The war between Bitcoin maximalists and altcoins believers has been raging for years. The feuds, mostly settled on cryptocurrency social media, have never had a clear winner. Bitcoin maximalists believe that altcoins do not have a future.
Most of them believe that altcoins are dying a slow and painful death. They have, therefore, taken refuge in the belief that these deaths will prove that BTC bulls had been right to despise the altcoins.
A Reddit user has once more fanned these old feuds by defining the term “Alt-season” as “a nefarious heap of bitcoin maximalist psychological horseshit.” The enraged altcoin maximalist goes on to say that:
“The term altcoin (while genuinely a thing within the space) has always been a term that only makes sense from the perspective of Bitcoin maximalists, subconsciously implying a binary division between Bitcoin (the market leader) and everything else.”
Capabilities beyond Bitcoin
The user goes on to state that from the very beginning altcoins were designed to explore blockchain technology. Some altcoins have different coin distribution or economic models from Bitcoin. There also tokens designed to eliminate BTC’s critical problems of scalability or energy use. They, therefore, have enhanced mining algorithms while others resist specialized mining hardware.
Some do not use proof of work at all. There are altcoins also with a very versatile programming language, perfect for dApp projects. Others are designed for specific use cases such as privacy, data storage, or supply chain enhancement. There are, nonetheless, altcoins with zero use cases. They have simply tweaked a parameter that is of little use.
Consequently, they have no advantage whatsoever over Bitcoin. Worse is their little hash power to secure them and even fewer developers working on their improvement. Most of these coins are outright scams, made to enrich their inventors.
All these same, the term altcoin is a description of tokens, which came after Bitcoin, therefore alternative coins. The war on the alt season title, whether deserved or not can only be settled by the success these altcoins will accrue over time.
More Bitcoin Maximalists Accepting Altcoin’s Potential
Bitcoin maximalists might truly use the term to begrudge altcoins of their own market growth chart. The term “season” might imply that perhaps these tokens will never succeed on their own, but will forever be seasonal profit-generating tokens. Any serious cryptocurrency investor might, consequently, have a harder time pouring capital in them. This is especially so, in a market run on speculation and credibility of the assets.
There are however Bitcoin maximalists that think highly of some altcoins, meaning that these sentiments are changing. John McAfee, for instance, has said that the plunging altcoin market, is an opportunity for savvy investors to reap a boom an oncoming successful altcoin market. He has also been very bullish for medical and privacy-oriented coins.
When veteran trader Peter Brandt declared altcoins dead, McAfee took him on. John described Brandt knowledge as “Stone Age”. He also went on to say that, Bitcoin was indeed a store of value but had a flaw privacy coins didn’t have. Similarly, Fundstrat Global Advisors Tom Lee shares McAfee’s sentiments. He says that Bitcoin as a store of value will hit peak prices, and traders will look towards other meaningful crypto investments for value.
Igor Chugunov of Credits, a blockchain startup focusing on dApps, on the other hand, says:
“The altcoin season will begin together with the adoption of technology; it is the technology that will determine the future liquidity of the market of altcoins and the general vector of market development. The future season of altcoins won’t cover the whole list of altcoins, it will be related to the coins that present definite value for space.”
