If you know about bitcoin, then you should be know about as well. Altcoin is a broad term “coined” to classify cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. Many bitcoin enthusiasts find altcoins to be a cheap copy of bitcoin. According to them, altcoins do not make the cut and they are a waste of time and resources.
As bitcoin technology is open source, its source code is out there and anyone and everyone can use it to develop their own version of cryptocurrency. It is a crowded market we agree, and some of these altcoins don’t make any sense. However, we ought to remember that altcoins have been there for a long time now and they got sidelined only after the bitcoin boom.
Most of these altcoins are created with a particular niche in mind, and some of them do fairly well while others fail miserably. Again, not all altcoins share the bitcoin source code. Some of them are standalone cryptocurrencies, which may or may not be completely open source and the chances of one of these altcoins taking on bitcoin in the near future is quite high.
Take an example of . It falls under the altcoin category (again, debatable), but good luck finding similarities between Ripple and bitcoin. Ripplec{oin} has been around since 2004 and it has a whole payment protocol built around it. Ripple(coin) is not even competing with bitcoin. Ripple is a proprietary trust based payment system that allows transactions with existing currencies. {Just to avoid confusion – Ripple(coin) – XRP is used for transactions in Ripple gateway}
Altcoins have their own way of balancing the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Even though most of these altcoins fade away even before they can leave a mark, they still contribute to at least a small increment in cryptocurrency technology. Also, many altcoins are easy to mine and they introduce more and more users to cryptocurrencies. These rookies who started with altcoins will eventually graduate to bitcoin, ultimately strengthening the bitcoin community.
cohagen 
A Anon 
None of the above Ram as 99.9% of alt’s are nothing more than premined pump and dumps to score some btc to be converted to fiat cash. Ripple being one of the biggest offenders of premining along with Josh Garza and his gaw farce scam. Josh is going to prison along with ccn’s dave parker(fake name google it to find who he really is) soon as they are under a multi us fed agency investigation for various types of fraud and assorted financial sec violations.
99%… BS
Maybe 75%
Remember though what comes with great risk also comes with great reward.
No risk when it’s plain to anyone with a functional brain that 99.9% of all these alts are premined pump and dumps.
all are premined? maybe half but surely not your number.