They do have a positive impact on BitCoin, making more people interested in BitCoin because of AltCoins.
Still, BitCoin is the gold
again, this is WRONG.
altcoins can not make more people interested in bitcoin because someone who doesn't know about bitcoin doesn't know about altcoins at all.
do some research if you don't believe me. go ask some random people "do you know what bitcoin is" then ask them "do you know what XXX is?" {replace XXX with your favorite altcoin that you think has an impact on bitcoin} then you realize what i mean.
besides with the scandals that these altcoins have like the recent hack of ethereum it is better that people don't know about them first because that is more harmful than beneficial.
Well altcoin drives me to have interest in Bitcoin. And maybe I am one of those few that were introduced to Bitcoin world by an altcoin. this two i think, in altcoin side, goes side by side. In all exchange, altcoin are paired with BTC. And BTC without altcoin maybe have less supporters like me
. Oh btw, there are people here who doesnt know about Bitcoin that much but pretty much knowledgable about an altcoin. It's all about promotion if you ask me. And that Altcoin - BTC pair in all exchanges pretty much say that altcoins plays a big role in promoting BTC.