However I haven't seen a single coin come out in the last year that is actually used. By used I mean beyond buying up hordes of them, reselling them. You may as well be selling wireless extension cords, boxes of pure air, sandpaper toilet paper.
That's what makes Dogecoin interesting to me. People are actually using it instead of just holding and speculating. Reddit's dogetipbot reached 30,000 registered users today. Activity on Dogemarket continues to increase daily. The total value of transactions per day (in USD) is second only to Bitcoin. People may grow tired of the meme and there is the real risk that interest drops as mining rewards drop, but it's pretty amazing how quickly the community has grown. No matter what you think of Dogecoin as an investment, it's a demonstration of how important marketing and community building are to the success of an altcoin.