Bitcoin's going great...
But what the hell is happening with altcoins?
Can't we follow the old rule? When bitcoin goes up, alts go up too? 
But what the hell is happening with altcoins?


If you think that there is such a "rule", then your thinking is deluded.
Sure, sometimes there is correlation... sometimes there is coattail dynamics, sometimes there is pumpening that goes beyond bitcoin, but these are not rules.. Every pump and dump cycle has it's own dynamics that may not be exactly predictable, but in this case there does seem to be some possible recognition of value.. that is bitcoin is much fucking more valuable than a bunch of copycat white papers, claiming to be bitcoin 2.0, with features that largely could be built upon bitcoin or a sidechain of bitcoin.. So it is not that the alts do not provide some value, but frequently their issuing of coins causes way more perception of value rather than fundamental value in terms of various networking and building that takes time rather than pure theories.
Well, whatever is the proper term, we do not need a bunch of these ICOs that are claiming to be able to do something better than bitcoin.. whether it is a sidechain or some other technical way in which a lot of the various proposed functionality (to the extent that they are valuable within bitcoin and blockchain) will likely become part of bitcoin or some kind of related bitcoin appendage.