Bitcoin Forum

We on the PotatoCoin developer team have been weighing our options as far as premining goes. We know that it is generally regarded negatively and with the amount of recent shitcoin releases we want everything to be absolutely perfect for the PotatoCoin launch.

What would we do with a premine?

If we did premine the coin, we would use the coins to fund several projects, the main one we are interested in is as follows:

We would first develop a service like BitPay, where you trade potatoes for dollars, and then use our premine to fund a trip to Africa. Once there, we would spend several months to develop a network of vegetable growers and help them grow their businesses, perhaps globally. We will also be creating PotatoCoin applications for cellphones, as they are quite prevalent in Africa.

Why not Bitcoin?
A fair question that I anticipate will be asked, so I'm going to go ahead and answer it here.
I won't pretend that this coin's code is going to be innovative (though I don't think our block reward modification method has been used before) or solve any major issues Bitcoin has. However, this coin, unlike Bitcoin, is going to be almost solely for agriculture. This means that if it is widely adopted by farmers, they won't need to use our PotatoCoin version of BitPay because the price will remain relatively stable. It means that places in Africa that use cellphone minutes as currency can use a currency that is directly tied to their agriculture industry, rather than global speculation.

What would we do without a premine?

If we do not premine the coin, we will use our pool fees and personal mining gains to fund the trip and BitPay-like service, then attempt to crowdfund the rest of the project.

Should we premine PotatoCoin? How much?

We will end this poll ~12 hours before launch. If the votes for "Yes" (all yes votes combined) are equal to >75% of all votes, then we will premine the percentage that receives the most votes; otherwise, we will not premine any coins and it will be a completely fair launch.

If you are going to vote, please leave a comment as to why you think what you do.

I wholeheartedly support a 2% premine as I want this coin to be successful in the real world and without compensation and capital, it is not going to happen.

Developing the apps needed to make this coin a real working coin are going to take time, effort and money, and the sooner these projects can be funded and realised the sooner SPUD will be a real and valuable currency.

One of the most successful coin launches recently was EarthCoin with 2% premine and there has been much criticism. I have been working closely with the dev team of that coin and the success of EAC has been the ability to compensate and fund apps and implementations.

Could the devs of potatocoin just be looking for pump and dump... of course... but even without a premine, the development team and admin could take the majority of the first 10% of the blocks.

I would like to see the launch of this coin delayed until there is a Windows, Linux and MAC wallet, block explorer, quality web-site with a ready made shopping cart or E-commerce system to turn SPUD's into real potatoes(that means organising suppliers and logistics) and potato products and paper wallet. Premine the coin and use the coins to employ quality people to make these apps and then launch the coin with these systems in place and the coin will be immediately of real and useful value.

Don't premine the coin, launch with only half of the systems in place, wait for the community to respond with quality systems and in that time the coin will be a pump and dump by all miners.

If selling potatoes is your goal, then do it and do it well... even if means delaying the launch of the coin by days or a week or so.

You haven't given me a lot of information to go on here. Where in Africa? Do you know anything about potato farming, business or international trade? Why focus on growing a global business when there are people subsistence farming the same crop?



^{I voted yes, 2%, surely the devs of this coin deserve a nice holiday}   ::)

We are currently doing research into what we could do that would have the greatest positive impact on the African agriculture industry. We're not 100% sure of all the details yet, but we're working on it :)

In Europe many buy pre-fried frites in the supermarket. But to make them from fresh potatoes is so much the better.

A noble idea and it's great to see something different, but as 24Kilo said, please don't rush into this.

We're not going to. :)

0.5% - developers spend their time and it should pay off. this is true.

Are you experts in international charitable causes? Are you potato farmers? Is it coincidence that you want to release this project now when loads of alts are being released?

Unless the answer to all 3 is yes, I reckon it's an excuse to get money to volunteer in Africa, fair enough but call a spade a spade.

That is a completely fair criticism, and I'll do my best to answer your questions.

1. No, we are not experts in international charitable causes. However, PotatoCoin is not meant to be a charity. We are not going to sell the premine and send cash to African farmers, we are going to try to work with them to better their economies.

2. We are not any kind of farmers. Africa is in a bad way now more than ever and we feel that the main thing they have going for them is their agriculture. Africa represents 1/7th of the world population: the poorest seventh. We think we can help.

As for your third question, it's not entirely a coincidence, as we didn't think of this coin until we noticed all the new coins being released. However, unlike some other coin developers (not pointing any fingers), I believe we have the experience and means to make the coin a success. The coin developer himself is very experienced in making coins, Devianttwo and I are excellent pool managers (he more than I), and Cinemagfx is a great graphic designer who I believe will be an important asset in our future projects, especially with marketing. We also have some great web developers who will help make sure our sites are aesthetic and functional. We are not in this to get rich or popular, we just think we can make a real difference. If that's wrong then so be it, but if we can then don't we have a responsibility to try?

Voted 2% because it is for a good cause. And because I have faith in people. Conflicting opinions on this may be valid but I think the risks are requirement of rewards in the right places. Will be watching this closely.

While I entirely understand the rationale for a 2% premine, right now there're so many coins with premines designed almost exclusively for profit that I think it would be hard to distinguish potatoes if they are also premined.

Right, also a lot of people may dismiss it out of hand simply because of the premine, without looking into the cause of the premine. I can definitely see this being a problem unless the coin is marketed very very well, with the altruistic features emphasized.

You ideology is strong. Pre-mining would ruin the image of coin and your future ideas since people will ignore it in the wave of many premined coins.

If you really could do something like buying a potato (or more veggies) with the potato coin, I think you will get enough donations and crowd-funding to cover the expenses for setting up the project.

I would like to point out that you rigged your own poll.

No is going to win here, even if the majority say yes, since the yes is split between 4 answers. You would have to add up all the yes votes from all 4 yes answers to see if it beats No to get an accurate reading of what people want.

Source: Read/Watch Freakonomics.

I may have worded the OP poorly, but the idea is that if all YES votes total 75% (or rather if NO is <25% of votes) then we will premine the percentage that receive the most votes.

Voted 2%, and really.. 24kilo said it all. so I'll steal his words  8)

2% and also you should make a tax.

taxes...? lol

I totally missed over the 75% part of the OP, noob mistake. My Bad =|    But I think No, Coins seem to have more overall longterm success when not there is no premine, which is what I would hope for with this coin.

No problem :D

I know that Electric/VOLT had a different admin, but the both VOLT and SPUD are/were being released by the HackShard group... this does not bode well if SPUD hits some tough times...

From http://eac.us.hackshard.com/index.php


While I have been a great supporter and want SPUD to be a real world success... I am not longer in support of any coin that does not release with a minimum of a proven and working Windows wallet and source code from which Linux and Mac can be compiled.

I still like the idea of SPUD, but the developer has to prove to me that he is serious about this coin and will stand behind it through thick and thin. For some, mining and crypto-currency may be a hobby or interesting pastime... I am investing real money and time into the coins that I support... money and time that I cannot afford to lose or throw away.

So to the dev team of SPUD... develop and present a business plan... build and deploy the apps and software... then release SPUD... premine if needed to pay for all this time and work... prove you want to release a coin that could be a real and usable currency.

The concept behind SPUD is great, but...