a forum and I would be glad to hear your personal story and beliefs.