Thanks for the feedback. I think the value is in the fact there is more community support, particularly with certain projects such as SmartCash, Dash, and Steemit.

Decentralized currencies won't be manipulated on the level of central banks and that is a very good thing. Will there be fraud and abuse in the space? Absolutely, Bitconnect and other scam projects have proved that, and one could argue that Ripple is an example of this as well.

Value is determined by the market. Some projects have much more backing them up than others, it will be interesting to see how crypto plays out over the next few years. Valid questions though, I appreciate the input.