Topic: The biggest differences between Bitcoin and altcoins? (Read 337 times)

Bitcoin is actually superior to digital gold, which actually is a different thing. There are companies that offer literally digital gold, as in, you can buy a certain amount of gold, and they take care of it for you. That way you don't have to deal with the physical problems of gold.

Of course, you have to trust that they actually hold that amount of gold for you.

But Bitcoin is different. You don't have to trust anyone, you can verify if the amount of Bitcoin you bought is under your control.

Bitcoin provides proof, whereas any other system like digital gold doesn't, or require trust in a third party. Big difference.

Bitcoin is a digital gold standard and a store of value while Altcoin is to provide cases upon Bitcoin design

“Bitcoin Survives on Values and Belief”

Many questions arise about Bitcoin’s future:
“What gives Bitcoin value?”
“Will miners abandon Bitcoin after 2140?”
“Will altcoins replace Bitcoin?”

But the real question no one is asking is:
What was Bitcoin’s true purpose, and are we still staying true to it?

“Value, Demand, and Evolution”

Bitcoin is more than just technology—it is a digital expression of values.
Gold is valuable because people believe in its scarcity. Bitcoin, on the other hand, represents decentralization, immutability, and an alternative financial system.

Some worry that miners will abandon Bitcoin when block rewards run out in 2140. But economies evolve, they don’t disappear. Email was once free, yet businesses were built around it. Similarly, Bitcoin will adapt and sustain itself through transaction fees and market demand.

“Bitcoin vs. Altcoins – Can You Copy Principles?”

Many think altcoins will replace Bitcoin. But the real question is:
Are you investing in technology, or in principles?

You can copy Bitcoin’s code, but you can’t copy its decentralization, security, or the trust of its community. If an altcoin can change its rules at will, it can never truly uphold the principles of scarcity and immutability.

“Psychological Perspective: Fear and Doubt vs. Belief”

Every revolutionary technology faces doubt and fear. Early banking systems, internet payments, even automobiles—each was criticized before being widely accepted. But technology is not controlled; it is merely adopted and refined.

Bitcoin’s success should not be measured by its market price or technical features.
It should be measured by the number of people who need financial freedom.

If Bitcoin ever fails, it won’t be because of regulations or technological flaws.
It will be because people failed to understand and protect it.

“Bitcoin Will Survive – But How?”

Bitcoin has no ruler, no single point of failure, and no one can stop it—except neglect.
If you want Bitcoin to survive, then own it, understand it, and educate others about it.

“Bitcoin’s greatest threat is not regulation or technology—it is forgetfulness. If people forget why it exists, it will be replaced by more convenient but centralized systems.”


Final Thought:
“Bitcoin is not just a currency. It is a system that gives people the right to choose. As long as people believe in it, no one can stop it.”

I guess this explains why, Bitcoin has over the years be way ahead, standing the test of time.
Whilst altcoins can move up and down in quick succession, Bitcoin trends are somewhat reliable.

The one biggest difference between bitcoin and altcoins is that you can recreate altcoins, but you cannot recreate digital scarcity. It can only be invented once. Nobody would rather have a replica of sound money, apart from speculation, with the hope that they can have more of that sound money in the future.

You can have an abundance of altcoins, but you can only have 21 million bitcoins.

Yep, some good thoughts here, agree!

I get your point Bitcoin and altcoins is really different even though they were both a cryptocurrencies, there was a huge difference on Bitcoin compared to other it almost like it was on a different category, even on the market it has a different movement, price etc. Bitoin production is mostly on Bitcoin, it is being made on mining, unlike other altcoins in the market but there are still some altcoins that have limited supply as well, and there are some that also involve mining you could just see most of the layer 1 or layer 2. Networks are also doing some kind of mining.  

It's kinda easy to say, but it wasn't really that easy to do, maybe on meme tokens mostly since there were no utilities some guy could easily just create it and dump it on other and earn a huge amount of money, but it is going to work everytime? not really unless someone is going to buy your token, your not going to dump anything if there was no liquidity. So if you see some kid getting 20k$ on meme token it involved some kind of luck ofcourse.

Bitcoin for sure is the best cryptocurrency and probably everybody is going to agree with that, but altcoins is already here and there were nothing we could do about that, I mean a lot of altcoins have a huge utility and actually solve some kind of problem that is actually useful, so I dont really think they are all scam, or ponzi. We all made a profit on altcoins at some point.

That's what I usually tell people particularly newbie investors that you just can't lose in investing in bitcoin except you are not that patient with your investment aside being none knowledgeable about bitcoin.  It's weird to know that there are persons that can risk holding an altcoin for a long time than directing such funds to BTC where the profit for hodling is guaranteed and worthwhile.

If you can't adhere to hodl for a long span then btc isn't for you. Bitcoin investment unlike altcoins is a project that demands patience. But the impatience of some investors is what drives them to gamble their money with altcoins especially those filled with market hype.

You sounded like someone who hates anything related to altcoins. I do too but the fact remains, people love it because it's the fastest way for people to make money from the market and the truth remain not everyone will want to buy Bitcoin but fun fact, nobody hate Bitcoin and that's okay. You can hate altcoins but people who see what you don't see will eventually buy it and hold it, beside even as they are garbage people profit from it and all good.

The difference I was expecting, you never pointed it out, Bitcoin isn't altcoin and altcoins can't never be like Bitcoin, the level of trust in Bitcoin supercedes every other altcoins combine, Bitcoin is too trusted and that's why you see institutional guys all buying the ones they can see around but at the same time, the same altcoins you call garbage are other coins institutional investors has diversify their portfolio into and they are all doing good, what is good got goose is also good for the gander.

Yes, realistically speaking, anyone that have lost some money through Bitcoin, it could be that they were scammed or they never had a proper knowledge about Bitcoin before they invested, which lead them to sell off so quickly even before they could make profit. Apart from that, anyone that have invested into Bitcoin and hold it securely for a long term, they would make profit, whereas when you invest into some altcoins for a long time, you might just wake up to see that your capital have deprecated so badly and may never appreciate again.

Agreed. It all boils down to preferences and the key features a person is looking for, especially if it's for the business or a project of his own, he would definitely look for a chain with transactions cheaper than on BTC or if he is going full privacy mode, Monero would be his solution.
Nothing wrong with picking something different, but it should be noted why and why not.

I can imagine that, but unfortunately I don't work in the US Federal Reserve and I don't have access to the money printing machine.


I can see that you have some ideas about how to name several new memecoins, that might be launched on Pump.Fun.

Jokes aside, maybe you should learn more about Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake protocols.
OP, you have a Member forum rank. This means that you are not a total newbie. Please don't post forum threads about topics, that have been discussed a million times on the forum. The topic about the difference between BTC and altcoins has been discussed a million times before. You don't add anything new to the discussion. The argument about "Bitcoin having scarcity, while altcoins can be created out of thin air" has been repeated a million times.

The biggest difference Bitcoin is decentralized while altcoins are mostly centralized.

From decentralization and centralization, it can affect the whole thing.

Nope.

If someone choose cryptocurrency based on privacy preference, Monero is better than Bitcoin.

If someone choose cryptocurrency based on cheap fees and fast transaction, Nano is better than Bitcoin.

But, based on overall preference, definitely Bitcoin wins.

To be honest, it is not a problem because there are many people who might have a different view and in essence everyone wants wealth in any way they do. Apart from whatever scheme we mean, but if you want a little more honest the presence of the coin that you mention is a step to make crypto even greater like now. This industry will not develop if only Bitcoin is the only one that exists and I am sure it will not show the greatness as we see today.

But in a simpler case I agree that Bitcoin is one of the more relevant innovations and may not be able to match its perfection. Maybe it takes more but we will see one of the best of the development of Bitcoin who has been towards rapid progress as it is now.

Exactly right.

As I mentioned before, if you simply ask "why are they not using Bitcoin?" to any of these "projects" you immediately get the answer. It's because they want your Bitcoin for their shitcoin. They know that Bitcoin is more valuable, and they are happy to trade their worthless token for it.

It has happened multiple times, for example here in the forum when Vitalik launched Ethereum. You can see that they started selling their altcoin right away. No proof of work like Bitcoin, just selling air.

It shows that they're not completely useless if gotten through those means, since they can be converted to Bitcoin which is a better Cryptocurrency when it comes to investment purpose, the mistake people make is trying to see them as a store of value and hold for a longer period to get profits, they'll definitely point the middle finger at you anddump before you'll know it.

 Instead of using my hard earned money to risk on this coins and regret later, I'll rather get them through airdrops and swap or convert to Bitcoin, it's another cool way of adding to ones portfolio; i mean for those holding Bitcoin, their are some risks that are meant to be avoided and some that are worth it, buying Bitcoin is that risk that's worth every penny.

Just checked your signature lol

I completely (or at least partially agree), can only add that you can sybil shitcoin networks to get a shitcoin airdrop, and then swap the shitcoin for BTC on a CEX.

This is true.

At the end of the day, Bitcoin is basically a protocol. Like email, or FTP, but for money.

How great is that?, I think many people around the world still don't grasp this concept and treat Bitcoin as a regular ticker on the stock market...

The thing is that email will never go away, and by the same logic, Bitcoin will never go away.

All those other altcoins will fade to obscurity, like many companies. But Bitcoin, email, etc, will continue.

Bitcoin is the only crypto that has true decentralization, which simply means that there are no founders, no executive team or CEO at the top controlling it like you have with all the shitcoins. There are currently more than 100,000 bitcoin nodes spread all across the world, each controlled by independent persons who have no affiliation with one another. In addition, there are over 1 million unique individuals mining bitcoin throughout the world. Which makes bitcoin the most decentralized protocol by far and it's not even close. The bitcoin computer network is more powerful then all the magnificent seven tech companies (Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, etc) put together.

A person or a CEO that is controlling your money, is always tempted to embezzle or pilfer it from you in various ways. Unless the CEO happens to be your close trusted personal friend or relative, they are almost guaranteed to do. Unfortunately that is human nature. The large amounts of money involved is just too tempting not to take advantage of. Think of someone like Elon Musk and all the crazy shenanigans that goes on with his companies. To me Tesla stock is just another shitcoin. Like altcoins, stocks are highly manipulated by insider trading, by those who can issue new shares out of thin air at anytime to dump onto the market, which dilutes the value of your holdings.

But with bitcoin you don't have to trust anyone because no one controls it. That is what makes bitcoin so special, and a truly revolutionary idea.

There are hundreds of differences between Bitcoin and altcoins, especially Bitcoin, which is decentralized, has limited supply, high liquidity, high amounts of investors, and requires huge amounts of time and money to mine. Altcoins are centralized, have high supply, are controlled by third parties, have low liquidity, have limited investors, and can be easily mined or increased in supply.