Alternate cryptocurrencies that do no depart from the BTC model in any significant way are a plague.
I'm being a bit of a hypocrite, since I own/mine some LTC...but hey, a guy's gotta eat. Still, I know that bytecoin, terracoin, litecoin, etc are not good steps. They are copycat currencies made and propagated by people who want a get rich quick ticket (I know, I have the same mentality in regards to LTC).
Ultimately, the argument that a currency is more fair falls flat. Adoption and reliability are the only two real measures of a currency's value.
TL;DR
Bytecoin is not better than Bitcoin. You MIGHT make money by mining it, you WILL hurt the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
I will say that my limited understanding of the cryptocurrencies has led me to believe that PPCoin may be the only one that is different from BTC in a meaningful way.
I'm being a bit of a hypocrite, since I own/mine some LTC...but hey, a guy's gotta eat. Still, I know that bytecoin, terracoin, litecoin, etc are not good steps. They are copycat currencies made and propagated by people who want a get rich quick ticket (I know, I have the same mentality in regards to LTC).
Ultimately, the argument that a currency is more fair falls flat. Adoption and reliability are the only two real measures of a currency's value.
TL;DR
Bytecoin is not better than Bitcoin. You MIGHT make money by mining it, you WILL hurt the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
I will say that my limited understanding of the cryptocurrencies has led me to believe that PPCoin may be the only one that is different from BTC in a meaningful way.
This point is moot. Gold and silver were traded side by side for thousands of years by all manner of civilizations for the same uses. Fiat currencies are essentially the same and yet competition is healthier (case in point, the EURO) than a single world currency would be.
That being said Bytecoin had a gravy boat in the first 24 hours before the difficulty started jumping up quickly and if you took part in mining during that period then you're sitting on tens of thousands of them. It is no fairer than the other crypto's.
Infact I would argue that during the early days of Bitcoin, very few were aware of the significant value it would have one day (ie. the pizza thread). Owners of new crypto currencies are very shy at parting with them because of the potential value as opposed to real value, which has been seen in a real-world relation that is the $150 price tag of Bitcoin. If you want a "fairer" currency than Bitcoin then you're not going to get it the way that currencies like Bytecoin are being rolled out. The first adopters (ie. within 24 hours) of these new currencies will hold onto them much longer than the first adopters of Bitcoin did, and you're going to have problems later on because of that.
