I bought altcoins back then thinking hey if btc goes up, altcoins will go up more.
They do, just not all alts. If you pick the right one, it will go up more than BTC. If you go with any coin other than BTC, you are increasing your risk. The biggest profits come with tiny low cap coins, but these also have huge risk. I have a good proportion in BTC, then another big percentage split amongst various high cap alt, then the rest in more speculative coins. Everyone has differnet risk/rewards tolerances I suppose, so go with whatever balance feels right. I just don't want to be all in one coin, even if that coin is BTC.
what about bitcoin cash? Or say bitcoin sv or bitcoin gold?
Pointless shitcoin forks whose only value is in speculation. I couldn't see the point of them when they started, and I can't now. Personal opinion obviously
I heard ripple is centralized so can't imagine it being the standard.
Standard for what though? Crypto has many use cases across the whole economy and all of society. Nothing is better placed than XRP for becoming the standard for fast, cheap international banking. I feel strongly that it will become the standard in this particular sector.
I mean if there were only 3 coins left... what would that list have to be? I would figure its bitcoin, bitcoin cash and litecoin. If i had to include a few more, probably ETH and Dash.
The many use cases argument again. One of the biggest possibilites for crypto is smart contracts. ETH or something like it can transform society and bring in automation where a few years ago no-one thought it possible. And then what about IoT coins? 5G is coming in now, and IoT will only get bigger. BTC is a great coin, but it's not the answer to everything.