This document provides an overview and introduction to alternative cryptocurrencies or altcoins. It discusses how altcoins are copycats of bitcoin that were created using the open source bitcoin software. The document recommends ways to research altcoins such as visiting forums like bitcointalk.org and subreddits. It also lists popular altcoin exchanges where users can buy and sell altcoins. The document warns that many altcoins are scams and provides tips on avoiding scamcoins and doing proper research before investing in any altcoin.

2. altcoins: An alternative currency primer
by N. Lamont Weaver

3. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means,
including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright
holder. Copyright © 2014 N. Lamont Weaver

4. Table of Contents
Chapter One- Beyond Bitcoin
Chapter Two- Altcoin Internet Hangouts
Chapter Three- How to Buy and Sell Altcoins
Chapter Four- How to Avoid Scamcoins
Chapter Five- Altcoins: the good, the bad, and the
ugly
Chapter Six: Trading Tips and Tricks

5. Chapter One- Beyond Bitcoin
Welcome early adopter. If you are reading this book, I assume you are familiar with bitcoin, the new
digital cryptocurrency. Maybe you have a nice stash of bitcoin, but are also intrigued by the
additional opportunity of the exciting, new, alternative cryptocurrencies, also known as altcoins. Or,
maybe you think you missed the bitcoin train and don’t want to get left behind again in the new rush
into alternative cryptocurrencies that is just beginning.
This book is to familiarize you with the altcoin trading world and not to teach you about bitcoin or
bitcoin basics. I assume that you are familiar with wallets, the blockchain and mining. If you aren’t, I
recommend you do some Internet research on bitcoin, as this book will not be covering those topics.
This book is strictly about altcoins: how to get into the scene, how to buy and sell altcoins, and how
to pick the right altcoins and avoid the stinkers. This book shows you how to profit from the altcoin
explosion.
In this book I’m going to teach you how to be a player in the brave new world beyond bitcoin, the
crazy world of altcoins (alternative cryptocurrencies). What are alternative cryptocurrencies?
Alternative cryptocurrencies are essentially copycats of bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency. A
cryptocurrency is a digital currency based on a cryptographic protocol for secure transmission over a
decentralized network. Bitcoin is a software program/algorithm that runs on a decentralized network.
The software is open sourced, which means it is freely available to anyone. Developers have used the
open source bitcoin software to make their own clone coins to try to mimic the success of bitcoin.
These bitcoin competitors are called alternative cryptocurrencies, or, as they’re more commonly
called, altcoins.
Why do I want a copycat of bitcoin? Why don’t I just buy bitcoin? I recommend everyone have some
bitcoin, but most people can only afford so much and bitcoin are expensive. Consequently, many
people gravitate to altcoins looking for bitcoin-type returns with less outlay of hard-earned cash. In
2013, bitcoin became a worldwide phenomenon with money pouring in from all around the globe and
the price skyrocketed. This trend is expected to continue into 2014 and some expect 2014 to be the
year of the true bitcoin explosion. Bitcoin was the second best investment in the world in 2013, by
outperforming stocks, gold, real estate, or any other investment, with an over 5000% return on
investment for the year. Surprisingly, the very best investment of 2013 was not bitcoin, but an altcoin.
If you had invested $100 in Litecoin in January when they were selling for around seven cents each,
by December your $100 dollar investment would have grown to $30,000 dollars. This type of
explosive growth is fueling the snowballing avalanche of money pouring into altcoins.
That kind of spectacular investment return has attracted not only buyers from all over the world, but it
has spawned competitors, lots and lots of competitors. At the time of the writing of this book, there
are hundreds of bitcoin clone coins vying for attention and investors. By the end of 2014, there will
probably be 365 more, as it seems there is a new coin released every day. Some think that altcoins
are becoming like a new stock market that is freely available to the whole world The entire market is
building itself outside of the federal reserve system or any of the world’s central banking systems,

6. like a kind of decentralized Nasdaq. The alternative cryptocurrency world is very exciting and early
investors could be in for quite a ride!
The rush of investors into altcoins continues to snowball and big money is flooding into these new
currencies. I expect the deluge of investment into altcoins to reach a fever pitch in 2014 and some of
the altcoins will provide incredible investment opportunities. The problem is, which ones?
In this book, I’m going to help you separate the wheat from the chaff and the solid investment
opportunities from the scams. I’m going to show you how to keep your finger on the pulse of the
cryptocurrency world, and with a little luck, make a big pile of money by trading and investing in
altcoins in 2014.

7. Chapter Two- Altcoin Internet Hangouts
The altcoin world is new and confusing. Before you invest your money into any altcoin, take the time
to do some research on the Internet and immerse yourself in the cryptocurrency corner of the Internet.
If you don’t familiarize yourself with the altcoin scene, you’ll be like the big city dude from the East
coming straight off of a train and walking into a saloon in the wild, wild West and then sitting down
to play poker with the locals. You’re just asking to get fleeced.
Here’s where I hangout to keep my finger on the pulse of the altcoin world:
1. bitcointalk.org- Bitcointalk is the premiere bitcoin forum and has a section entitled alternative
currencies that is a treasure trove of information on altcoins. This is the place where most new coin
releases are announced and new coin giveaways occur. The original announcement of the release of
each coin, (which will always be preceded with [ANN]) on the forum thread, can grow to hundreds
of pages of responses if it is a popular coin. Or, the announcement can only have a few pages of
responses if the altcoin is getting no love. The [ANN] announcement forum thread is one of the most
important sources of information about a particular altcoin. An easy way to find the [ANN]
announcement forum thread for an altcoin is to do a Google search for [ANN] and the name of the
coin. Check this forum often to keep up with the latest happenings or to research any altcoins you are
thinking of investing in. Always read whatever is available about an altcoin on the bitcointalk forum
before thinking about buying it.
2. Reddit.com- Reddit is one of the most active communities on the Internet and Reddit also contains
one of the most active cryptocurrency communities. There are many sub-Reddits dealing with altcoins
and cryptocurrencies and additionally, any popular altcoin will usually have its own sub-Reddit,
which you can find by searching for the name of the altcoin on Reddit search. Reddit is a great source
of information and a good way to stay on top of the fluid, fast moving altcoin space. Here are a few of
the altcoin Reddits:
a. Cryptomarkets http://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoMarkets
b. CryptoCurrency http://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency
c. Altcoin http://www.reddit.com/r/altcoin
3. Cryptocointalk.com- This forum has gained traction and contains a lot of good information. There
are hours of research material available on hundreds of altcoins. Some new coin releases are
announced here instead of, or in addition to, bitcointalk.org.
4. Twitter Search- https://twitter.com/search-home Twitter is the most now place on the web and
using twitter search and the hashtag # function you can search for individual altcoins to see who is
talking about the currency now and what they are saying. If there are lots of tweets about your altcoin,
that is very good and indicative of good buzz about the coin. However, silence can speak volumes
also if there are no tweets, only old tweets, or few tweets about an altcoin. Search example: input

8. #litecoin or #anycoin and enter to get the latest tweets about that coin. Twitter is especially useful if
you notice a movement in the price of an altcoin and you want to check out what is happening real
time.
Also, get yourself a Twitter account and follow altcoin and cryptocurrency people for information. I
follow many including: @coinsprint, @maxkeiser, @altcoin_invest, @cryptotipz, @crypto_trader,
and @cryptoarticle. There are many, many more.
5.BTC-E.com- BTC-E is one of the top bitcoin exchanges and is based in Bulgaria. It has a live chat
window that can provide some useful information about altcoins. It is mostly full of trolls trying to
manipulate the market by yelling crash and sell or to the moon and buy. It can be good entertainment
though, and sometimes you can pick up an interesting tidbit of information about an altcoin. Or, at the
least you will see which altcoins are being talked about.
6. Crypt.la- An alternative currencies news site.
7. altcoindb.com An altcoin database with some information about many altcoins.
8. altcoins.com A blog devoted to altcoins. It’s sparse pickings at the moment, but maybe it will
improve.
9. listofaltcoins.com This site seems to be under construction. Hopefully, it is completed, and it may
be of use in the future.
10. virtualmining.com News of the bitcoin world.
11. bitcoinmagazine.com Bitcoin news website
12. majesti.co/cryptonerd Blog covering cryptocurrency.
13. cointrader.org- website/blog about cryptocurrencies.
14. http://altoidnerd.com/ A cryptocurrency blog.
15. Coinmarketcap.com- A well loved website in the cryptocurrency world. Coinmarketcap lists the
top altcoins by market capitalization. It also lists the current price and so it is a great place to quickly
check on a few of your favorites easily.
16. Cryptocoincharts.info- This website lists altcoins and provides the order book of each coin, so
you can see the current number of buys and sells. Cryptocoincharts also features charts of the altcoins
where you can see the historic movements of the coin and track the volume.
17. Cryptocoinsnews.com- Worldwide news coverage of bitcoin and altcoins.
18. Coindesk.com- Website that bills itself as the voice of digital currency.
19. Cryptoarticles.com- Crypto currency news site. The freshest.

9. 20. Cryptocurrency.org/tag/news- Bitcoin news from all over the planet.
21. Bitinfocharts.com- cryptocurrency statistics
22. Coinjockey.com- cryptocurrrency news
23. Cryptosource.org- cryptocurrency information and news
24. Blog.coinmkt.com- Coin market’s blog on cryptocurrency.
25. Coincafe.net- Bitcoin and cryptocurrency news.
26. Followthecoin.com- Blog on cryptocurrency.

10. Chapter Three- How to Buy and Sell Altcoins
Altcoins, like bitcoins, are available for sale on Internet cryptocurrency exchanges. These exchanges
are businesses that provide digital currency exchange services for a small fee. On the altcoin
exchanges you can buy and sell many different alternative currencies.
As of the writing of this book, most altcoin exchanges won’t allow you to buy altcoins with U.S.
dollars. Currently, you must first purchase bitcoins and use bitcoins to buy altcoins on the altcoin
exchanges. The exception is Crypto-trade, but it offers only limited altcoins available for trade.
Cryptsy promises U.S. dollar/altcoin trading in the future and a few of the altcoins are building their
own USD/altcoin exchanges, but for the foreseeable future, you will probably have to buy some
bitcoin to trade for altcoins.
If you are completely new to the digital currency market and don’t even have any bitcoin yet, I
recommend you get an account at Coinbase (coinbase.com). The account is free and you can link the
Coinbase account to your bank account and buy bitcoin. Bitcoin are expensive, but you don’t have to
buy a whole bitcoin. You can buy a half, a quarter or even a tenth of a bitcoin to get started trading
altcoins if you want to begin slowly. As long as your accounts are set up and active you can expand
easily should you so desire later.
A word of caution is in order at this time. Please don’t gamble with money you can’t afford to lose.
Make no mistake; altcoin trading is gambling. It is very high risk and altcoin prices are extremely
volatile. Although there are incredible gains possible, it is also possible to lose all of your
investment, so don’t play with money you will miss if it’s gone. Take your time and go slowly at first
until you get a feeling for the markets. There is no hurry, you are an early adopter and way ahead of
the regular guy on the street who doesn’t even know about bitcoin, much less altcoins.
There are already quite a few dedicated altcoin exchanges and as the altcoin scene grows, I expect
many more. New exchanges seem to be popping up everyday, but I like to deal with the more
established exchanges for the most part.
Since the altcoin explosion has happened so rapidly, the first exchanges have struggled to keep up
with the overwhelming demand. It is not uncommon for deposits to take forever or for the sites to get
sluggish. The exchanges, like the entire altcoin world, are in beta; so don’t expect Amazon level
service just yet. However, I have had no major problems with any of the exchanges and you will
probably only encounter minor annoyances as they work through their growth problems.
I recommend setting up accounts with a few of the exchanges. At times the different exchanges will
have slightly different prices on individual altcoins and you may want to buy at one exchange and
transfer it to another to sell to make the most profit. Although there are sometimes arbitrage
opportunities available, it is hard to realize them because of the slowness of the deposits and
withdrawals at the overworked exchanges.

11. Altcoin Exchanges:
1. https://cryptsy.com- Cryptsy is the number one dedicated altcoin exchange and the one I use the
most. Cryptsy is growing extremely rapidly. Cryptsy has the most volume of any of the altcoin
exchanges so it is easy to find buyers when you want to sell an altcoin. It offers a wide selection of
altcoins that are available for trade in BTC (bitcoin), LTC (litecoin), or XPM (primecoin). You can
purchase dividend-paying shares in Cryptsy from cryptostocks.com and possibly profit from their
tremendous growth.
2. https://btc-e.com- BTC-E is one of the top bitcoin exchanges that also offer a very limited
selection of altcoins for trade. They also feature an infamous chat room that is well followed in the
cryptocurrency community.
3. https://bter.com- Bter is an exchange dedicated to altcoins with a large selection of currencies
available for trade.
4. https://coinex.pw- Coinex is an exchange dedicated to altcoins with a large selection of
currencies. Coinex also has a chat room that can be interesting.
5. https://coinedup.com- Coinedup is a new dedicated altcoin exchange that doesn’t charge any fees,
so far. They are adding more currencies steadily and already have a good selection. I like Coinedup
because it is a very simple site and it worked well for me. I’ve had no problems trading or getting
deposits in or withdrawals out. I hope they continue to keep it simple and keep steadily adding more
coins. Many times newly released coins seem to show up on Coinedup before any of the larger
exchanges, so you can get in early if you keep an eye out for this.
6. https://www.coins-e.com Coins-E is an exchange dedicated to altcoins featuring a large selection
of currencies available for trade.
7. https://btcltc.com BTCLTC is a Chinese altcoin exchange trading a selection of altcoins in
Chinese Yuan.
8. https://www.btc38.com BTC38 is the largest Chinese altcoin exchange. It is useful to see which
altcoins are available for trade and which altcoins get added to the site as it can sometimes increase
the price of an altcoin to get added to the BTC38 exchange.
9. https://vircurex.com- Vircurex is a major bitcoin exchange that is offering an ever-expanding
range of altcoin cryptocurrencies for trading.
10. https://www.crypto-trade.com- Crypto-Trade is a bitcoin exchange that offers a limited
selection of altcoins for trade.
11. coinmkt.com- Coin market offers a limited but growing selection of altcoins for trade.
12. cryptocoincharts.info/v2/markets/info- Cryptocoincharts maintains a list of cryptocurrency
exchanges, including many smaller exchanges that I have not mentioned.

13. Chapter Four- How to Avoid Scamcoins
I wish I could tell you that the cryptocurrency world was completely different from the normal
financial world and chock full of fair and honest souls trying to help each other make money, but that
is unfortunately not true. No, the cryptocurrency world is full of normal people like you and me, not
saints. The cryptocurrency world is fueled by greed just like the normal financial world so it is full of
conmen and scam artists trying to separate you from your money just like in the normal financial
world.
Some of the altcoin developers have gotten very rich, very quickly and so consequently, many other
people want to develop their own altcoin and get rich too. It’s easy to see the attraction and it’s not
that hard to clone a coin with open source software for someone who is technically inclined. In fact,
there is now a website called Coingen (coingen.io), that will automatically generate a cloned coin for
a quite reasonable price.
Now you understand why there is such an explosion of new altcoins. The problem is most of these
new altcoins are designed to make their developer rich and then die off quickly leaving the investors
holding the bag. This is likely to continue for some time although eventually the market will work
itself out and calm down. But until then, there is money to be made so, you must tread cautiously and
be very wary as you move through the virtual mine field of scam coins.
Although it is a scary environment because of the explosion of scamcoins, it is good if it keeps you
aware and cautious, but bad if it causes you to be afraid to get involved. Remember, fortune favors
the bold. A ton of money is flowing into altcoins from all over the world and there are a lot of coins
that are not scams. We just need to find those worth buying, while avoiding the scamcoins.
Let me tell you a story. I have a friend that bragged to me that he bought a million of, lets’s call it
gulliblecoin. He said, “It was so cheap, that i bought a million for almost nothing. It only has to rise a
fraction of a cent and I can sell it and make good money.” While it is true that if you buy an altcoin
when it’s cheap enough, you may be able to get a million of it and take advantage of even a tiny uptick
in price, however, he failed to notice that there were only sell orders on the exchange and no buy
orders for gulliblecoin. There is no one to buy his million gulliblecoins, so he bought a million
worthless coins. He is a bag holder of a dead coin. I don’t think he has forgiven me for telling him
and being such a buzzkill.
I don’t want any of my readers to end up buying gulliblecoin. Let me tell you what I look for in a good
altcoin and the warning signs that tell me of an altcoin to avoid.
First, let me explain a little about the evolution of an altcoin. Lets look at a typical lifecycle of an
altcoin. Let’s call our example altcoin, Tacocoin. Tacocoin is born when the developer of the coin
makes an announcement thread on the bitcointalk.org forum under the category alternative
cryptocurrencies. The official announcement thread will include a quick sales page touting the
greatness of the new coin and give the technical stats of the coin, list the available mining pools,
provide wallets to download in Windows, Mac and Linux formats, list the website url, and

14. essentially provide all the necessary information about Tacocoin. As part of the launch, or release, of
the coin, the developer will have set up one or more servers to function as mining pools. Miners with
their own computer equipment built specifically for mining will join together in these pools to mine
more efficiently together.
If miners like the idea of the coin either because it looks like it will be a fair launch, or it has a good
name and logo, or in some way attracts the interest of miners and they think it will be profitable to
mine, then they will begin mining the coin at the launch time designated by the developer in the
announcement.
Tacocoin, like all altcoins, is designed so that the difficulty in mining the blocks, which will release
the amount of coins set by the developer for each block found, increases with the number of blocks
found, so the early miners will mine more coins easier than later miners who will find it harder to
mine Tacocoin as the difficulty increases. The early miners of Tacocoin will try to immediately start
selling their newly mined coins, usually in the altcoin’s announcement thread of the bitcointalk forum.
Early miners and early buyers of Taco coin may start a Tacocoin sub-Reddit on Reddit.com to begin
talking about and promoting their coins, hoping to increase the coin’s value by attracting new buyers.
Tacocoin may start to sell on the Tacocoin sub-Reddit also. The early miners and buyers will also
start talking the coin up on Twitter, Facebook, and everywhere else on the web to let people know
about Tacocoin. The developer may also be setting up social media accounts for Tacocoin, such as
Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and Reddits also. The developer makes an official website for
Tacocoin with promotional information about the coin and downloads for the wallets. The website
may contain its own forum for Tacocoin or an IRC chat room.
The developer, the early miners, and the early investors will all begin contacting the altcoin
exchanges trying to get them to start trading Tacocoin by telling the exchanges that Tacocoin has such
a large following it will make the exchange money from the large volume of trades. If the exchanges
think it might be a winner they may add Tacocoin. Once Tacocoin gets on an exchange it may attract
some buyers and the price may begin to rise which will attract more buyers and Tacocoin is on its
way. If it gets enough traction it may end up on coinmarketcap.com and that may give Tacocoin
another price boost.
As novice investors, we may open a new account on Cryptsy and see that Tacocoin has good volume
(the amount of BTC traded each day in the coin shown beside each altcoin on the Cryptsy trading
category page). The weeklong chart and the month long charts on the Tacocoin Cryptsy trading page
show that the Tacocoin price has been rising steadily despite some ups and downs since it got on the
exchange. You like the name and the taco logo because you like tacos. You’re thinking about buying
some Tacocoin. Is Tacocoin a good buy? How would we decide?
First, we go to Google and search for [ANN] Tacocoin. That takes us to the original announcement
page on bitcointalk.org forum. We notice that there are hundreds of pages of replies on the [ANN]
Tacocoin thread. It looks like Tacocoin has caught some buzz. This is a good sign.
We check out the developer (the OP, or original poster of the announcement thread), Juan Motime, by
clicking on his name and then clicking on show his last posts. Unfortunately, we see that Juan Motime
has started 3 other altcoins and checking on them we find that he has abandoned each one. Further, we

15. read the [Ann] Tacocoin thread and find that he never shows up again on the thread and people are
complaining about his absence.
We learn in the thread that the wallets didn’t sync or required people to add a config file (conf.)
which non-tech savvy people don’t understand. This is another sign of an incompetent or lazy
developer. We wonder if the cloned coin functions properly, and know that there is no developer
around to fix problems that occur. We read about the huge premine ( a premine is when the developer
mines coins for himself before releasing the coins to the public.) that was done by Juan Motime who
bragged about an only 2% premine to be used for giveaways, bounties, and promotion. However,
with 1 billion total coins scheduled for Tacocoin, 2% premine is two million Tacocoins for the
developer, Juan Motime. He will try to dump his coins on any substantial price rise, which will
knock the price down, sometimes enough to kill off the coin’s market.
Many of the altcoins are premined to give the developer lots of coins. A legitimate premine, is not
faulted if it is not overlarge and actually used for promotion, but most are just for the developer’s
gain. Premining is actually mining started ahead of the public before the altcoin is officially released
or launched. But, there are other ways developers enrich themselves. Instamining is designing the
coin to make millions of coins the first few weeks and then slow. Some coins feature huge
superblocks at the start of mining to give more coins to the early miners of which the developer is
one. The developer may purposefully mess up the launch to delay the first miners where he can begin
early without saying it was premined. There is all kinds of chicanery involved in releasing or
launching an altcoin and that is the reason a fair launch is so prized. and premining and instamining is
so hated in the altcoin community.
So far, Tacocoin is not looking too good. However, upon further reading of the announcement thread
we find that a real community seems to be forming for Tacocoin and a team has assembled to perform
the developer’s job. A new functional wallet has been made and a more professional website has
been created. There are lots of tweets on Twitter talking about Tacocoin and the sub-Reddit
r/tacocoin-reddit is very active with lots of members. There is a Tacocoin Facebook group with many
active members. Because Tacocoin has an active, involved community, that is a big plus. So, overall,
is Tacocoin a buy?
Tacocoin has, like most altcoins, some bad qualities, and some good qualities. There are few coins
that are perfect in everyway. Most are flawed and risky. Altcoins are the virtual wild, wild, west.
I wouldn’t consider Tacocoin a buy. I would avoid it. It is very hard to get an altcoin to gather
traction and attract buyers and see a price increase that grows steadily. Tacocoin has attracted buyers
and seen a steady price increase and it has an active community, so it might be a good investment, but
I want an altcoin that has, at the very least, an active, competent, developer, or team of developers
and an active community behind the altcoin pushing it forward. Since Tacocoin lacks a dedicated,
competent developer, I would pass on it. It also has a total supply scheduled that is larger than I look
for at one billion. That’s too many coins for my taste.
Here is what I look for in an altcoin:
A unique feature that makes the altcoin different than the other coins

16. An [ANN] announcement thread on bitcointalk.org with lots of pages.
A dedicated, competent, active developer or development team.
A good name and logo: good branding.
Functional wallets in Windows, Linux, and Mac versions.
Professional website.
Source code on Github.
Traded on many exchanges, the more the better.
Listed on Coinmarketcap.com
Developer maintains a forum.
A Reddit sub-Reddit for the coin with lots of subscribers and posts.
Lots of activity on Twitter search under the hashtag #nameofaltcoin.
An official Twitter page with followers and developer involvement.
Facebook group page with lots of members.
Official Facebook page with fans.
Lots of people mining the altcoin. A large network.
Good volume on Cryptsy (the altcoin exchange with the most traffic).
Lots of Faucets (Internet sites where the developer or big investors give away tiny amounts of the
altcoin), games and gambling sites.
Lots of sells of the altcoin on Ebay.
Giveaways and bounties (coins offered by the developer for helping him with specific jobs) from
developer or community.
Merchant accounts. Places that accept the altcoin for buying goods and services.
Media attention is a nice bonus.
Not an overlarge total supply of coins planned.
Trading on a Chinese exchange
Here’s what I don’t want to see in an altcoin:

17. A developer who abandons the [ANN] announcement thread.
A late launch or screwed up launch.
Premining by developer.
coin designed to be instamined.
Superblocks at the start of mining.
Non-functional wallets at launch.
Pure copycat clone with no new feature or reason for being.
Lame name and logo, poor branding.
Few pages on [Ann] announcement thread.
Poor representation on social media sites.
Not represented on Reddit or poorly represented.
No sense of a community promoting coin.
Not listed on many exchanges.
Not on Coinmarketcap.com
Selling in lots of a million on Ebay.

18. Chapter Five- Altcoins: the good, the bad, and the
ugly
I. The Blue Chips:
1. Litecoin- LTC
Scheduled Total Supply: 82 million
Launched: Oct. 9, 2011
Litecoin is one of the early altcoins and the number one cryptocurrency behind bitcoin. Litecoin has a
large network, a large community behind it, and it is traded on most exchanges. It has some merchant
accounts accepting it for goods and services; however, the list of vendors accepting Litecoin is small.
Many altcoins have been cloned using the Litecoin source code. Litecoin is the most established of
the altcoins and I rate it as a buy and a must have in your portfolio of altcoins.
2. Namecoin- NMC
Scheduled Total Supply: 21 million
Launched: April 18, 2011
Namecoin is one of the earliest of all the altcoins. It is the first altcoin to take advantage of the
flexibility of the bitcoin protocol technology. Bitcoin is more than just a currency, the blockchain is
essentially a ledger system for keeping track of ownership and transactions and this new blockchain
technology can be used for many different things. Namecoin was the first to use the bitcoin technology
to act as a decentralized DNS (Domain Name Server).
Namecoin uses the bitcoin protocol to provide an alternative to the centralized ICAAN DNS system
used by the Internet today. All top level domains such as: com, net, org, etc. are registered at ICAAN,
(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). ICAAN is in America and can be
controlled by the American government. Namecoin offers a DNS system outside of government
control or censorship using the .bit domain. Namecoin is traded at most exchanges and can be merged
mined, (mined at the same time), along with bitcoin. I recommend Namecoin for your altcoin
portfolio.
3. Peercoin- PPC
Scheduled Total Supply: 21 million
Launched: August 12, 2012
Peercoin is an innovative coin that, like Namecoin, is more than just a clone of bitcoin. Peercoin’s
claim to fame is its energy efficiency, due to its Proof of Stake system, making it known as the green
coin. Peercoin was the first coin to offer Proof of Stake and to combine it with Proof of Work. Most
altcoins, including bitcoin, are built with what’s called a Proof of Work system.
Mining is the Proof of Work system. The miner’s computers perform computational puzzles or

19. mathematical problems in order to release the blocks containing the coins from the software program
that are then added to the blockchain. These mathematical problems are sufficiently difficult that the
computer chips are taxed and draw a lot of electricity. The miners doing the computer computations
verify the transactions in the system. While mining and Proof of Work makes a robust network for
transactions it is an energy hog and uses lots of electricity.
The Proof of Stake system is much more energy efficient. In a Proof of Stake system, blocks are
generated by coins that are held by users. A certain amount of coins held for a certain amount of time
will result in a block being released with no mining done and no expensive computational power
used.
Peercoin uses Proof of Work system in the beginning but gradually shifts over to full Proof of Stake.
Peercoin’s Proof of Stake system has been copied by other altcoins who see its benefits.
Peercoin has a great developer, a great community and is an innovative coin in a sea of same old,
same old clone coins. It should be in your altcoin collection.
4. Primecoin- XPM
Scheduled Total Supply: no set total (4 million at time of writing)
Launched: July 7, 2013
Primecoin comes from the same developer as Peercoin and it is known as the scientific coin, since it
does its Proof of Work using algorithms’ searching for prime number chains, which can help
mathematical researchers and other scientists who work with prime numbers. It is widely available
for trade at all exchanges. Primecoin had a fair launch and has a good community and developer
behind it. Primecoin has a good developer, good community and a good reputation in the
cryptocurrency world. I recommend Primecoin as an altcoin investment.
II. Good Bets:
1. Zetacoin- ZET
Scheduled Total Supply: 160 million + small yearly inflation
Launched: August 3, 2013
Zetacoin had a fair launch, but has technically been instamined since most of the total supply of coins
has already been mined in the first few months. Despite this, Zetacoin has garnered a good reputation
and has a great community behind it. They are dedicated to buying and holding and building the coin
up slowly over time. The community developers association is called ZBAD305, Zetacoin builders
association District 305. Their motto is BUY/HOLD/BUILD. They have already made good progress
in promoting and developing the coin. In addition to the new quality website they’ve deigned many
promotional YouTube videos, They have made an android mobile app and are in process of making a
USD/ZET exchange called Zetorg. Zetacoin is very cheap and I love the vibrant, creative community.
Zetacoin has a broad and active social media presence. I think it is a very good bet that may have a
really big payoff.
2. Digitalcoin- DGC
Scheduled Total Supply: 144 million

20. Launched: May 18, 2013
Digitalcoin is a solid coin with clean record. It has a well-respected developer who has remained
active and is working on plans for digitalcoin. It has a large, active community and had a fair launch.
The developer is currently beta testing cryptoave.com. Cryptoave.com is their own proprietary
exchange for digitalcoin, securecoin and argentum, which are all coins by the same developer. It will
be a U.S. dollar to altcoin exchange. There are other major projects in the works and the developer
and community are dedicated to slowly building their coin. I think digitalcoin will end up being a
winner.
3. Quark- QRK
Scheduled Total Supply: 247 million (designed to be mined in six months with a million per year
after that)
Launched: July 21, 2013
Quark was the first altcoin to get some outside of the cryptocurrency scene media exposure. It was
pumped by a couple of well-known YouTube personalities with huge followings, Bill Still and Max
Keiser. This led to it getting some exposure in the regular press. The rest of the bitcoin and altcoin
scene became jealous of this new, little coin getting the spotlight and because Quark was designed for
most of the coins to be mined in the first six months, (essentially a giant instamine), the community
yelled scamcoin. It became known as a scamcoin around the altcoin community.
The publicity Quark received brought a lot of buyers into the coin and it has maintained a large
volume on Cryptsy over time. Quark has grown a strong, active community and is well represented
across all social media. The community is actively working to promote and initiate services for the
coin. They are working hard on translating their website into many languages and finding places that
will accept Quark as payment.
Quark is designed with security in mind with 6 different algorithms, or hashing functions, (bitcoin
only uses one), and 9 rounds of hashing. Many other altcoins have been cloned using the Quark source
code in order to utilize its robust security features.
Quark maintains impressive volume on Cryptsy and has established itself as one of the top altcoins. I
think it is a good bet for your altcoin portfolio.
4. Worldcoin- WDC
Scheduled Total Supply: 265 million
Launched: May 14, 2013
Worldcoin has a team of dedicated developers and a strong community promoting the coin. It has one
of the largest networks. Worldcoin has exceptionally good branding with a good name and good logo.
It is now beta testing Sharmbeck, its U.S. dollar/Worldcoin exchange. As one of the only altcoins
with its own exchange, Worldcoin is growing behind a strong team and community backing and that is
what I look for. Worldcoin is a good bet and a top altcoin.
5. Anoncoin- ANC

21. Scheduled Total Supply: 4.2 million
Launched: June 6, 2013
Contrary to popular belief, bitcoin is not truly anonymous. That’s the reason that Anoncoin was born.
Anoncoin is designed to be a truly anonymous coin. Support for the I2P anonymizing network is
standard in Anoncoin. Anoncoin has an active developer, but also has a complete development team
behind the coin. With the public learning more everyday about the outrages and abuses of the NSA
and our government, I think that more people will eventually realize the need for complete anonymity
in their financial transactions. For this reason, I think that Anoncoin is a good altcoin bet for the
future.
6. Dogecoin- DOGE
Scheduled Total Supply: 100 billion
Launched: December 8, 2013
To the moon!! That is the rallying cry of the community of Doge fans. Dogecoin started as a joke using
one of the most popular internet memes of 2013. It has escalated into a full-blown phenomenon. Most
serious people in the altcoin community turn up their noses at Dogecoin, but it has gotten more media
attention than any other altcoin and it has brought into the altcoin world a lot of new blood, especially
young people. It is leading in number of transactions daily, has one of the largest networks, maintains
one of the strongest volumes and arguably, has one of the most dedicated communities promoting the
coin. My head tells me that no altcoin with 100 billion coins is ever going to be worth any money, but
like Tom Cruise says in the movie Risky Business, sometimes you just have to say Fuck It! Dogecoin
is my pick for crazy long shot bet. If an Internet miracle happens, I don’t want to miss it. Much
currency, very profit, so wow!
7. Vertcoin- VERT
Scheduled Total Supply: 84 million
Launched: Jan 8, 2014
Vertcoin was launched in the middle of the biggest avalanche of altcoin releases in history, early
January 2014. While most of the new releases didn’t get a second look and were dead on arrival,
Vertcoin attracted some attention and has quickly established itself as an up and comer.
Vertcoin is designed to be an ASIC, (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), resistant altcoin. In the
begining, bitcoin was mined using CPU then GPU, but as it became increasingly profitable to mine
bitcoin, specialized integrated circuits were designed specifically to mine bitcoin. Soon ASIC miners
dominated bitcoin mining and drove the GPU miners out. Large, expensive data centers now do most
of the bitcoin mining, not individuals.
Litecoin was the first try to fight back against ASICs. It was designed to work with a scrypt algorithm
instead of the SHA- 256 algorithm used by bitcoin and mined by ASICs. Now however, scrypt ASICs
are being designed and deployed in China. It looks like they will soon flood the market and take over
the mining of scrypt based altcoins, (the most common algorithm used by altcoins), just like they did
SHA-256 based coins.
Vertcoin is a clone of Litecoin and the developer has tweaked the software to be ASIC resistant.

22. Coming in while the news about a new scryptASICs, is fresh on everyone’s mind, Vertcoin has gotten
attention from miners. They promote the coin in order to sell their mined holdings. Although Vertcoin
is new, it is making great strides with lots of social media representation and some exchanges trading
it and also garnering a good price quickly. It had a fair launch and no premine. I have a good feeling
about this risky long shot.
III. Bleeding Edge Innovators
1. Ripple- XRP
Scheduled total Supply: 100 billion
Launched: Spring 2013
Ripple is a payment system and currency developed by a company named Opencoin. Ripple has never
been accepted or endorsed by the bitcoin community, not so much because it is a competitor, but
because it is centralized and it launched closed source. The company, Opencoin, has opened the
source but they have made 100 billion XRP (the ripple currency), and will keep a large percentage
for themselves. The cryptocurrency community doesn’t consider Ripple to be a true altcoin, it is a
sort of different animal. Although is seems to be a good financial payment system, I don’t support
Ripple because it is centralized and I want to see the world become more decentralized.
2. Mastercoin- MSC
Scheduled Total Supply: 619 thousand
Launched: July 31, 2013
Mastercoin is designed to be a protocol layer on top of bitcoin. It is to enable more advanced features
using the bitcoin blockchain technology. They are interested in making a decentralized exchange,
using Mastercoin for smart contracts and other advanced features. If they are able to accomplish these
innovations, I‘ll be an investor, but for now, I‘ll wait and see on Mastercoin because they are not
cheap to buy. Mastercoin is definitely an altcoin to keep an eye on. Do not confuse Mastercoin MSC
with another similar named altcoin Mastercoin MST, which is an unimportant, uninspired, same old
clone.
3. Nextcoin- NXT
Scheduled Total Supply: 100 million
Launched: October 16, 2013
NXT is the first and only altcoin with proprietary code not based on bitcoin. NXT is not a clone of
bitcoin or any other altcoin, the developer wrote the entire source code on his own. The source code
has generously been made open source. NXT doesn’t use mining/Proof of Work, but instead uses a
type of Proof of Stake system. The developer made 100 million NXT and sold them to a group of
investors known as the founders. The founders sell and/or give away NXT to distribute the coin. NXT
had its own small exchange, dgex.com, and that was the only place to buy NXT. However, now, NXT
is available for trade on other exchanges also.
Since there is no mining, and all the coins that will ever be are already in existence, NXT uses a kind

23. of Proof of Stake system. Every transaction is charged a small transaction fee and this fee is
distributed to NXT holders. The larger your holding, the bigger your percentage of the transaction fee.
NXT, plans to take cryptocurrency to the next level as more than just a currency. The platform
technology can be used for censorship free messaging, or a DNS system such as Namecoin is
attempting. NXT makes it possible for decentralized exchanges and Decentralized Autonomous
Corporations.
NXT holds lots of promise but is mostly vaporware at the moment, but they have a solid core team of
developers and a growing community and they are cheap at the moment, so I am buying some as a
long shot and to support an innovator.
4. Protoshares- PTS
Scheduled Total Supply: 2 million (1% annual inflation after 2 years)
Launched: November 5, 2013
Protoshares gets overlooked by a lot of investors because it is confusing and many don’t understand
the concept behind the altcoin. Protoshares are trying to develop Destributed Autonomous
Corporations. These can be thought of as a decentralized IPO, a way for a company to issue shares
using the bitcoin blockchain technology as kind of IPO generator. If you buy a Protoshare, you are
getting a small percentage of shares of any DAC’s they launch.
Protoshares has a team of ambitious developers trying to realize their goal. If they turn out to be the
decentralized version of NASDAQ, early investors will be very happy. Protoshares is still in the
vaporware, we’re gonna, stage and they are not especially cheap to buy, so you must decide if you
think they are worth the risk. Protoshares is definitely dreaming big, but is it only dreaming or will
they succeed? I am very interested in Protoshares, but I’m taking a wait and see attitude on this
altcoin.
IV. Don’t Believe The Hype
1. Earthcoin- EAC
Scheduled Total Supply: 13.5 billion
Launched: December 20, 2013
Earthcoin has managed to attract some attention since its launch and has a growing community. It has a
good name and logo and very attractive branding. However, it is an unremarkable clone with no
redeeming features. Its only claim to fame is a stupid gimmick that fluctuates the block reward based
on the Earth’s rotation. What an innovation!
The developer premined 2%, which means 270 million premined coins in his pocket. I suspect that he
will dump these premined coins off to unsuspecting buyers lured in by the attractive branding and
hype, then he will take their money and run off to his next con. This altcoin is the classic premine,
then pump and dump. Stay away!
2. Megacoin- MEC
Scheduled Total Supply: 42 million

24. Launched: May 29, 2013
Megacoin is an attempt to steal the Mega brand of legendary Internet personality, Kim Dotcom. The
developer is based in New Zealand, as Kim Dotcom is, and calls himself Kimoto trying to make
people think he is secretly Kim Dotcom and that Megacoin is being released by Kim Dotcom. This
blatant brand heist puts me off from this altcoin.
In addition the launch was dodgy as well. The developer didn’t release the source code at launch so
miners avoided the coin. This left the developer as the only one mining the coin for the first week
until he released the code and other miners joined in. It is suspected by some that this was a
deliberately botched launch so the developer could claim no premine, when in fact he alone probably
mined about 6 million coins after the botched launch.
Megacoin seems shady to me and I think it has already seen its best days. I expect the price to fall, not
appreciate.
3. Terracoin- TRC
Scheduled Total Supply: 42 million
Launched: May 13, 2013
Terracoin is basically a straight bitcoin copy with double the scheduled total supply. It uses the same
SHA- 256 algorithm as bitcoin. Terracoin has been a very unlucky coin. Hackers have heavily
attacked Terracoin numerous times. Hackers have broken the coin, taken money from wallets and
exchanges and caused constant problems for the developers to fix.
Most likely, bitcoin developers are behind the attacks on Terracoin. Since it is such a close clone to
bitcoin, they are trying to destroy Terracoin to learn how to improve bitcoin. This is good for bitcoin
but bad for Terracoin investors.
Besides being a hacker target, Terracoin had such a low difficulty set at launch that the early miners
have outsize holdings of the coin and that makes me worry about manipulation by insiders.
I recommend avoiding Terracoin. The altcoin may not experience any more hacks but it may remain a
target of bitcoin developer experiments. I think it is safer to stay away.
4. Feathercoin-FTC
Scheduled total Supply: 336 million
Launched: April 13, 2013
Feathercoin was cloned from Litecoin. As a clone of a clone it brings absolutely nothing new to the
table and adds no value to the altcoin world. The developer of this coin was not technically
competent, but he was good at marketing and Feathercoin is one of the better known altcoins.
Feathercoin was heavily instamined in the first few weeks after it was launched becuse the difficulty
was set so low that the early miners gathered huge holdings of Feathercoin. In fact, almost 50% of the
total supply of Feathercoin was mined in the first 24 hours. Consequently, there are a lot of insiders
with tons of Feathercoin that they use to manipulate the market. Feathercoins best claim to fame is that

25. it is on the BTC-E exchange, but it is alleged that they bribed their way on to the exchange.
There are many people holding Feathercoin because of the effective marketing. Most of these bag
holders are looking to sell to the next buyer. I don’t suggest you to be the next buyer of Feathercoin, I
think its glory days are behind it.
5. Novacoin- NVC
Scheduled Total Supply: 2 billion
Launched: Feb 9, 2013
Novacoin is cloned from Peercoin and shares its Proof of Work/Proof Of Stake hybrid. Novacoin
was secretly premined and they bribed their way on to BTC-E exchange to gain some prestige. Many
people in the cryptocurrency community think that insiders heavily manipulate it. The developer holds
a large portion of all existing coins. It was launched with such a low difficulty that the early miners
now hold large stakes in Novacoin.
Novacoin is relatively expensive and I don’t have a good feeling about it. I recommend caution when
thinking about investing in Novacoin
V. Rare: These altcoins are not trying to become a currency; they want to be used as stores of
wealth. They are designed to have a low supply with the thinking that scarcity will bring a higher
price.
1. Bitbar- BTB
Scheduled total Supply: 9.272
Launched: May 3, 2013
Bitbar is another of the many coins that set a very low difficulty for the early miners, (This always
includes the developer), In the case of Bitbar, almost 50% of the total supply of coins was mined in
the first few hours.
These kind of shenanigans by a developer who proclaims the fairness of his launch on the
announcement always make me suspect of the altcoin.
Bitbar has done well and gained a large price from buyers, but I’m not one of them and don’t intend to
be. There are enough fair launch coins available, so I ignore altcoins with developers who practice
chicanery at their launch.
2. Cryptogenic Bullion- CGB
Scheduled Total Supply: 1 million (.5% annual inflation)
Launched: June 28, 2013
Cryptogenic Bullion had a 1% premine, but that is not my problem with this altcoin. It just hasn’t
attracted enough attention to get mine. Seems to have a community and a pretty good price, so it might
be worth a look. I just don’t see any distinguishing reason to invest in this coin.
3. Diamond- DMD

26. Scheduled Total Supply: 4 million, 389 thousand
Launched: July 13, 2013
Diamond was abandoned by the developer and almost became a dead coin. Then as often happens to
dying coins, some of the community of investors took over the coin and formed a team to assume the
developers role.
Diamond has a nice name but it remains to be seen if the new regime can revive the altcoin or not.
They seem to be working hard at promoting the coin and maybe they can generate some buzz for
Diamond. Before investing in this altcoin, I would want to see some sign of excitement about the coin
first.
4. Franko-Frk
Scheduled Total Supply- 11 million
Launched: May 11, 2013
Launched with accusations of premine and a botched launch that allowed the developer to instamine
even more. Franko has never generated a lot of excitement. It remains boring today. There is nothing
special about this Litecoin clone. I don’t expect a good future for this coin.
5. Unobtanium-UNO
Scheduled Total Supply: 250 Thousand
Launched: October 18, 2013
Unobtanium hasn’t generated a lot of buzz, but it hasn’t been completely ignored either and more
people seem to be taking notice. It has some social media representation. I consider this altcoin to be
a wait and see.
6. RonPaulcoin- RPC
Scheduled Total Supply: 2 million 100 thousand
Launched: December 28, 2013
RonPaulcoin was launched around the same time as the Coinye West coin and I expected that it was
just a cease and desist letter from a lawyer away from doom like Coinye. However, Ron Paul
appeared on a CNBC interview and talked about the coin. He didn’t seem to have a problem with it,
so I think Ron Paul’s lawyers may not harass the developers of this altcoin.
RonPaulcoin has generated a lot of excitement since its launch and already attained a price close to
that of Litecoin, which is pretty incredible for a new altcoin. RonPaulcoin had a fair launch and has a
dedicated developer and an active, (almost cult-like), community promoting the coin. Ron Paul has a
super dedicated following and it seems that many of them are in the cryptocurrency scene. If they can
bring in more of Ron Paul’s followers from outside the cryptocurrency scene, this coin could be a big
winner. I think RonPaulcoin is worth taking a chance on. It’s a long shot that may payoff.
7. 42coin-42
Scheduled Total Supply: 42
Launched: January 5, 2014

27. 42 is taking the scarcity trend to an extreme. Only 42 coins scheduled. In Douglas Adam’s book, The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42. However, I
doubt that 42 is the answer to what makes a successful cryptocurrency. They are selling tiny fractions
like .00000001 and calling it a Dent (after Arthur Dent in the Hitchhikers Guide book, do you get how
clever they are?). There was a 1% premine or .42, which is significant considering not even one full
42 has been mined yet and there are only fractions available.
42 has attracted quite a bit of attention with its gimmick. I think a lot of these buyers are going to end
up as bag holders hoping for someone to buy their worthless Dents. While this is all good fun and life,
the universe and everything, I am going to pass on this silliness and I recommend you stay away from
42. I invite you to instead wait for my new coin: Singlecoin- “There can be only one”. You will
probably want to invest everything you have in that. They will be sold in fractions of .000000000001
to be called a nothing.
VI. Meh...- Not every altcoin is shady, or has something bad about it. Sometimes there’s just no
there, there. They may be perfectly fine altcoins, but there is no buzz, no excitement surrounding the
coin. Most of these coins have gotten some traction and are listed on Coinmarketcap.com but they
seem to be fading, not growing. I think most of these are doomed to a slow, and painful for their
investors, death.
1. Datacoin- DTC I like this coin and think it’s a shame that it ends up in the Meh... category. It is one
of the few truly innovative coins. Datacoin uses the blockchain for data storage. The bitcoin
technology is used for file storage in addition to currency use. However, the coin is getting no love,
so meh.
2. Stablecoin- SBC Stablecoin was premined and abandoned by its developer and died off, but the
developer returned destroyed the premined coins and revived the coin. He promised and has been
working on a mixing service incorporated into Stablecoin to make transactions anonymous.
Stablecoin experienced a surge in interest after the revival, but that interest has since waned. The
developer says that the mixing service is in beta testing now. I don’t care and I don’t trust that the
developer won’t abandon the coin again.
3. Freicoin-FRC Freicoin has a unique twist. In an attempt to make sure that holders of Freicoin use it
as a currency instead of just holding it for investment, Freicoin charges a demurrage fee of 4.9% on
your holdings. This means that your money will lose value if you don’t spend it. I don’t know if this
sounds like a good idea to you, but it doesn’t seem to be attracting too much interest to Freicoin, so
far.
4. Devcoin- DVC Devcoin is one of the few coins that can be merged mined, (mined at the same
time), with bitcoin. Devcoin is designed so that only a small percentage of the blocks mined go to the
miners, while a large percentage goes to help developers of open source projects and creative
commons licensed literary works. Although this may be a laudable endeavor, I don’t see this as a
good investment.
Other Meh... (yawn)

28. 5. Tagcoin- TAG
6. Netcoin- NTC
7. Sexcoin- SXC
8. Ixcoin- IXC
9. Mincoin-MNC
10. BBQcoin- BQC
11. Extremecoin- EXC
12. Memorycoin-MMC
13. Fastcoin- FST
14. Frozen- FZ
15. Ascicoin- ASC
16. Iocoin-IOC
17. Yacoin- Yac
18. Junkcoin- JKC
19. Florincoin- FLO
20. Grandcoin-GDC
21. QQcoin - QQC
22. Philosopher Stones- PHS
23.Bytecoin- BTE
24. eToken- ETOK
25. Globalcoin- GBC
26. Deutsche eMark- DEM
27. Grain- GRA
28. Krugercoin- KGC
29. Betacoin-BET
30. Tigercoin-TGC
31. EZcoin- EZC
32. Elacoin-ELC
34. Argentum- ARG
35. Luckycoin-LKY
36. HoboNickels- HBN
37. Casinocoin- CSC
38. Craftcoin-CRC
39. Noirbits-NRB
40. Joulecoin- XJO
41. Xivra-XIV
42. YBcoin-YBC
43. Securecoin- SRC
44. Catcoin- CAT
VII. The Trouble With Tribbles- The Trouble with Tribbles was a famous Star Trek television
episode. Tribbles were furry creatures everyone loved, but the trouble with them was that they
reproduced so rapidly that there ended up being just too many Tribbles. No one wanted them because

29. there were too many of them. These altcoins are like Tribbles, no one wants them because there are
too many of them for the price to ever rise significantly. For many of them, if they ever reached a
dollar apiece they would have a market capitalization larger than any currency on earth, so significant
price rises are impossible and they are bad investments. Stay away from these Tribbles.
1. Infinitecoin-IFC- 98 billion
2. Dimecoin- DMC- 460 billion
3. Tickets- TIX- 66 billion
4. Mooncoin- MOON- 384 billion
5. Fedoracoin- TIPS- 500 billion
6. Billioncoin- BIL- 10 billion
7. Colossuscoin-COL- 550 billion
8. NicholasCagecoin- CAGE- 100 billion
9. Lottocoin -LOT- 18 billion
10. Alphaomegacoin AOC- 999 billion
11. Android Tokens- ADT- 66 billion
12. Deutsche eMarks- DEM- 20 billion
13. Earthcoin-EAC- 13.5 billion
14. Fireflycoin- FFC- 700 billion
15. Graincoin- GRA- 50 billion
16. Nutcoin- NUT- 92 billion
17. Xivracoin-XIV- 8.4billion
18 Noodlyappendagecoin- NDL- 13.7 billion
VIII. Oh Hell No!
1. Coinye- COYE
Scheduled Total Supply: 133 billion
Launched: Jan 2, 2014
Imma let you finish reading, but Coinye West is the most messed up altcoin of all time! Coinye was

30. originally launched as Coinye West coin with a likeness of the entertainer on the coin. It was the first
altcoin to get media coverage even before launch. Kayne West had his lawyers send a cease and
desist letter to the developers and anyone else they could target that had anything to do with the coin,
including exchanges and even Amazon because some servers were on their cloud I suppose.
The developers abandoned the project under duress and some of the community took over the
development of the coin, but I doubt that any exchange will ever touch it again and I think it is a
doomed coin. Take a cue from the developers and run away!
2. Pennies- CENT
Scheduled Total Supply: one billion
Launched: August 6, 2013
Pennies was scheduled to release a lot of coins, one billion of them, but the Proof of Stake system
was so broken that miners were able to get many billions of them. Pennies is one of the most broken
altcoins due to developer incompetence. You can buy ten million CENTs for a few dollars on Ebay.
Stay away from this altcoin.
3. Goldcoin- GLD
Scheduled Total Supply: 100 million
Launched: May 15, 2013
Goldcoin is one of the most classic examples of a scamcoin. When it originally launched, it was
instamined with low starting difficulty and superblocks for the first 200 blocks. To ensure that the
developer mined the first 200 blocks the coin launch was announced in the newbie section of
bitcointalk.org instead of the usual alternative currencies section. The developer mined Eight million
Goldcoin in the first 24 hours. After such a scummy move, Goldcoin was declared a scam and soon
died off. A comman/trader bought up all the worthless Goldcoin he could and relaunched the coin,
(trying to hide its background), and sell to new buyers coming into the altcoin scene. He is still
dumping his stash off on unsuspecting investors in Goldcoin. Stay away form this scamcoin.
4. Copperlark CLR
Scheduled Total Supply: 27 million
Launched: June 6, 2013
Copperlark is an altcoin from a Russian developer and this has been a problem for the coin as he has
been unable to provide much English language support for the coin. But the main problem with
Copperlark is that it was premined for 8 million of the altcoin that are called larks.
That’s two big strikes and you’re out if you’re a smart investor.
5. Phenixcoin- PHX
Scheduled Total Supply: 168 million
Launched: May 20, 2013
Phenixcoin launched with a one million premine by the developer. They also ran an exchange that
many people complained about because of not getting their withdrawals. Lately, their network is

31. shrinking as miners leave. This coin smells bad in every way and they can’t even spell phoenix.
6. Orbitcoin- ORB
Scheduled Total Supply: 31 million
Launched: July 13, 2013
Orbitcoin holds the distinction to be known as the most premined coin, ever. Up to 66% of the total
coins were premined by the developer. He is still looking to sell to new bag holders; don’t be one of
them.
IX. The Walking Dead, D.O.A., and Stone-cold Dead.- Altcoins never really die , they
just get ignored and unused. If you have any of these altcoins you are officially a bag holder. Don’t
feel bad, it happens to the best of us. There is always the slight chance that a team of developers will
rush in and take over one of these coins and promote it into popularity and profitability, but there is
better chance trying to get rich with a Powerball ticket in my opinion.
This list is only a tiny, partial list, a complete list would have been longer than my book, so this is
just a representation to remind you that most of these altcoins will end up being worthless. Take your
time, study the market, and choose your investments wisely or you could end up bag holding a bunch
of one of these.
1. Valuecoin- VLC
2. Xmascoin-XMAS
3. Zccoin-ZCC
4. Gilcoin-GIL
5. Globecoin- GLB
6. Gridcoin- GRC
7. Hypercoin- HYC
8. Hotcoin-HTC
9. Icoin-ICOIN
10. Incacoin-NKA
11. Cloudcoin-CDC
12. Communitrycoin- CTC
13.Kittehcoin-MEOW
14. Dragoncoin-DGC
15. Ecocoin-ECO
16. Elephantcoin- ELP
17. Mastercoin- MST
18. Lucky7coin-LK7
19. Blakecoin-BLC
20. Nibble-NBL
21. Gamecoin-GME
22. Krugercoin-KGC
23. Americancoin- AMC
24. Fellatiocoin- BLO

32. 25. Spots-SPT
26. Onecoin-ONC
27. Alphacoin- ALF
28. Tekcoin- TEK
29. Galaxycoin-GLX
30. Chaincoin- CHC
31. Milancoin-MLC
32.Teslacoin- TES
33. Radioactivecoin-RAD
34. Leadcoin-LDC
35. eCoin - ECN
36. Batcoin-BAT
37. Fckbankscoin- FCK
38. Dieselcoin- DZL
39. Noodlyapendagecoin-NDL
40 Alphaomegacoin- AOC
41. Unioncoin-UNC
42. Solidcoin-SC
43. Tenebrix- TBX
44. Fairbrix-FBX
45. Rucoin-RUC
46 Mmmcoin- MMM
47. Giest Geld- GG
48. Coiledcoin-CLC
49. Chncoin- CNC
50. Zenithcoin-ZTC

33. Chapter Six: Trading Tips and Tricks
Almost always, Buy and hold is the best strategy. It has paid off incredibly for bitcoin and litecoin
investors and will continue to pay those who simply buy and don’t sell despite the ups and downs.
When you make an investment that you think is in a many year uptrend, believe in it and hold.
Never panic sell! Dips in prices test the weak hands that can’t hold. Weak hands will be sorry they
sold. Be strong like bull, hold through the hard times, you will be rewarded in time.
Don’t chase a winner. Sometimes you will see an altcoin’s price rising rapidly. You want to grab it
and get some of that upward price movement.
This is panic buying and should be avoided. After every significant price rise there is almost always
a correction. If you see a major price rise, don’t buy at the top, wait for the inevitable correction to
buy if you think the altcoin is on an uptrend.
I like to buy a goodly amount of an altcoin I think has promise and then wait. Patience is key. If I get
lucky and there is a price rise, I sell enough of my coins to pay back my investment and maybe even a
little profit. I keep the rest of my coins as free money to let it ride for long-term gains.
You can check which altcoins have the most volume daily at Coinmarketcap.com. Although they are
ordered by market capitalization, if you click the volume button on the navigation headings it will list
them by daily volume. This is handy to see which coins are hot and trending up.
Watch the announcement section of alternative currencies on bitcointalk.org forum and look for new
altcoins gaining buzz and interest. Try to buy in early as you can. If you buy on the bitcointalk.org
forum be careful and only deal with Sr. members with lots of activity and good reputations. It’s risky
to buy on the forums or on Reddit but sometimes it’s worth it. If you do buy on one of these venues,
please use an escrow service. You will find a few escrow services on the sticky thread on the
alternative currencies section of bitcointalk.org cautioning to beware when buying and selling. There
are some escrow services on the web also. If someone is in a hurry to trade or rushing you, watch out.
There is no reason for a rushed sale except a scammer wants to hurry.
If you submit a withdrawal on Cryptsy, remember that you have to acknowledge the request for
confirmation of withdrawal email they send you or nothing will happen. On my first withdrawal I
waited a week and found out they were waiting for me to respond to the email before they initiated
the withdrawal.
Always encrypt your wallets and when you download a new wallet it may take a while before it
begins syncing. This is normal, just be patient and it will usually eventually begin syncing. The initial
syncing of the blockchain in your wallet can take hours sometimes. If it freezes, (this happens a lot),
shut down the wallet and restart it. This will usually start it syncing again where it left off. Stop and
start it as much as necessary until it is fully synced. Wallets are kind of a pain, but it is just part of the
game.

34. Always use two-factor identification if it is offered by an exchange.
Be careful when downloading wallets of new altcoins. There have been cases where the wallets
contained malware that stole other coins from other wallets. There are a lot of thieves and scammers
in the cryptocurrency scene. Don’t be the first to download things, check the forum that others have
successfully downloaded and installed wallets with no problems before you try it. Be safe out there.
I hope this book helps you as you enter the crazy, chaotic world of altcoins and may you be blessed
with luck. May all of your coins go to the moon! In the end, it’s always better to be lucky than good,
but hopefully this book will help you take your first steps to becoming a successful altcoin investor.
If you think this book helped you and you’re feeling generous; donations are gladly accepted. If
you’re so inclined and would be so kind:
1M1nq6PPj9JDA74vzG7HJhNxA1eqxsxFJt -BTC
LQzcXhibbtydTebZ4Z39hFodP3pR3x84iT - LTC
DKaYpS1PJkZH45KQNd3HiufAxceWNsxsTU - DOGE
so mooch, very beg, much thanks.