So it's closed source but as someone pointed out, it is possible to decompile that.

But as I understand it, individual 'miners' take turns approving transactions, so what prevents people from making it so that every time it is their turn to mine, they transfer coins from a wallet that doesn't belong to them to their own wallet and then approve the transaction?

Also, what kind of speed is there for confirmation time?  If you could beat litecoin's transaction time..  I think that alone would be a reason everyone would turn to Nextcoin and seems possibly doable given the unique mining system.

@ Pythonideus: If it's decently written, it's not that hard to do.  I've done it a couple times as have some other people I know.  In fact I have heard of any being rejected but you do need to make sure it's written with some quality and research and not just thrown together.

You may want to call your local newspaper or find them online since they all have different restrictions on how many words long it can be.  They could also give you an estimate of how long it would take to publish it.  I expect about a week minimum.

Exactly what I meant! Thanks lucaspm98, hope you do participate!

Why I believe Bitcoin is the Future of Money - Essay Contest
We would like to help spread bitcoin and make sure that it succeeds as a currency.  We believe that we have a limited window of time to attract new people and grow it, basically we have to market it since there are still no big businesses advertising it yet unless it makes the news due to controversy such as the senate looking into it.  The faster it grows and the wider the user base, the less likely it is to crash and every little bit makes a difference.

We propose an essay contest, where you submit essays to your local newspapers, 'letter to the editor' section.

The prize will be paid in Bitcoins.
The size of the prize depends on the number of people and donations made to the pot.

Prizes
The current size of the pot is: 0.5BTC  1st gets half the pot, 2nd and 3rd split the remainder of the pot in a 60-40 split.

Which at the moment means first prize is likely at least $100.. but of course that value is likely to rise by next year (especially if your essays are good enough!!) and more people will be contributing

Note that we must receive at least 10 submissions to give away these prizes, which we believe should be easy to do.

Donating to the prize
If you would like to contribute, please send your bitcoins to bitcoinessays@gmail.com  
You may find coinapult.com is useful for that purpose.

If you donate before we post the essays for voting, everyone who donates at least 0.1BTC, will get a vote on who wins the contest.  After I post the essays, you may vote by emailing me your vote as well as the address you donated from.
The alternative is that I will be posting the winning essay(s) along with the winners bitcoin wallet addresses or email addresses and you may send donations directly to them.  I will be re-editing the original copy of this listed at: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=335089 and posting essays and winners there.

Essay submissions will be posted at bitcointalk.org and a couple other places linking to that post.

Submit essays and BitCoins to bitcoinessays@gmail.com

You may also donate BitCoins here: https://coinbase.com/checkouts/cef2655a4b668f7954d53dbfe26f215c?c=BitCoin+Essay+Prize+Fund

The Contest
The idea is, you will write a letter to the editor that explains to everyday people what Bitcoins are, why you believe they are the future, and recommend that people should go buy some Bitcoins and tell them how to.

Then you can submit that letter to the editor, either as a faxed copy, or online link to bitcoinessays@gmail.com to prove it has been published as well as a copy of the text of the article, for us to upload.  Online newspapers and well enough know sites like About.com count, if you can prove you wrote it!  Such as a copy of your driver's license showing your name?

Please refrain from discussing drugs or illegal stuff as that only hurts Bitcoin in the eyes of most people.  Keep in mind that this will be the first time many people are hearing about Bitcoin!

I recommend you submit your essays online as well and spread it around, we will make sure that the winning essays are submitted to a few different locations such as prlog.com.  If we get more than 100 essays, we will submit the winner to prweb.com.


Deadline
By Jan 1st, 2014 please have your submissions entered, and keep in mind that this means it probably has to be entered a week in advance in order to make it into the paper in time.

The reason chosen for this date is that it means that the letters to the editor should be hitting the papers right around Christmas time when family will be in town and they can discuss it amongst themselves.. of course any time before then is awesome as well.

Where to Submit Essays and Donations
Submit essays and Bitcoins to bitcoinessays@gmail.com

You may also donate Bitcoins here: https://coinbase.com/checkouts/cef2655a4b668f7954d53dbfe26f215c?c=BitCoin+Essay+Prize+Fund

Tips for writing letters to the editor: http://voices.yahoo.com/how-write-letter-editor-308054.html?cat=37

Also, spread the word about this contest!  And Best of luck to you!!