Altcoin boom!

Over the past week, the real appreciable gains have been in the altcoins.  Maybe they are playing catch-up.  Maybe there is a psychological barrier regarding the bitcoin price and people are looking for (and fulfilling their own prophecy) the next up and coming crypto-currency.  Whatever the case I got a surprise dropped on my lap when I remembered that for a year I was simultaneously mining Namecoin with my Bitcoin.  Now if only the Namecoin client wasn't so inefficient updating its own blockchain so I could do something with them.

My take on the altcoin market tends to be fairly curmudgeonly.  They don't provide anything I need that bitcoin does not already do.  Litecoin in particular draws my ire because it really seems to bring nothing new to the table.  Faster confirmations at the cost of a more cumbersome blockchain.  I do, however, shine to the argument that the altcoin space is a great place to prove out other ideas to bring into bitcoin and I also believe that having more avenues in this space makes the activity of crypto-currency that much more robust and able to survive attack.  If basic investment has taught us anything is that you diversify to mitigate risk.