Mr_random - Just trying to put BTC and LTC on equal ground, you would have to say BTC has 1/4 the number of "shares". What is the current number of LTC's now? Use that number and give us the data please.
I don't disagree with the rest of your post, that is why I'm just asking for ideas here. Specifically to the point of my post (title).
BewCrewFan - Agreed, something might take off. What is the next Black Swan???
Topic: The falling valuations of alternative Crypto-currencies (Read 519 times)
People like BTC because they can get stupid hashing power in it among other things. You never know something might take off in the alt coins
What does 4 times as many litecoins as bitcoins in the future have to do with the price of litecoins compared to bitcoins today?
The price is a lot more complicated that a supply scaling anyway but even if it was that simple it would be based on the current levels of supply, not the figure in 5 years from now or whatever.
As for the main point of your post, traction is everything. Bitcoin has built up an enormous community of support and won over countless companies and organisations. Litecoin is where it is now over the other alt coins not because of it's technical features so much but because it has gained a lot more traction than they have. You'll see that word traction used a lot in the startup community for small fledging companies trying to grow.
The price is a lot more complicated that a supply scaling anyway but even if it was that simple it would be based on the current levels of supply, not the figure in 5 years from now or whatever.
As for the main point of your post, traction is everything. Bitcoin has built up an enormous community of support and won over countless companies and organisations. Litecoin is where it is now over the other alt coins not because of it's technical features so much but because it has gained a lot more traction than they have. You'll see that word traction used a lot in the startup community for small fledging companies trying to grow.
I get the feeling that more people are seeing the value of BTC as being the primary driver of this industry and are scaling back on their speculations in alt coins. (Of course this also might have something to do with the relative stability of BTC.) It also doesn't help that we are having a high influx of alt coins, sort of watering down the alt coin market.
Until an alternative crypto-currency comes out that is REALLY better than BTC, I just don't see some of the past valuations holding up. (Hey, even VHS won out over the superior tech in Beta.) Regarding alt coin valuations, let's take the main alt coin in Lite Coin; it is right around $3 per LTC currently. Bitcoin is at around $129 per BTC. Considering that there will be 4X as many LTC shares as BTC shares, then the current valuation of LTC, at a ratio of 10.75 (=$129/12) seems reasonable if not a bit high considering that at this time LTC doesn't really have anything associated with it outside of being an insurance of sorts. Yes it is faster than BTC and also uses an interesting and CPU/GPU friendly proof of work scheme in scrypt. My point is, we are not seeing anything that appears much better to the thousands involved in this community.
I like some of what the other alt coins have to offer, but they seem like ideas in which can perhaps be integrated into BTC, not replace it. I love what Namecoin does with its decentralized method of hosting DNS and notice that its price has been relatively stable, while some of the other coins I followed have been dropping. I wonder if this is a part of a coming trend or just related to the "stable" times.
Comments? I'm not trying to say I know, just presenting an opinion here.
IAS
Until an alternative crypto-currency comes out that is REALLY better than BTC, I just don't see some of the past valuations holding up. (Hey, even VHS won out over the superior tech in Beta.) Regarding alt coin valuations, let's take the main alt coin in Lite Coin; it is right around $3 per LTC currently. Bitcoin is at around $129 per BTC. Considering that there will be 4X as many LTC shares as BTC shares, then the current valuation of LTC, at a ratio of 10.75 (=$129/12) seems reasonable if not a bit high considering that at this time LTC doesn't really have anything associated with it outside of being an insurance of sorts. Yes it is faster than BTC and also uses an interesting and CPU/GPU friendly proof of work scheme in scrypt. My point is, we are not seeing anything that appears much better to the thousands involved in this community.
I like some of what the other alt coins have to offer, but they seem like ideas in which can perhaps be integrated into BTC, not replace it. I love what Namecoin does with its decentralized method of hosting DNS and notice that its price has been relatively stable, while some of the other coins I followed have been dropping. I wonder if this is a part of a coming trend or just related to the "stable" times.
Comments? I'm not trying to say I know, just presenting an opinion here.
IAS
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