Darkcoin saved my alt portfolio, but i think other ults will start pumping, when the new crypto proponents enter, this space, (they all dislike bitcoin for some reason and justify using alts, just wait until the feedback loop starts)
At the start of the bitcoin run up from $120 to $1,000 i picked up a fiew LTC at $3 it then outperformed bitcoin i believe for the reason above. I never thought it could take off, but it did. The same thing will happen to a few select alts, not sure how LTC will go though, but it will be something to monitor.
Oh, oh, oh! I have an opinion!
I think currencies are a natural monopoly. There are two known markets for global instant liquidity: The transparent liquidity market, and the private liquidity market. BTC + one alt will win. The rest will be very minor players, and almost all will die of starvation.
When DRK was the only real horse in the privacy-enhanced market, I invested, with success. I sold it and bought MRO because it has the best tech (clone of BCN) a viable development team and no premine (BCN is a scamcoin). So far that is working very well. MRO dominates cryptonote hash power completely. Price is up 20x since I bought in, albiet down from the 40x mark during the initial listing bubble. I expect many bubbles to come, a la BTC, but faster.
DRK is pumping right now because evan is a master operator, but I don't think it is sustainable because the tech is not going to provide the kind of privacy guarantees required when your wealth or even your life are at stake. MRO plus TOR will do that now, but MRO code is advancing rapidly (and open source, unlike DRK). I'm happy with the trajectory so far.