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.

there are many differences between bitcoin and altcoin, but the most basic is that bitcoin has a limited supply, is decentralized, and is much more secure than altcoin. this difference makes bitcoin much more trustworthy than altcoin-- and it makes why you will never see people lose badly because of being scammed by bitcoin... while with altcoin you have seen how much loss is caused by altcoin scams, and it makes why people who invest their money in altcoins should really see the risk of the altcoin they invest in, because it could be a scam.

It is not possible to accurately describe the difference between Bitcoin and "altcoins" as a single topic. The code for BCH, for example, is extremely similar having been created by a fork of the same code base. The reputation and perceived value, compared to Bitcoin, are dramatically different. XRP (Ripple) has code which is radically different, and is centralized by a massive 100% initial premine. Somehow their reputation among the corrupt bankers has been growing stronger recently.

SOL and Tron, for example, try to compete with ETH as a platform for creating endless more tokens and you can easily start to see why some people passionately dislike all altcoins.

Bitcoin used to be way easier to mine, so it's not a difference that was always relevant. Right now, I'd say I agree about mining difficulty and the amount of resources it takes to create Bitcoin. But I'd also say what makes it different is that it's older than other coins (and thus was way more novel than altcoins are compared to Bitcoin), it's more well-known and more respected in institutional investment circles. Bitcoin is also more universally applicable than many other altcoins which were created for specific purposes as tokens.

Altcoins are centralized and can be manipulated by the dev but bitcoin is decentralized and open source with the most efficient and secured network. Bitcoin is limited in supply and the halving event makes it very unique because it reduces the miners reward and that will make the demand to be high with lower supply. Bitcoin is a store of value.

Altcoins don't have that much.. you know. Ideals in them.
Mostly, they even can't offer a good utility - although we don't need to say that about all of them.
And if a person says SOL or ETH or big caps are garbage - that's a big statement to say the least, because they propelled their appropriate niches much and much forward.

Many scam projects that have taken from their investors as much more than they have given. Generally, in the altcoins market a huge number of those in it have lost so much compared to the few that claim to have made some profits making the rounds that altcoins had made many people millionaires overnight, a number partly made up of the core developers. But has made many investors rich than any altcoin, comparing bitcoin to altcoins is like making comparison between gold and bronze.

Well something most people dont comment on is the face that Bitcoin has no "Board of management"
no select few sitting at the table reporting to the leader/CEO etc. [Decentralised]

Altcoins bar a few all have a creator/owner/CEO/leader who is directing the operations of said Altcoin,
they can decide to simply create more of any altcoin and can decide and control any aspect of the
coins development and direction with the sole goal of turning a profit.

Altcoins can be traded with Bitcoin in an attempt to earn more crypto. You are in an exchange market competition against other traders where a small % of skilled traders win long term and most other people lose. This exciting competition helps identify the rare altcoins with long-term value and utility based on unique features which Bitcoin lacks. People who hate all altcoins frequently have a blind rage which is similar to racism against other humans, since they fail to see some things cannot be done with Bitcoin alone.

I don't find it funny that altcoins create large supplies and use buyback and burn strategies. This is even a great strategy and BNB is the pioneer of this idea to create scarcity and helping their token increase in value.

The biggest difference between bitcoin and altcoins is: satoshi did not create bitcoin with the intention of turning it into a business or investment tool to make a profit. He simply wanted to create a peer-to-peer currency with a finite supply to overcome the shortcomings of fiat. Meanwhile, altcoins are created for business purposes, profits...It can be said that the purpose of both is not the same so the comparison is also lame.

Different between bitcoin and altcoin are many but few to mention.
Now let me start by saying that, bitcoin is the first and the largest cryptocurrency.
Secondly bitcoin has a wide adoption,high liquidity,high security and has a limited supply.
On the other hand altcoin,is an alternative cryptocurrency,with a variable supply,smaller user base,low liquidity and different features and use case.

About fixed supply of altcoins, I want to say one funny fact about them.

Like BNB, they created the token with mass total supply, then they do buy back and burn program, to reduce their token circulating supply. It's quite funny that buy back and burn program is used to create hype and they can do a more easier way, create token with smaller total supply.

Do you see their intentional plan by doing these steps?
If create initial mass supply works, token has very high price, they would be very rich. If it works like this, they will not do any buy back and burn program.

Many of these Altcoins having fixed supplies actually do think it’s all about fixed supply, yes I can say one of the many characteristics of bitcoin blockchain having so much attraction is the supply been fixed as such after mining ends the scarcity which has made some precious metals valuable also will have it to be valuable and pricey. But it is not all about having the fixed supply that creates demand. Demand is actually created through the chain’s utility, bitcoin offers so much utility for been used everyday like been a digital solution to financial crisis through peer to peer transactions. Most of these Altcoins with such fixed supplies do not actually have any utility as such the fixed supply isn’t enough to create any utility.

The only few Altcoins that even get little attention have been those trying to scale the network by making transactions faster and cheaper than bitcoin but still due to some not having a truly decentralized network many do not go for them too, which makes bitcoin clears above them all

Some altcoins like litecoin and BNB have fixed supply, but why people don't trust them like Bitcoin is because they can hold larger percentage of the coins for themselves and declare another for the public. Only Bitcoin is very transparent and this is why altcoins are still struggling to match up with the standard Bitcoin has set. Bitcoin is the foundation cryptocurrency and this is the key difference between Bitcoin and altcoins. Altcoins look up to it for growth and improvement.

The problem in the space right now is that, there are just so many scam project in the market, else, some altcoins made some people to earn millions of dollars on their investment too. Bitcoin have it's unique properties, not to be compared with altcoins because it is already a stepping stone for those other altcoins out there.

why altcoins do not want to hype up bitcoin any more is because they want to replace bitcoin they do not want to work with bitcoin they want to work against bitcoin you will notice that a lot of projects tend to promote their altcoins like it is the new bitcoin or it is better than bitcoin when in reality it is not even anywhere close

bitcoin will always be superior to altcoins no matter what your preference is you can buy and use altcoins but always approach with risk

caveat being they follow core as a reference client
bitcoiners cant defend against core issues by using the other brands, if the other brands just blindly copy code changes across from core.. so we need to ensure core dont overstep

also when core make a significant change but the other brands dont blindly copy the change, forks can happen where the other brand is treated as an altcoin, due to core dominance treating core as the sole/central brand of bitcoin('core' name is not coincidence, its the core for a reason)

the other brands are only 'independent' in regards to the aesthetics of the GUI, they have no dominance/power to make their own proposals

Correct, satoshi released the original software, which was simply called Bitcoin.


There's at least 4 other independent Bitcoin clients that do not create a fork that could be used instead:

https://github.com/bitcoinknots/bitcoin

https://github.com/btcsuite/btcd

https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-node

https://github.com/bitcoinj/bitcoinj

satoshi NEVER worked on bitcoin core. .. core is a brand that came about by colluding devs in 2014 creating the brand in 2014, long after satoshis disappearance
also one dev of core can leave without causing big effect. but if all the colluding devs messed up or left, then there would be issues as its the sole 'reference client' for upgrades and protocol changes..  thus would affect 99% of everyone should an issue arise. and yes core are centralised once you look at the devs funding background and their colleague/partnership interactions. they do not act as independent devs, but a collective

we should not just cower down and give blind loyalty/obedience to core as gods/governors of bitcoin, even if thats how they act. we should remain vigilant and scrutinise and peer review them to ensure their decisions do not cross the line.

too many people have just let core take control and cross the line many times of whats best for bitcoin, people whom have become defensive loyalists of core devs.. there have even been events including their sponsored actions to enforce their roadmap proceeds as planned, even when the greater bitcoin community have asked for other options

dont fear scrutinising core devs, dont fear peer reviewing them, dont fear criticising them. its the only way to limit how much they get to control

and dont confuse the allowance of core devs whom let smaller coders to bug test, grammar check code/translations via push requests VS the core devs with github force-merge/commit privileges

its like saying a newpaper is open(to read) but to become a newspaper editor is a closed circle of employees, even if the newspaper has a comment section for the public to leave public comment, moderated critique and moderated newsmedia suggestions

Their differences are way more than you actually highlighted. Of course one of them is actually mining and that's thanks to a couple of properties that the bitcoin network possess like it's POW mechanism which is basically proof of work. Other networks do have their mechanisms to like Ethereum which makes use of POS (proof of stake) in contrast to that of bitcoin.

The most important thing that differentiates bitcoin's POW mechanism is it's difficult adjustments and halving protocol.  The bitcoin network actually has one of the best and most efficient difficulty adjustment mechanisms.

Whenever you see a shiny new "project" that is based in some altcoin, always ask yourself: "Why are they not using Bitcoin for this?"

The answer to that, in pretty much almost every case is that the creator of that "project" wants to get your money by issuing their worthless altcoin.

If they work with Bitcoin, then you immediately can tell there's some value in there, because they are trading value for value.

Bitcoin is money, altcoins are a distraction.

Many differences between them.

You forgot that altcoins can have Proof of Work algorithm too, so with PoW altcoins, there were not created from thin air. A big risk is premined PoW coins, you must check this information of PoW altcoins.

Bitcoin is unique by having many following things: PoW, no premine, decentralized network, no censorship, and decentralized developments so no issue if one Bitcoin developer left like how Satoshi Nakamoto left the community and no longer developed Bitcoin Core years ago.

Altcoins are centralized, mass premined coins, hidden premined coins, mint from thin air with smart contracts, centralized, censorship, can die any time because development is centralized in founders and core team members.

To me the biggest difference is how bitcoins are created. It takes a great deal of investment in time, effort, money and energy just to mine and produce a single bitcoin.
Unlike altcoins, you can't just print a bitcoin out of thin air whenever you want. Any idiot with a PC can create a new crypto altcoin and print an unlimited or nearly unlimited supply for himself to dump onto the market, whenever he wants. But that's not how bitcoin works.

Imagine having a money printer that prints an unlimited amount of dollars anytime you want. You don't have to do shit to earn it. Just enter the amount you want and press the print button. Voila! You are instantly rich. That's basically how garbage like dogecoin, ethereum, solana, XRP, fartcoin, pepecoin, clowncoin, etc. all work. They are just a digital recreation of the unlimited fiat money system but worse, with no discernible value beyond being a high-tech Ponzi scheme.

What are other differences?



A bitcoin mining facility