Can anyone break down the process of releasing a coin? Is there a book somewhere called "Creating your own crypto currency for dummies"? If you have any experience in launching a coin I would be very happy to hear from you. If you're happy to give some advice please read on.

I had an idea for a revolutionary new coin that will set it well apart from its competitors in more than just its name and block specs. The only problem is... I haven't started my own currency before. What I am particularly interested in is stuff like pool set up, pre-release testing procedures and what needs to be changed in the source file to make a new currency (assuming that it's a scrypt based litecoin derivative). Are there any guides you can point me to? any enlightening walkthrough forum posts?

I want to get the coin just right, I know I can't do it by myself but I also don't want to be flailing in the dark or placing unrealistic expectations on future team members. I am trying to come up with the early stages of an action plan. I have seen so many fledgling currencies come and go in the last week alone that I know a few things to avoid. I'm pretty sure my coin will get the "big picture" right, it's the technical requirements of a launch that currently illude me.

Thanks in advance, fablkak.

I'll try to make it to the IRC channel this weekend. All I can really do is voice my concerns which may or may not be representative of sceptical bastards everywhere. The only real solution I have to the problem of trust at the moment is to take trust out of the equation by distributing and spending that premine sooner rather than later.
Just remember, this is the internet and as a rule no one trusts anyone. You can't fight that, you just have to work around it.

fablkak out.



iCoin
BcFp3aHNtepyZtrZhwqkfivmrHffUkyrhL

I appreciate your comment and you sound like you genuinely have the future of the coin in mind.
(Note from now on when I say 'you' / 'your', I mean the whole dev team and or the founder)


I hate to be the negative one again, but seven months is a hell of a long time in the crypto currency world. Giving away 50k coins per month is a good start but let me show you why it's still a worry to me and other miners.

The following table assumes that the 50k a month is essentially given to the miners/community. It also takes into account rough block reward halving dates.



Now in theory, for a coin that is supposed to last decades this isn't a problem, but it just so happens that this large premine and slow release is also the perfect set up for something dodgy. Remember, it only has to last long enough to get onto an exchange for a scam to be pulled off and how long is that? one month? two? still 50% territory. I think we would all feel a lot better if the Dev distributed the coins to the whole team so that no one person can ruin everything OR the give-aways are sped up big time. Whatever it takes to distribute those coins sooner rather than later. The fact that there were no plans to even spend a satoshi of the premine on promotions until the community kicked up a stink isn't a good sign. I feel like a jerk saying this but really, get your act together guys. Make a plan, make it public and then stick to it. The world won't wait for iCoin, you guys have to catch up or be left behind with the other ten thousand coins that didn't make it.  

fablkak's donation box:
bitcoin
1HYk5tHcx1RBnXYsNkTpqaZ7VHsm1Ng31L
anoncoin
AXz3YzHDFzYp61L23WoNWaLqSPCiboZXaA
grandcoin
gNhtTAAjFE8224JAqhDhH5dJnPsyUhUL1Q
frankocoin
F8VdhMzqjYhY6jELeZtAANN1YN1PnsHsEU
feathercoin
6fXr3GNWQPpdMfgLXUN99PcPaBkqXGzovS
cryptogenicBullion
5Sb6Qezs8P4ZPABe9UCmYqjC5ti3pMbELe
dogecoin
DPTX7nyXomfdWqmTFY1jnbEUQLijdEAdKq
catcoin
9ftqotdWngTEiMsPaUM3WCCa4YHij2DYBG
kittehcoin meow
KJcs8V8k5YehPkWwXCa751aqCXvkp349dA
iCoin
BcFp3aHNtepyZtrZhwqkfivmrHffUkyrhL

:+) thanks.
I would love to but I have no time. I'm in my underwear getting ready for work. It looks a bit like this:


On second thoughts hey look at that date. I might be free then, I'll see if I can make it. Eh.... it's 6AM Sunday in my time zone... maybe someone can just wear an awesome beard and sound smart to pretend to be me.

Yes people can find out about it by reading the source code or checking every page of the forum but that isn't being transparent about something important and potentially very negative for the community.

Then perhaps the premine should have been 0.1%. How do you justify the need for the other 4,500,000 coins? HOW and WHEN do you plan on spending the remaining 0.9%?

Like what specifically? and when? No offence but the community see the existence of the premine and your apparent reluctance to spend it a real risk.


You should be in a hurry! Coins rise and in the blink of an eye. This again just looks like you want to hold on to the premine before it hits the exchanges so you can dump it.


I get that a developer would want to save a little chunk of coins for himself but how much of that 4,500,000 are we talking? Do you intend to keep for yourself whatever you didn't spend on promotions? Do you have a fixed amount in mind or do you just want to hold onto as much as possible? Without being forthcoming with any of this stuff when we asked for transparency is not doing you any good!

So.... you want to hit the exchanges while you're still sitting on a mountain of coins. Ok, that's not cool in the eyes of the miners.

I'm sorry to hear that you broke your leg. Once you get out of hospital you really need to start building trust or this coin will die within the week. You want my advice? probably not but I'm going to tell you anyway. Keep your 50,000-100,000 coins that you plan on keeping for yourself and give the rest to the other devs to be spent ASAP on promotions.

In short, you can have a successful coin or you can keep a large premine to yourself but you can't have your cake and eat it too.




iCoin
BcFp3aHNtepyZtrZhwqkfivmrHffUkyrhL

500,000,000 coins over 900 years....
so 1% is 5,000,000 however because of the very slow release this represents quite a lot of mining which is scaring away all us would be early adopters.

iCoin
BcFp3aHNtepyZtrZhwqkfivmrHffUkyrhL

I started to mine just before the fork so the only coins I have are unconfirmed :+(
I just signed up to your forum. Do me a favour and don't start any giveaways while I'm sleeping.

9ftqotdWngTEiMsPaUM3WCCa4YHij2DYBG

The devs might see 1% premine as reasonable, the miners and investors see it as a risk.
Transparency and a give away schedule is what we need to see. To reiterate:


Do we need to make it any clearer? SPEND THE PREMINE ON ADVERTISING and be transparent about it!


ps: I was using the http://speedminer.org pool mentioned above and it worked just fine, very low reject rate. I'll go back to that pool once there is a little more trust in this coin.

iCoin
BcFp3aHNtepyZtrZhwqkfivmrHffUkyrhL

The worrying things about iCoin

At 100 coins every 3 mins it takes 104 days until they have 50% of coins in existence.  I know that 1% doesn't sound like a lot but this is a coin that is supposes to be released over a long period of time. That makes 1% have a rather long half life which is very worrying for any early adopters as it is at a HIGH RISK of pump and dump from an untrustworthy dev. Not that I'm making accusations but I have no idea who the dev is or what their financial situation is. What I do know is that sitting on $1,000,000+ worth of coins might be too much temptation for someone that might not be living comfortably. To reiterate, 1% doesn't sound like a lot but in the early stages of development when it represents many times more than what all of the miners have put together it's a problem. Luckily there is an easy fix for this: read on.

How to improve iCoin

Build Trust
The only thing standing in the way of trust right now is that pre mine with a 104 day half life. That puts the fate of early adopters in the hands of the developer which is something a lot of miners (including myself) aren't comfortable with. If icoin wants trust they have to be more upfront about the premine and what it will be used for. I see no info on the premine on their main page or their web page. That implies they are hiding it, that implies they have a reason to hide it.

Be Upfront
Don't hide your premine! A 1% premine for promotional purposes should be right there under other important information like:
scrypt
retarget =
block reward=
block time=
premine 1% for promotional purposes. Earn iCoins by promoting iCoin on your FB, youtube, magazine! See below for comps!

Tell us what your premine is for! Break it down nice and simple for us, let the community know that there is a plan and that you are sticking to it. eg:

Here at iCoin we have reserved a 1% (premine 5,000,000 coins) for the following purposes:
90% (4500000 coins ) for promotional activities:
These coins will be distributed as follows:
30% for viral videos
10% for liking our facebook page, tag your friends and get more coins
10% reddit rewards
20% viral facebook posts with lots of likes and shares
10% for writing magazine articles and blog posts
5% for mentioning it during a popular podcast
5% for voting for us on an exchange
10% charity donations (the crazier the better. Dogecoin backing the jamakan bob sled team was genius)

5% (250,000) bounties for bugs

5% 250,000)  other, unforeseen costs and bounties.

Have a timetable for the promo stuff. Let the community know about upcoming rewards and competitions.

Be generous with promo coins! People aren't going to trust you until most of that premine is spent. The more you spend on promotion the less you are holding and thus more trust you get. It's win win.


Promotion is key!
iCoin needs to start giving out a lot of coins for effective advertising. Look at what dogecoin did, viral videos, reddit posts, facebook pages, etc, etc. Give large rewards for making youtube vids that go viral and reasonably large rewards for youtube vids that made an effort.

This next tip is going to go a long way so you had better listen Mr Dev...
1) Start a competition for promotional youtube vids and pay per view. Remember, you're trying to get exposure, not hold onto the premine! The more premine you have the less people trust you!
2) Start a facebook promo that runs concurrently with the youtube competition. i.e. make a poster advertising the video competition and give 100 coins to the first 1,000 people that share it on their wall.

Be generous to the people that made promotional vids, be clear about the rules and the rewards.
Make a decent promo vid: get 1000 coins
Make a promo vid with 1,000+ views: 2,000 coins
Make a promo vid with 10,000+ views: 3,000 coins
Make a promo vid with 100,000+ views: 5,000 coins
Make a promo vid with 1,000,000+ views: 10,000 coins
Make a promo vid with 2,000,000+ views: 20,000 coins


Don't stop there, reach out to every media platform you can. Reward people for posing in magazines, blogs, etc etc. Make people excited
about getting their hands on that premine!


If you want to thank me for awesome advice feel free to donate in whichever currency you wish:
iCoin
BcFp3aHNtepyZtrZhwqkfivmrHffUkyrhL
anoncoin
AXz3YzHDFzYp61L23WoNWaLqSPCiboZXaA
grandcoin
gNhtTAAjFE8224JAqhDhH5dJnPsyUhUL1Q
frankocoin
F8VdhMzqjYhY6jELeZtAANN1YN1PnsHsEU
feathercoin
6fXr3GNWQPpdMfgLXUN99PcPaBkqXGzovS
cryptogenicBullion
5Sb6Qezs8P4ZPABe9UCmYqjC5ti3pMbELe
dogecoin
DPTX7nyXomfdWqmTFY1jnbEUQLijdEAdKq
catcoin
9ftqotdWngTEiMsPaUM3WCCa4YHij2DYBG
kittehcoin meow
KJcs8V8k5YehPkWwXCa751aqCXvkp349dA
bitcoin
1HYk5tHcx1RBnXYsNkTpqaZ7VHsm1Ng31L



fablkak out.

People are desperately trying to trade iCoins but they have no way to to do other than a trust based trading thread.

iCoin / BTC

Launch thread
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=407866.0
Trading thread
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=390996.0


BcFp3aHNtepyZtrZhwqkfivmrHffUkyrhL

I like the look of this coin and it's the first coin I have started to mine before it hit any major exchange.
Quick question for you, how many people are on the dev team for this coin? Have you got anyone specifically doing marketing?
I think the rapid rise of doge can be traced to the very clever marketing and free advertising they were able to get. I hope your coin has someone with a similar role, if not I'm afraid that all the technical competence in the world won't be enough to distinguish iCoin from the myriad of other coins.
I like the look of your website but there is one line on it that made me a little worried, maybe someone can explain it to me.

"Mining:
Our mining strategy is simple: don’t put all the power in the hands of miners. By not flooding the market with iCoins early, we try to preserve a balance in value for users, investors and miners."

How have you taken power out of the hands of the miners?

Hello iCoin!

BcFp3aHNtepyZtrZhwqkfivmrHffUkyrhL

If you think this difficulty is bad... you just wait for the spike that is coming after the next difficulty drop. The problem is going to get worse unless catcoin changes the difficulty adjust time or miners stop coin hopping. Seeming as though it is impossible to prevent the latter I think we are in for another update soon or the death of catcoin, whatever happens first.

Reward in catcoins?
I know a really good graphic artist that could be persuaded to make an awesome logo for a few catcoins.

Such thanks
DPTX7nyXomfdWqmTFY1jnbEUQLijdEAdKq

GDC still borken?
I see that we started mining it again today but we found 0 blocks in 9 min. Now for a coin with a 45 sec block time that ain't so great. Just a few days ago I was complaining that we didn't mine enough GDC but now I think that the coin is kinda broken as every pool only returns a small fraction of estimated returns.
So what do you fellow hashcows think? GDC worth mining or too broke?

Yes I am using both for a reason, the reason is a good one, very simple and once I tell it to you, you will immediately understand why I included both.
I don't really know what either of them do, I just included settings and played with numbers until my khash went up and HW errors stayed at 0. If it was a crime to waste E ink then I would feel bad about including it however now that I think about it your screen uses less power printing black text than it does showing the white background behind it and so I was including all that redundant text just to save you money on power because I'm a nice guy. You probably owe me a donation or something but don't worry about it.

I admit my working was messy and slightly too generous because my 24 hour estimate was just doubling my 12.5 hour estimate. Anyway, after an actual 24 hours and not a doubling of 12.5 hours the payout was:

total @10:30 PM Monday
Est. Unexchanged Balance   Confirmed Exchanged Balance    Confirmed Balance      +  anc
0.0067892335                      0.00869628                    0+ debit 0.03113817           (1- 0.729664)+ 0.866144 @ 0.0068 ANC/BTC=0.0077
24 hour total= 0.05435 - 0.0288 = 0.0256 BTC

So, I must have had a good 12 hours followed by a mediocre 12 hours. Still that's an improvement over just mining litecoin by about 17%.
I'll post more numbers in another 24 hours. I know it's a bit messy but with things coming in and going out and not exchanging anoncoins it's not going to be too neat.


For the person that asked about which version of cgminer, it's 2.11.4
My CGminer settings are":
#!/bin/sh
export DISPLAY=:0
export GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT=100
export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1
cd /home/jim/cgminer-2.11.4-x86_64-built
./cgminer  --scrypt -I 20 -g 1 --thread-concurrency 24000 --worksize 256 --shaders 1792 --gpu-engine 1095 --gpu-memclock 1500 -o stratum+tcp://stratum01.hashco.ws:8888 -u XXXXXX -p XXXXXX  --failover-only -o stratum+tcp://coinotron.com:3334 -u XXXXX -p XXXXX

I'm currently getting: between 630 and 650 Khash per card because I bumped I to 20 finally rather than keeping it at 19. Still between 64 ad 71C atm. I'm pretty happy with the value of these sapphire cards, shame there are none left in Australia :+(

0.035 BTC per day is a lot better than 0.021 BTC per day so I' not complaining, if they can keep that up I'll be quite happy and might even build another rig.

Yeah I'm running 3 of these http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1547&lid=1
I'm getting 630-640 per card and using 730 watts. The cards were bought for 299 AU which was a pretty good deal too.

The cards are relatively quiet and relatively cool, 65-73C on them at the moment (milk crate set up).

Yep, however atm it's based on a 12 hour estimate. I checked all my payouts last night and this morning and found:

total @10:30 PM sunday
Est. Unexchanged Balance   Confirmed Exchanged Balance    Confirmed Balance      +  anc
0.0035914125                      0.01132554                        0.00892127          0.729664 @ 0.0068 ANC/BTC
=0.0288

10:56 AM Monday
Est. Unexchanged Balance   Confirmed Exchanged Balance    Confirmed Balance      +  anc
0.0143160595                        0.0184546                0.00892127            (1- 0.729664)+ 0.442856 @ 0.0068 ANC/BTC=0.0048
=0.0465
12.5 hour earnings==0.0465-0.0288=0.0177 EST24 hour earnings =0.035 = GOOD

Looks like a mess, but hey it worked out for me. Now that I'm keeping records I'll get a better idea of earnings as time goes on. I'll tell you actual 24 and 48 hour earnings if you like.

Mining at 1900 Khash, which would be 0.61757800 LTC = 0.02193019 BTC per 24 hours.