Hi fellow reader, I’m glad you’re here. Although this writing is addressed to a wide audience, even sophisticated readers may grasp some really valuable points from it. For some people, this read may become something even bigger. Here we will talk about a cryptocurrency, ultimately intended to become a convenient means of payment and maybe even more.
In today’s cryptospace we may see hundreds of projects aimed to become a payment solution, but are they really that different from each other? Just recently I went through tens of new projects to see if I was missing something interesting or unique – no, most of them are the same with little to no differences. You may guess that in a long-term there won’t be enough room for hundreds of cryptocurrencies. Only a few of them will prosper, leaving others to slowly disappear or to survive thanks to the desperate efforts of early adopters or the inflow of naive newbie investors. So in order to seek for the best ones, we should first determine the existing problems of the most popular top cryptocurrencies.
I believe some top cryptos are here to stay. I’m not going to reveal my opinions regarding all of them. Here I’ll mention the most popular and relevant to the topic. Let’s take Bitcoin and Dash to see what are their pros and cons and what can be done better. I’m leaving Litecoin aside as conceptually it is very close to Bitcoin. Ethereum is also not referred to here – its development plan focuses beyond the means of payment. So let’s have a quick look at how Bitcoin and Dash became what they are now, what created value and what problems they faced. Knowledgeable ones may skip the next chapter not to get bored ))
Take off and landing
Bitcoin over time gathered an army of inspired minds and fans. Those who believed that they have the right to be independent of banks and governments when it comes to controlling own assets. People loved the idea of the asset with a deflationary model - they needed something that will help them to save funds and to accumulate earnings. They also needed a means of fast, cheap and safe money transfers to anywhere in the World without a hassle with documents and time wasting. Let’s also face it – many saw an opportunity to make a good investment. The most value came from wide adoption. People believed in Bitcoin and started to accumulate, to trade and to use it.
Yet Bitcoin was confronted with several problems. The biggest one (that still persists) was the problem of consensus finding. The power over decisions regarding Bitcoin destiny was distributed over corporate miners, big exchanges, and the core team. At times, views on how to scale and develop the blockchain further were completely different, thus Bitcoin faced network issues and severe delays implementing vital upgrades. This problem aroused from the fact that initially, mineable coin became possible to be mined only with the use of specialized hardware (ASICs) rendering amateur hardware such as CPUs and GPUs unprofitable. ASICs were manufactured by a limited number of manufacturers being actively involved in the mining process. So they were among the most influential parties in Bitcoin. Another problem with Bitcoin is its mining concept that has led to the fact, that Bitcoin Proof-Of-Work mining consumes an enormous amount of electricity. This one is unlikely to be dealt with soon – highly influential miners invested tons of money into equipment and would combat any proposals towards optimization of the mining process.
Dash appeared on the scene in 2014 addressing to known issues Bitcoin was facing. Dash introduced innovative ideas and applied technologies towards improved privacy, better mining decentralization and transaction speed. In order to facilitate some features, Dash implemented MasterNodes – energy-efficient hardware nodes, backed up by stacking of 1000 of Dash (this measure was introduced to ensure good intentions of node’s operator). Also, Dash decided to set aside 10% block rewards for own fund, aimed to develop Dash further. Anyone could submit a proposal for funding. MasterNode owners were able to vote on proposals and key network decisions.
Still far from perfect
All problems solved, right? Although innovative improvements of Dash vastly improved the overall model of decentralized cryptocurrency, some dramatic drawbacks can be easily spotted. First of all, good ecosystem should care most for the majority of participants. Regarding cryptocurrency, the end users are the ones to be most heard and cared for. They are the majority. If they are served by a caring government, they are safe. Even traditional government model entitles own citizens the right to vote. In Dash such a privilege belongs only to MasterNode owners. Considered that the current price for the node is more than half a million USD, you can imagine how limited is the number of decision-makers. And what should happen that MasterNode owners would one day decide to cast voting power to all?
Another thing to look at is block rewards. Although 10% of those is going to development fund, another 90% still goes to miners and node owners allowing them to accumulate the majority of newly issued coins. Thus they make a crucial decision whether or not to sell at any given time frame.
On top of that, Dash launch was compromised with instant premine, what at late 2015 was estimated as approximately 32% of existing coins. The amount of premined coins is about 10% of total Dash supply ever to be issued. Although Dash creator and developer explained the issue as a bug in the code, still many believe this affected Dash reputation in a negative way.
A smart approach to a viable model
So let's see what can be done in order to come closer to the definition of the perfect cryptocurrency. Considering the fact that cryptocurrency is an asset owned by many participants within the ecosystem, the rational solution should include the opportunity to allow every participant to contribute to development and decision-making process. In other words, the ecosystem should include fair and transparent governance model. Perfect cryptocurrency should also include all the features initially highly valued by people - true decentralization and usability.
Proof-Of-Work mining algorithm is efficient in terms of blockchain security and robustness, though extremely inefficient when it comes to mining costs and scaling. Not only introduction of Proof-Of-Stake algorithm allows to reduce such costs, but also it offers technical means to allow much more transactions per time frame (blockchain capacity).
What would let the perfect cryptocurrency to stay afloat in the competitive market? Right, the ability to evolve and change if necessary, the ability to move in right direction. While this looks like an obvious task, necessary decisions, valid solutions, and effective implementations may appear to be an extremely hard to pursue. This is where the crowd wisdom and outstanding skills should be applied better than anything else. Here we came to the point where perfect cryptocurrency should seek for the help from own community.
Another thing to consider good for a cryptocurrency is a relatively low volatility. Deflationary model obviously attracted many Bitcoin users, although some additional steps towards price stabilization would contribute to faster adoption. It's just too hard to use in real life the means of payment with rapidly changing value, especially when the price direction is uncertain. The nodes technology requires node owners to stake coins thus reducing the number of coins hitting the exchanges. This contributes to the price stabilization, though some additional measures wouldn't hurt.
It's already happening
If you still think that all described above only represents a hypothetical example, I'm glad to surprise you that I have come across the project that ultimately may become a perfect cryptocurrency with unlimited ability to evolve. I'd like to make a stress on ultimately here as the project is still in its very young phase of development. If you read the article attentively, you will see that all the suggestions mentioned here are taken into account. And the project is called... No, I'll save it for later, meanwhile calling the project, that was born in 2017, just "the project", "the coin", "the system" and so on. Stay with me ;)
Not only the project has the opportunity to use the wisdom and the best skills from the members of own community, it actually strongly incentivizes the community to contribute in one or another way. So from the social point of view, the project may be seen as an incentivized decentralized community. Sounds rather exciting, right? So let's have an in-depth look at the mysterious asset, suspected in becoming a perfect cryptocurrency one day.
While you continue reading, please keep in mind, that thanks to the governance structure of the project, all the below mentioned features of the project may change over time in favor of overall success should the community decide so.
Fair distribution
Many of early cryptocurrencies underestimated the importance of the distribution of the new coins. In fact, in most of the cryptos, all the new coins are going straight to the miners and node keepers. While it's hard to underestimate the importance of those maintaining the blockchain work, what about the others contributing their talent, time and efforts? Do they invariably have to become both investors and contributors in order to benefit from the growth of their child? What about code writers, graphic designers, brainstormers, marketing strategists, translators, activists, campaigners, copywriters, SEO specialists etc.? True, it would be fair if the system was able to take them all into account. So let's see what the situation with mining block rewards looks like in this not yet named coin:
| Miners | 5% |
| Nodes | 10% |
| SmartRewards | 15% |
| Community fund | 70% |
You may ask yourself why are miners still present in the system while we considered the Proof-Of-Work technology obsolete and inefficient? Well, the miners were there to start the project from the ground when nodes technology was under planning and development. Would miners disappear at some point in the future? Likely.
SmartRewards is something that may have caught your attention. I mentioned before, that it wouldn't hurt to add additional measure apart from nodes to contribute to price stabilization, lowering the number of coins in circulation. In a way, SmartRewards resembles saving accounts in the traditional banking system. Those who wouldn't spend coins from own address for a whole month receives SmartRewards. The proportional amount of SmartRewards is distributed across all eligible holders monthly. Unlike bank saving accounts, the coins should remain untouched from the specific date which is 25th of every month. Currently, in order to be eligible for SmartRewards, the address have to hold the minimum amount of 1000 coins from 25th of any given month to the 25th of the next month. Obviously, the profit depends both on the total quantity of mined coins and the number of coins on eligible addresses. The minimum amount eligible for SmartRewards may be reduced in the future, though current rate makes it rather affordable to consider for most people in developed countries.
Community treasure fund is among the smartest concepts of the ecosystem. The fund is used for the variety of purposes, including both essential development and maintenance needs and community projects. Who can come up with a community project? Virtually anyone can submit a proposal for funding own project benefiting the whole ecosystem. You may assume a marketing campaign or a useful plugin as simple examples of community projects. Though projects are limited only by a creativity and skills of the author. Any coin holder regardless of the amount owned has the right to vote on both community projects and general issues. Obviously, not any project will be approved and funded, leaving overpriced and unsound projects aside. Employing the best resources and wisdom from own community, the system incentivizes members with different talents and abilities to contribute.
The crypto mint
Undoubtedly, one of the most attractive things about Bitcoin is its limited supply. So here we also have nearly limited supply. Nearly? Let's see why is that. Actually, the coin emission rate is determined by a simple logic:
BlockReward = 5000 (143500/BlockHeight) AND Max BlockReward = 5000
While this may look not very simple at a glance, it actually means that block rewards are getting smaller and smaller gradually, to be exact, every 55 seconds. On the contrary, Bitcoin block reward is known for halving approximately every 4 years, what is not good at all for volatility. So in our project, gradual emission decrease was made on purpose, again to contribute to price stabilization.
If we calculate the total supply for upcoming years using the formula above and represent the data as a graph, we will see something like this:
You may notice that the total supply will approach 5 billion in 2100. While on Coinmarketcap the total supply for the project is showed as 5 billion, this is not precisely correct. What would happen next then? Right, the emission will go on. Unlike Bitcoin, transaction commissions here are extremely low, that's why proper motivation for node owners is needed. Oh my, the coin has an unlimited supply, how could I ever imagine it to be perfect? However, it's not that scary at all. If we continue calculations, we'll see, that the issue of another billion coins would take about 300 years:
You may think of the total supply as of the limited number and assume that at this pace of emission, the model is very likely to remain deflationary. If you think that the overall supply of the coin is big, then remember that people prefer to operate whole numbers rather than fractional numbers like in Bitcoin or Dash.
The SmartNodes
The nodes were introduced in the project in the beginning of 2018. If you don't know what the node is, here is a simple explanation. Traditionally, miners kept the blockchain running making accompanying calculations, just to prove that real computational resources are allocated. Such collateral calculations weren't functionally useful for the blockchain. On the contrary, nodes are able to do the necessary job without accompanying calculation, because nodes prove their devotion to the blockchain by stacking (depositing) a significant amount of coins. So if someone would decide to attack the network, it would become unprofitable for him.
Current ROI (return on investment) for the SmartNode is relatively high, so the number of nodes continues to grow. At the end of February 2018, the quantity of nodes was getting closer to 10000 allowing the project to set a new record with nodes number among all cryptocurrencies. Out of curiosity, I've created a map to see what are the most popular places currently hosting many nodes: SmartNodes cities map
You may have noticed there that while some locations have just a node or two, larger cities may be overcrowded with nodes. Those who decide to maintain a node for the blockchain and care for the better decentralization should try to avoid setting up a node in the cities already hosting a lot of nodes:
| Monreal | 1230+ SmartNodes |
| Amsterdam | 665+ SmartNodes |
| Singapore | 605+ SmartNodes |
| Frankfurt | 455+ SmartNodes |
| London | 425+ SmartNodes |
| Atlanta | 315+ SmartNodes |
| Sydney | 315+ SmartNodes |
| Los Angeles | 270+ SmartNodes |
| Dallas | 230+ SmartNodes |
| Toronto | 225+ SmartNodes |
Also, to minimize the possibility of creating a single point of failure for the blockchain, choose a VPS provider other than Vultr, OVH SAS and Digital Ocean. Thankfully, there are plenty of VPS providers available.
Current transaction time on the blockchain is often less than a few minutes, yet soon nodes will serve as a technical tool to maintain the feature of instant payments, that is essential for a perfect cryptocurrency.
What else is on the menu
A good development plan is what most of the hundreds of existing cryptocurrencies are lacking. Here we have something really interesting. Apart from instant payments, the project has an extensive roadmap. I'll mention some of the features, leaving you an opportunity to dig deeper on your own. Invisible addresses will improve the privacy of coin users, allowing them to hide transaction history if they so wish. SmartCard would introduce a payment means that safely holds the private keys allowing payments without 3rd party processing the transaction. The project is going to launch 24/7 support center to assist new users and merchants. Atomic swaps will ease the task of exchange for other cryptocurrencies without a mediating party. Adaptive blocks will serve for further scaling maximizing the number of transactions per second. As I said, that's not it, you are encouraged to explore more.
Congratulations
Well, if you were patient and curious enough to read till this point, you deserve to know the name of the coin, the incentivized community and the decentralized ecosystem. The good name can be both sound and meaningful. The good name creates value and serves a purpose. The project you just read so many words about was created by smart people applying smart strategies and attracting smart contributors. The project is aimed to become an easy to use means of payment. Almost as simple as cash. So here we go:
Where to get more information on the subject? Do you really think that I know? Should you try to Google it? Just kidding )) If you would like to learn more about SmartCash please visit https://smartcash.cc/