Bitcoin Forum

I was going to hold off on this for a little while longer and get the idea a bit more developed first, but with the recent foaming-at-the-mouth speculation, minor revival of RUC, and launches of several new altchains (not to mention the criticism of them in a recent thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179132.0)), I'd say this is a good time as any to make the announcement of...JokeCoin!


Basic premise is simple: A lot of altchains turn into pre-mined pump and dump scams which harm users and the overall health of the cryptocurrency community. Even if they are legit and not premined, some of them (arguably) still add little in the way of positive growth, being little more than clones of existing coins. At the same time though, creating new coins is an interesting project, and some altchains have introduced beneficial new ideas not first considered by Satoshi. What this project will aim to do is separate the "silly" and potentially "scammy" coins from "serious" coins by establishing a well-defined moniker for currencies obviously intended as a project - or even as a joke, as the name "JokeCoin" implies. The core intent is to keep the creativity of new coin development alive (with a dash of humor thrown in for good measure), while at the same time hopefully reducing the anger and number of scam accusations flying around this subforum these days.


As a simple proof of concept, I'll be updating the following blog (http://jokecoin.blogspot.com/) with new JokeCoins as it unfolds. The proof of concept for the first of these coins is also posted to the blog. I sadly have nothing in the way of source code for it yet, hence why I wanted to hold off for a little while longer, but plan on releasing something for it relatively soon. Hopefully within a week.


I'm also planning the second JokeCoin (there's a few different ideas I could use for that one, thanks to far too many hours spent in the Trollbox) to be online fairly soon. Reader suggestions for new coin ideas is also very welcome. So far, ideas include:

• JinkiesCoin
• BoozeCoin
• BoobCoin
• BFLCoin
• HypeCoin

What are their defining characteristics? You'll have to wait and find out!


Should there be enough interest in this and/or the blog get enough hits, I'll see about expanding this from beyond a mere blogger page. This is, again, still in proof of concept format just to test the waters. I have several ideas for expanding outward and would love for the opportunity to make them happen.




As a final note: I hope this helps resolve - or at least poke fun at and make light of - some recent controversies we've seen in the cryptocurrency community recently. This project is not intended to cause offense to anyone or anything in particular; instead, it's merely to introduce some humor into the altcoin world.

I was thinking it would be fun to release GoodCoin and EvilCoin just to see which one becomes more valuable.

Or: JesusCoin, AllahCoin, BuddhaCoin, VishnuCoin, AtheistCoin, etc. Who will have the most followers?!?

Or get national with: USACoin, ChinaCoin, JapanCoin, EUCoin, etc.

The coin author would set a date to evaluate the final results and declare a winner. That would also reinforce that these coins are not meant to have any long-term value so noobs are not tempted to buy and hoard them.

Can we preorder BFLCoins?

Only if you promise to make them now... and promise to actually deliver them in August!

I like this idea! Temporary altcoins created for "races" to see who can mine the most would be fun to watch  ;D



Then, just as you're about to launch, push the target date back 3 months for mysterious reasons.

In all Not Not-So-Serious terms... it would interesting to see a coin whose block reward was tied to the number of people mining.
For example -- 100 clients connected and mining, block reward is 100.

How about reward based on how many connections you have and you'll need to bribe clients to accept your block plus gain more reward for them.

Never said my idea was 'perfect'... it was just that... an idea.

my 'idea' is far from perfect too

Imperfect is exactly what we're here for. I'll jot both ideas down and credit them your ways if and when I get around to doing something with them.

And please don't forget about "fartcoin" (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=161324.0).

That is actually a genius idea. Could have "ObamaCoin" vs "RomneyCoin" for election cycles.

You're all a bunch of DramaCoins.  :-*

I came up with a list of joke coins a few days ago you can add to the list: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=177499.msg1848662#msg1848662

Excellent ;D


I also might have to steal the "dramacoin" concept. Sounds like it has a lot of potential.

The idea that altcoins "harm the health of the cryptocurrency community" is not substantiated.

I actually had plans to release an actual Scamcoin is the next week or two, just for kicks. There wasn't going to be anything actually scammy about it; I just wanted to try a couple ideas and didn't want people to take it too seriously. How would this tie in with your JokeCoin idea?

You are all delusional. The only new coin that is needed is the 'XXXcoin' or 'Porncoin' useable on Porn/XXX sites around the world. The end. Please feel free to call me a founder when you steal this idea! and PM me when the coin is up. I am going back to bed.

Partner your idea with a client that shows porn ads while mining. NOW you have a winner!

This is actually a terrifyingly good idea, especially if the ad partner paid out in the coins you were mining.

Non-sequitor...

We managed to hijack an AltCoin Hate thread into a discussion of Chuck Norris Coin (CNC).  Giving serious thought to making a terrible attempt at this.  Make it easy to find a block while solo mining, and have every Block Found message changed to a random Chuck Norris joke.  Thinking of trying to adjust difficulty based on local hash rate so you get a joke every 5 minutes.  Pretty much breaks pool mining, but who cares?  Thoughts?

edit: ok, that's actually a terrible idea for any form of longevity.  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=169204.msg1772528#msg1772528  But as ajoke coin, I guess it's not so bad.

Some altcoins definitely improve the overall quality of the Bitcoin project. For example, I'm a big fan of Devcoins in that they reward people who do constructive things. But I'm far more skeptical about coins with heavy premining and no real improvements over BTC...you really can't make the argument that a currency with 20% of it premined is helpful for anyone other than the creator.

This is, again, more of a "just for shits and giggles" project than a scathing criticism of all things Bitcoin - or, for that matter, altcoin.



Excellent  ;D

I could throw you a link to the Github repo I was intending to use for the JokeCoin project and we can see about getting this (and other joke currencies) in one easily accessed location? I'll also post a blog link about it. Should enough people submit ideas, we can always throw together a basic website with information about them all, and to help simplify the submission process.



Porncoin/XXXcoin/Pr0nC0in and CNC would all be welcome additions. Even if the former sounds like it would be all too successful  ::)

If somebody acquires a coin, they must have felt that doing so was in their best interest (helpful to them).  Nobody has been forced to acquire any coins.

No, nobody is forced to acquire coins. And yes, such allegations will eventually probably kill the currency as the free market takes hold. However, think about how demoralizing it is for new users who see their currency suddenly plummet into a valueless hole overnight due to such discoveries. That's not constructive, not friendly to crypto newcomers, and just generally does not sit well with me.



On the subject of JokeCoins though: I liked the idea of a "PornCoin" so much that it's our latest update! http://jokecoin.blogspot.com/2013/04/porncoins.html


Due to a busy week at work (and doing a few things for the ColoredCoins project in what little spare time I don't have), I regrettably still have nothing to contribute in the way of any real source code. I plan on doing this hopefully in the next few weeks. However, if anyone would care to assist with this, feel free to contact me about it :)