#SolarCoin developed quickly after Christmas, increasing 22% in value to around $.70 from circa $0.55 and remaining steady for the last five days. The cryptocurrency to support solar generators remains on a regular price increase trajectory - for the past four months SolarCoins have increased in value by 50% each month.
This indicates that the reach of the SolarCoin network is increasing. In his book, The Nature of Value, SolarCoin co-founder Nick Goherty posits that a currency's value goes up as the size of the network using it increases.
For SolarCoin, this theory seems to be bearing out. In December alone the SolarCoin Foundation gave away more than $1m to solar generators, the highest ever, indicating that an increasing number of people are now part of the SolarCoin crypto infrastructure.
It's worth nothing at this point that Gogherty's value theory doesn't distinguish between users speculating or trading with SolarCoins. The fundamental factor is that the value of each indivudal on the network - be it Facebook or gold or SolarCoins- remains within a golden spead: roughly £1000 - $3000 per person.
So growing the network is key. And SolarCoin has a killer networking app: it gives them away to the global 'real-world' network of solar farms, business and homes. In the UK alone nearly 900,000 people have solar equipment on their roofs, and the SolarCoin Foundation reckons only 1% of solar generation worldwide is represented by SolarCoins so far.