Bitcoin, and to a slightly lesser extent Ethereum, are schelling points for crypto. There are good reasons for this. Both bitcoin and ethereum created something new and interesting. In a world where you are trying to pick the coin that everyone else is going to pick, which one will you pick? The Nth of its kind, or the one that created the kind to begin with? That’s why they account for a huge majority of total value of all crypto currencies.

Edit: obviously this is an oversimplification and there are other factors like quality of governance, quality of the underlying tech, and so on. But I believe the above is the crucial factor.

Anybody can easily create a coin, but if the coin has no market share or broad usage, it has no practical value.

We can make infinite coin types, with each coin type having an infinite number of tradable units; all that matters is adoption. Bitcoin is far more likely to be accepted than a coin you invent tomorrow.

You had it with 'we can make infinite coin types' - who cares about what is adopted today? People change platforms every few years. What happened to MySpace? What's happening to Facebook even now? Where did TikTok come from? There is turnover.

Anyone can create a Craigslist clone, but somehow they still make 100s of millions of dollars per year.

Yep, this is what people are not understanding. Too many engineers and not enough business owners on HN. The hardest part of starting a business is getting the network effects on your side, it isn't the tech.

Sure, but then why have a market for hundreds of coins? We dont have a public market for all the craigslist wannabes because they are not relevant at that level.

Not all exchanges list all coins. Also, we DO have a public market for craigslist wannabes...it's called the internet and you can launch one tomorrow.

And not just a craigslist clone, but a much much better one too!

They are relevant because, for any given coin/chain, it seems to be pretty damn hard to hack the numbers. The only way to get some is to mine for a long time with expensive hardware, or to convince someone to give you some by giving them cash. Turns out enough people have enough interest in the things that they don't give them up very easily.

The dollar was just created but is not irrelevant.