Could anyone point me to some reading regarding the differences between these types of coins? Why do there seem to be so many? Is it just a speculation mechanism giving people the opportunity to make some bitcoins a bit faster? (e.g. low hash rates paying more blocks out for alt coins which could potentially get pumped in value to something comparable to bitcoin? [at least for a time])
Trading is zero sum game, some loose, some profit. Altcoins are just speculation, and if you have coding experience you can modify the open source code a bit and add your own altcoin to the altcoin zoo
