In my opinion, aside from it being incredibly obvious that all these alternative cryptocurrencies are made with the sole intention of making their creators rich (jealous of Satoshi much?), I think you guys should stick with one digital cryptocurrency, max. Given its relatively short life-span and the number of unresolved problems associated with it, we can't even call Bitcoin a success yet, although I'm sure those who have profited significantly would be quick to call Bitcoin a success. At least, it's not a success when compared to fiat currency which has its security and economy in tact.
Sometimes I wonder how often the members of this community realize how much they marginalize their selves. Everyone's clients/miners/exchanges are ridiculously difficult to use for the average person, and if these issues still exist with the Google of digital cryptocurrencies (i.e. Bitcoin), how do you expect these other silly currencies with dumb names to work (town coin? GTFO)?
I think all these cryptocurrencies give the Bitcoin community a bad name. I think it perpetuates the 'geekiness' of Bitcoin -- imagine the average joe coming on here and then reading about namecoin, solid coin, IOcoin, selfish coin, nerd coin, haven't-gotten-laid-since-2009-coin...all these currencies give the impression we're all just a bunch of greedy fucks with no long-term vision of communal success. If people put half as much time into stimulating the Bitcoin economy as they did devilishly programming their own cryptocurrency code, maybe at least one of these currencies would have a shot (again, i.e. Bitcoin).
Quit marginalizing the community. Bitcoin is the only one that has a shot at mainstream popularity, so quit marginalizing the community with all this nerd crap like alternative cryptocurrencies, the word "troll" (Jesus Christ I hate when people say troll, and grandma does too), ridiculous clients and miners, etc. People like simplicity. This complexity isn't cool. It's chilly. And chilly ain't never been cool.
You're making the very wrong assumption that people actually give a shit about Bitcoin or crypto-currency in the first place. A very large majority of the people involved in BTC, IXC, IOC, NMC and SC, like myself are here for the profit and nothing more. I will continue to hit every "Crypto- Currency of the Week" coin full force at low difficulty and then sell it like crack to idiots that buy it at Double C's ever adapting exchange!!!!
Looking forward to the next one!
BTC was doomed before it launched, just like any of the crypto-currencies it suffers from NEVER being able to have instant transactions.
Without instant transactions BTC will never become mainstream. It may very well exist as it does now to be a favorite amongst the Drug Dealers, Con Artist and "Geeks". But it a'int ever going to see use by Johnny Q. Public.
Peace,
Well, to be honest, what you said isn't at all far from what I said. But, I have more hope for mainstream adoption of Bitcoin. Besides, the instant transaction issue is really only a concern if people are interested in keeping the highest level of anonymity. I actually don't really get why people think it's necessary (or even that much better) to have anonymous transactions in all cases.
All a merchant needs is to link a Bitcoin address to a real life address or a name. For example, if you order something online, you must put in a shipping address, and this address is linked to a name. If people keep generating new addresses, then a high level of anonymity can still be retained in general (i.e. it would be hard to link their name to all of their transactions, but specific transactions could be traced back to the person). Then, a merchant won't have to worry about waiting for 6 confirmations. They can just go after the guy if the transaction doesn't go through. The confirmations will only be necessary in larger transactions where waiting an hour simply isn't a big issue (e.g. buying a car, a house, paying rent, depositing or withdrawing from exchanges, etc.).
Actually, I think we both agree in our belief that the majority of Bitcoin users hope to get rich quick. But, I simply wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Besides, I bet that for most of them, they spend hours and hours watching the charts or looking at Mt. Gox live only to make $10-$15 a day in trades when they could be out doing real work making a whole lot more money. Hell, most of them would make far more money working at McDonald's part time. So, in a way, I'm also trying to point out that they could probably earn a LOT more proportionally long-term if they weren't so focused on the short term. The real winners in Bitcoin are those who actually make a large business out of it (e.g. Mt. Gox, TradeHill, etc.). There are solutions to Bitcoin's problems and they aren't that complicated.