It appears to me that much of the exchange value of bitcoin has been driven by speculation upon future rewards. If true, maybe JesusCoin has more merit than it appears at first blush. As Pascal might say, "what have you got to lose?"
+ I find the use of "altcoin" to cover all CryptoCurrency that isn't bitcoin an interesting coption of terminology.
+ Non-profit doesn't mean charity. One hypothesis is that bitcoin foundation members had a vested interest in putting off MtGox's collapse for as long as possible. I'm not sure if this is better or worse than the alternative hypothesis that the most knowledgeable minds in the bitcoin industry had no clue that MtGox was insolvent.
+ The technical sophistication of the bitcoin team provided the false halo that created trust of organizations in the bitcoin industry who have to roll their own security - i.e. the cryptographic sophistication of bitcoin does not make a bitcoin exchange secure. None of the "altcoins" solve the problem of stolen coins.
+ Altair was the first mover in the personal computer space.
And Ebay was the first mover in the online auction space. I'm sure we can cherrypick counterexamples all day, but in general the first mover enjoys an advantage those that come after do not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager
Tangentially:
+ I find the use of "altcoin" to cover all CryptoCurrency that isn't bitcoin an interesting coption of terminology.
+ Non-profit doesn't mean charity. One hypothesis is that bitcoin foundation members had a vested interest in putting off MtGox's collapse for as long as possible. I'm not sure if this is better or worse than the alternative hypothesis that the most knowledgeable minds in the bitcoin industry had no clue that MtGox was insolvent.
+ The technical sophistication of the bitcoin team provided the false halo that created trust of organizations in the bitcoin industry who have to roll their own security - i.e. the cryptographic sophistication of bitcoin does not make a bitcoin exchange secure. None of the "altcoins" solve the problem of stolen coins.
+ Altair was the first mover in the personal computer space.