My Idea:

every CGB-er tries to talk one random real-and-actual person -- bus stop, party, whatever -- into setting up a CGB wallet, and gives them ten CGB, and offers to remain 'technical adviser.' This should generate a bunch of interesting and valuable data and anecdotes.

Mark Blair, Unicup, Western Australia

CGB Core Team Weekly Update – May 30, 2014

Please also see the Reddit post for further discussion.

First, we would like to thank you all for being patient about the weekly updates. Although time is even more precious than CGB, we manage to find enough of it to keep things rolling behind the scenes. There are so many things going on right now including preparations for CGB's birthday celebration, the soon to be released client update, a new promotional campaign (unannounced), our community project CryptoTown On The Ground, and details of back-end services. To quickly set some better expectations for the weekly update, work load prevents its completion on a strict schedule. Please expect the release once a week, nearest to Wednesday as possible.

Some details about the client update are in order. It is expected to be released within the next couple weeks depending on completing the new feature set and testing before deployment. Confirmed features include look and feel improvement, PoW/PoS security improvements, GUI unlock/minting, some relevant Novacoin patches. Scrypt merged mining capabilities are almost certain to be included and we are still looking into multisig capabilities for compatibility with distributed coin exchanges. We still need to do testing to make sure this will be the client CGB deserves.

We would like to highlight some of the major work that has been going on in our efforts at the front lines of cryptocurrency adoption. Here is some excerpted text from the official CryptoTown On The Ground community document:

The CrytoTown On The Ground project represents a largely uncharted aspect of cryptocurrency technology which is face-to-face, "real world," economic interaction and community building. The project aims to provide guidelines and resources for structuring your own CryptoTown Neighborhood, enrolling your business, or participating as a community member. This project is founded on the principles of self-sufficiency, decentralization and sustainability. All CryptoTown Neighborhoods are created equal meaning there is no formal structure or hierarchy but guidelines for sharing resources and working together. Our focus is on empowering communities with the knowledge and resources required to quickly and effectively implement and benefit from cryptocurrencies. The CryptoTown Protocol is designed with the understanding that central management is neither desirable nor practical especially when dealing with cryptocurrency technology.

CGB Core Team Weekly Update – May 30, 2014

Please also see the Reddit post for further discussion.

First, we would like to thank you all for being patient about the weekly updates. Although time is even more precious than CGB, we manage to find enough of it to keep things rolling behind the scenes. There are so many things going on right now including preparations for CGB's birthday celebration, the soon to be released client update, a new promotional campaign (unannounced), our community project CryptoTown On The Ground, and details of back-end services. To quickly set some better expectations for the weekly update, work load prevents its completion on a strict schedule. Please expect the release once a week, nearest to Wednesday as possible.

Some details about the client update are in order. It is expected to be released within the next couple weeks depending on completing the new feature set and testing before deployment. Confirmed features include look and feel improvement, PoW/PoS security improvements, GUI unlock/minting, some relevant Novacoin patches. Scrypt merged mining capabilities are almost certain to be included and we are still looking into multisig capabilities for compatibility with distributed coin exchanges. We still need to do testing to make sure this will be the client CGB deserves.

We would like to highlight some of the major work that has been going on in our efforts at the front lines of cryptocurrency adoption. Here is some excerpted text from the official CryptoTown On The Ground community document:

The CrytoTown On The Ground project represents a largely uncharted aspect of cryptocurrency technology which is face-to-face, "real world," economic interaction and community building. The project aims to provide guidelines and resources for structuring your own CryptoTown Neighborhood, enrolling your business, or participating as a community member. This project is founded on the principles of self-sufficiency, decentralization and sustainability. All CryptoTown Neighborhoods are created equal meaning there is no formal structure or hierarchy but guidelines for sharing resources and working together. Our focus is on empowering communities with the knowledge and resources required to quickly and effectively implement and benefit from cryptocurrencies. The CryptoTown Protocol is designed with the understanding that central management is neither desirable nor practical especially when dealing with cryptocurrency technology.

Morning!

One: I will tackle the voting thing, a first for us.

Two: concrete assistance, please:

Could someone on the dev team send a brief email to richard@sbcgs.com.au

Why? Richard is the Business Facilitation Officer of the Denmark Chamber of Commerce. More to the point, he is part of the Australia-wide network of such Agencies, and IndiaMikeZulu is gonna bust its buns to connect CGB to Denmark to This Network.

Just:

'Richard, the Cryptogenic-Bullion community is paying attention to the Denmark Crypto Town Project.'

Mark Blair, Western Australia

If a single CGB person in Australia is interested, we could look for merchants here. Coming months will be prime time, as The Bull Run gets underway.

Mark Blair, Western Australia

give me a reason why i should invest this project

CGB Core Team Weekly Update – May 14, 2014

Please also see the Reddit post for further discussion.

Cryptogenic Bullion is a unique crypto and to understand its value, research is required. This is one of the problems that we face as a community when trying to explain the merits of CGB. Where most other coins are caught up in a massive churning of pumps, excitement, scams, mining, and other daily activities of the crypto-scene, Cryptogenic Bullion seems to sit patiently on the sidelines and observe these generally undisciplined behaviors. We would like to quickly explain some of the reasons why promotion and adoption of CGB is very different from most other crypto-currencies.  
  
As explained in this post on Reddit, CGB derives its value by holding it as a more stable store of wealth. This contrasts starkly with what gives most other cryptos out there value, which is the size of the userbase who is holding to spend. Cryptogenic Bullion investors are holding to store wealth or anticipate such demand and there are many factors which better suit CGB for this role above the others. Please see the section on CGB’s Life Cycle on the Learn More page of the Official Website for more detailed information on the bigger picture of CGB and how it builds value.
  
Let’s quickly go over the motivations for holding CGB compared to the motivations for holding a daily spending currency such as Doge. CGB is designed to be held to store wealth. The more people who are holding CGB to store wealth, the more scarce CGB will be and greater the unit value. Currencies such as Doge are designed to be spent and used on a daily bases. The more people who are holding Doge to spend, the more scarce Doge becomes and the greater the unit value. Notice that investors can profit from increases in these types of demand, and purchasing accordingly in order to sell at the higher prices once demand is realized. These two use cases are fundamentally different and require a different approach to promote the adoption of each.  

Here are a few questions that have been recently asked and some guidance on how to proceed:  
  
Is merchant development a goal for CGB?
As CGB is intended to store wealth and not to expand through retail activity directly, merchant development is a goal for CGB but not in the typical way. Our strategy would be to encourage merchants who already accept other crypto to store their wealth in CGB, and consider accepting CGB alongside their existing currency selection.  
  
Is getting listed on more exchanges a goal for CGB?  
While it doesn’t hurt to be listed on more exchanges, low volume exchanges with a small user base offer very little value to the CGB community. Exchanges with a large user base would be helpful, especially if there are traders willing to make profit from arbitrage providing liquidity to this user base, and activity on CGB trading pairs.  

Does low current volume and price hinder CGB’s advance as a store of wealth?  
I urge everyone who asks this question to read CGB’s Life Cycle to understand the transition that CGB is currently undergoing. We also have to also look at the bigger picture of the crypto-markets which have suffered overall from Bitcoin’s recent decline. These are normal cycles that happen. When capital begins to flow inward again on a massive scale, it may be triggered by worries of hyperinflation, or other fiat currency problems. Fleeing investors may be looking for an asset which does not have the heavy inflationary tax of the very system they are fleeing. Cryptogenic Bullion will be perfectly poised, having completed its volatile inflationary phase, and awaiting the inflows of its capitalization phase. Our strategy is optimized for CGB to benefit from the increasing troubles of the global fiat-debt monetary system.  
  
Would a profit spending multipool boost CGB’s value?  
Artificial demand, which has nothing to do with the intended use of CGB, provides no long term value. This type of scheme would increase volatility (not a benefit to wealth storage), and reduce our credibility through a lack of fundamental understanding of CGB’s proper role. We can look at previous cases and conclude that the new multipool idea itself is what caused the demand, not the underlying asset being bought. We need to focus our efforts on projects which bring real value to those who use CGB to store wealth.  
  
Is low mining profitability bad for CGB?  
Remember that CGB has, for the past year, allocated the majority of the currency supply that will ever be, through mining. As we transition to the capitalization phase of CGB, this low mining reward is part of the reason why investors will find CGB so appealing. With less “money printing (mining),” our annual inflation is approaching its permanent target of 2% growth/year through mining and minting. This is the natural progression of CGB.  
  
There has been a lot of interesting discussion on Reddit about getting CGB into the hands of communities through local interaction and a holistic multi-service approach. Community involvement is needed, ask the tough questions, get involved! We encourage you all to participate and give your thoughts on those ideas and the ones discussed in this post!  
  
The CGB Core Team  

have you thought perhaps about getting CGB away from and onto other exchanges besides Cryptsy?  

looking forward to the updated wallet, at the moment i have a small amount of CGB that i've kept for stake an added to over the past year.  I now have almost 1500 in my wallet, but also feel a little burned the way its been manipulated on cryptsy.  If i had spent the same amount of btc on CGB now at current cryptsy i would have 3-4x my current holdings, i'm not too obsessed about it, but i think CGB price would be more steady and resistant to manipulation and dumps if it were distributed across more exchanges then it is currently and a multipool was setup for it as well.

btw coinex should be removed from the exchange list, as the wallets were hacked and all coins stolen.  Anyone purchasing CGB there would not be able to withdraw it. 

Doing welll What are you talking about there is no buy support. The price and volume is so fucking low that it looks like dead coin. CGB has almost a year and we have only 137 pages on this thread were ppl talk how "CGB is a great coin". We need buyers.

Elambert has you thought about multipools were miners could mine most profitable coins and automatically buy cgb?

I havent been on CRB forum for a while. I sent some CGB over to crptsy over 12hrs ago and its still not showing up. I am using client version wallet 1.1.6.7 and it is syncing fine. Any issues I should aware of or should I just contact cryptsy ?

Run a competition from the twenty-seventh of this month 'til The Day:
how many people can you introduce to cryptos?
the Rules are that the person must have a synched wallet with a few bucks' worth of coin -- community exchange!! -- and know how to send coin, and how to back up their wallet.
If it's a business, offer to be a 'buddy,' providing technical assistance.
Mark Blair, Unicup, Western Australia

I CGB enthusiasts.
I want to know CGB team has no long-term plans.

Q: What are banks for?

A: To make money.

Q: For the customers?

A: For the banks.

Q: Why doesn’t bank advertising mention this?

A: It would not be in good taste. But it is mentioned by implication in references to
reserves of $249,000,000,000 or thereabouts. That is the money they have made.

Q: Out of the customers?

A: I suppose so.

Q: They also mention Assets of $500,000,000,000 or thereabouts. Have they made that
too?

A: Not exactly. That is the money they use to make money.

Q: I see. And they keep it in a safe somewhere?

A: Not at all. They lend it to customers.


Q: Then they haven’t got it?

A: No.

Q: Then how is it Assets?

A: They maintain that it would be if they got it back.

Q: But they must have some money in a safe somewhere?

A: Yes, usually $500,000,000,000 or thereabouts. This is called Liabilities.

Q: But if they’ve got it, how can they be liable for it?

A: Because it isn’t theirs.

Q: Then why do they have it?

A: It has been lent to them by customers.

Q: You mean customers lend banks money?

A: In effect. They put money into their accounts, so it is really lent to the banks.

Q: And what do the banks do with it?

A: Lend it to other customers.

Q: But you said that money they lent to other people was Assets?

A: Yes.

Q: Then Assets and Liabilities must be the same thing?

A: You can’t really say that.

Q: But you’ve just said it! If I put $100 into my account the bank is liable to have to pay it
back, so it’s Liabilities. But they go and lend it to someone else, and he is liable to have to
pay it back, so it’s Assets. It’s the same $100 isn’t it?

A: Yes, but….

Q: Then it cancels out. It means, doesn’t it, that banks haven’t really any money at all?

A: Theoretically……

Q: Never mind theoretically! And if they haven’t any money, where do they get their
Reserves of $249,000,000,000 or thereabouts??

A: I told you. That is the money they have made.

Q: How?

A: Well, when they lend your $100 to someone they charge him interest.

Q: How much?

A: It depends on the Bank Rate. Say five and a-half percent. That’s their profit.

Q: Why isn’t it my profit? Isn’t it my money?

A: It’s the theory of banking practice that………

Q: When I lend them my $100 why don’t I charge them interest?

A: You do.

Q: You don’t say. How much?

A: It depends on the Bank Rate. Say a half percent.

Q: Grasping of me, rather?

A: But that’s only if you’re not going to draw the money out again.

Q: But of course I’m going to draw the money out again! If I hadn’t wanted to draw it out
again I could have buried it in the garden!

A: They wouldn’t like you to draw it out again.

Q: Why not? If I keep it there you say it’s a Liability. Wouldn’t they be glad if I reduced
their Liabilities by removing it?

A: No. Because if you remove it they can’t lend it to anyone else.

Q: But if I wanted to remove it they’d have to let me?

A: Certainly.

Q: But suppose they’ve already lent it to another customer?

A: Then they’ll let you have some other customers money.

Q: But suppose he wants his too….and they’ve already let me have it?

A: You’re being purposely obtuse.

Q: I think I’m being acute. What if everyone wanted their money all at once?

A: It’s the theory of banking practice that they never would.

Q: So what banks bank on, is not having to meet their commitments?

A: I wouldn’t say that.

Q: Naturally. Well, if there’s nothing else you think you can tell me….?

A: Quite so. Now you can go off and open a banking account!

Q: Just one last question.

A: Of course.

Q: Wouldn’t I do better to go off and open up a bank

A special note to the Bitcoin community: All that we have done here would not be possible without your innovation. This trailblazing has left you in a unique position as a highly liquid market gateway which we all rely so heavily on. There will always be a top place for you so long as you maintain this distinction. Bitcoin TL;DR: Your community must focus on bridging the divide between government issued fiat currencies and the new realm of digital currencies. You are the gatekeeper that allows us all to prosper and to reach the next level, we need a system of exchanges that can handle a tsunami of fleeing capital which we are likely to soon witness. Government regulations, restrictions and FUD will stand in your way but you must accept this challenge and restore free market principals to the peoples' selection of their currency.

A special note to the Dogecoin community: We appreciate what you have done for all crypto-currencies by bringing us mainstream excitement. You are lifting us all higher but you cannot do it alone. A healthy ecosystem requires that one currency cannot fulfill all roles. Hopefully this document will help you to understand your bright future within it. Dogecoin TL;DR: The value of your currency is derived from the size of the community that trades and accepts Dogecoin. You must work tirelessly to spread the word and get people excited to be using Dogecoin and to accept it at their businesses. When merchants can operate by spending their earned Dogecoin instead of converting it to government issued fiat, you will have established lunar orbit. To say this another way, your ultimate goal is to create a diverse Dogecoin ecosystem that no longer relies on government issued fiat.

A special note to the Cryptogenic Bullion community: Visionary conception has created a cryptographic asset that is designed with the properties of money, modeled after the gold supply, and whose purpose is to store wealth. This currency could not have come to maturity at a better time as we are seeing a loss of confidence in the financial industry and a rising demand for Gold and Silver across the globe. Cryptogenic Bullion TL;DR: Your community must focus on enhancing the ability of CGB to act as a store of wealth. This includes developing safer ways to store CGB, and safer ways to utilize one's private wallet keys in a secure, offline manner. This focus on safety must include initiatives to make it easier and simpler for curious new community members to participate. The CGB community must also focus on investor education to help smoothly guide capital from the old economy to the new.

A special note to the general crypto-currency community: You are all an integral part of the true free market capitalism that is occurring in this new digital space. Although I highlight three currencies as prime examples of filling a certain role, the vibrant community that you are all a part of is what has allowed these examples to exist. There is plenty of room along side these examples for others to try to fill a similar role. So long as new and innovative crypto-currencies are launched and given a fair chance to compete, we should all be willing to adapt and change to accept them in order to brighten our collective future.

This document is intended to be used by our collective communities as a guide to come together and provide this new digital space with the services and functions required to support capital and commerce. The crypto-currency FX (foreign exchange) market is very new, and confusion about the fundamentals is currently the most dominant force underlying it. As more professional and seasoned investors begin to take notice of these markets, logic will begin to manifest itself more predominantly in the price action of the various options available. This is the reason that it is necessary for us all to do our homework if we wish to be not only on the profitable side of a trade, but on the side that allocates capital to deserving innovations.

The cryptographic currency market can naturally be seen as part of the greater foreign exchange market which includes all government issued fiat currencies. Many parallels can be drawn and it can get very technical. For the purposes of this document I have left out some distinctions which are not relevant to the overall understanding of the concept and would likely cause confusion. I may also update the document as discussion develops these ideas. We will begin by defining some basic elements found in these markets, the forces that are at play, and details on the roles to be fulfilled in this new economy.
The monetary base of a currency is the total number of units of a currency that are in existence. The monetary base can expand or contract. Expansion happens through mining and minting, while contraction occurs if a wallet is permanently lost. Although the monetary base may expand, if the new units are being held and not put on to the market, they may not cause a loss in relative value known as inflation. Correspondingly, if a large amount of the currency is lost forever or simply held by the population, an apparent shortage of the currency eventually forces the market to realize a higher exchange rate, identified as deflation. These forces act to stabilize the market as low relative prices encourage spending, and high relative prices encourage saving, thus maintaining a steady exchange rate and flow (ie. velocity of money).

Unit price is the cost per unit currently found on the open market for a particular crypto-currency. In a currency with a very low expansion rate, this would be primarily affected by the flow of capital. Currencies experiencing a high expansion rate of the monetary base will require a supply of capital inflow to balance against the base expansion, called the maintenance cost. As the unit price doubles, so does the capital inflow rate requirement (maintenance cost). This dynamic becomes readily apparent when the unit price rises too quickly for the capital inflow rate to maintain the new price and a correction must occur. In addition to capital inflow, the maintenance cost can also be countered by members of the community who choose to hold and save their currency.
Market capitalization can simply be seen as the total amount of capital that has been invested into a currency. For these markets, normally it is measured in USD, but it could be measured in BTC or any other currency. Usually we would measure this in the currency that we are more familiar with or the one which we perceive to be the most useful. From an investment point of view, market capitalization is a measure of popularity but not necessarily profitability. Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the unit price by the number of units. Investors are primarily concerned with the unit price because this is the direct value of what they hold. If the capital inflow is directly balancing against the expansion of the monetary base (paying the maintenance cost) we will see an increase in market capitalization over time, without an increase in unit price.

There are many different ways a currency can be used and they have different effects on the market capitalization depending on how long the capital is held in it. They can be used for their market access with capital flowing in to one trade pair (eg. USD/BTC) and exiting out of another (eg. BTC/CGB). These are the most market neutral transactions as the currency is not held for long. Moving funds from one location or person to another can be accomplished by buying into the market and selling back out the same trade pair at the other location. (eg. BTC/USD). This transaction also represents no intention to hold and will become neutral once completed. Buying to spend does immediately imply a boost to market capitalization like all other actions, but when it is spent, the recipient may convert it to another currency, causing the action to be market capitalization neutral overall. Buying to invest has the very same effect, yet the duration of the hold can often be much longer meaning a greater benefit to the market capitalization. Buying to save is the most market capitalization positive action because savings are usually intended to be held long-term.

Different crypto-currencies have different properties depending on their programming and life-cycle which can make them better suited to a certain task than another. The three primary duties which a crypto-currency can fulfill are market gateway, adopted currency, and store of wealth. A market gateway is a currency whose popularity has granted it high volume market access to many other currencies both government issued fiat and digital. This allows fast (liquid) and fair market access to serve a wide population base composed of all of the supported markets. An adopted currency is one which is used for daily transactions among a population (group of users). The ideal adopted currency is one which expands its monetary base at the same rate of growth as the user base. This maintains stable prices even as capital flows in to the currency. A store of wealth is an asset that has the properties of money and should maintain its value over time. It should have a low inflation rate and/or a return on investment to maintain the incentive to hold it.

It is helpful to use real world examples to explain the concepts covered within this document. For this I will be exploring three crypto-currencies which I believe serve as a good example of each use case. Bitcoin (BTC) serves as an excellent market gateway, Dogecoin (DOGE) has been widely adopted as a currency, and Cryptogenic Bullion (CGB) serves as a store of wealth. I will explain how each one of these fits within its own role and the moderating role of investors in each.

Bitcoin was the first crypto-currency to market and has achieved the greatest exposure to markets than any other. Hundreds of trade pairs exist on many exchanges between BTC and both government issued fiat and digital currencies. Its market capitalization is best tied to its use as a market gateway and for moving funds from one location or person to another. These activities cause volatility which is smoothed out by investors. If it is believed that the volume of market transactions will go up, or capital will need to flow between locations at a higher rate, investors will buy in anticipation and take profit by providing liquidity as the demand arrives. This should be the main dynamic at play in Bitcoin but since it is one of the first to market, it has also attempted to serve as currency and store of wealth but we can see that it does not perform these tasks as well as others.

Dogecoin is the first crypto-currency to sustain a growth trajectory through the fun and excitement of using cryptographic currency, and the socially viral aspect of a meme. Through its wide and quickly spreading adoption it is beginning to properly serve its role as an adopted currency. With enough places accepting Dogecoin in exchange for products and services, it will achieve a sustainable velocity as merchants and businesses are able to spend the Dogecoin in their community, as opposed to converting back to government issued fiat currency. This should be seen as the ultimate goal of any newly adopted currency. If it is believed that Dogecoin will be held and used at an expanding rate beyond its maintenance cost, investors should bid up the price, and then take profit by providing liquidity as this increased demand is realized.

Cryptogenic Bullion is the first crypto-currency to display all of the properties of money, while providing the bearer with interest for holding it. It is portable, divisible, fungible, scarce, low inflation, durable, non-consumable, and a store of wealth. Unlike most other crypto-currencies, CGB has already completed its volatile monetary base expansion stage and is settling in to its maximum target of 2% expansion per year. As capital finally flees the economic bubbles created by the parabolic increase in the global fiat monetary base, it will find its way into both traditional stores of wealth such as Gold and Silver, but also into new opportunities like low inflation crypto-currencies. This will greatly benefit all crypto-currencies as the rising tide lifts all boats, but in this case, not all boats are created equal.

It is important as market participants that we understand the bigger picture of what is happening to cause interest and investment in this uncharted territory. We can look back to 1971 when Nixon removed the US dollar, and therefore the rest of the world which had its currencies pegged to it, from the price of gold. With US Dollars now having value derived only from their military imposed monopoly on the export of oil known as the petrodollar system, the manipulation and corruption of the world economy that ensued is now coming to a climax. The system that serves to wiped out the middle class and concentrate the worlds wealth into the hands of those most able to corrupt the political process is finally being replaced by digital currencies which give special favor to no one. We are witnessing the death throes of the old guard as it tries to frame digital currencies as money laundering, terrorist financing, untrustworthy, failures. One needs only to look at what the fiat US Dollar has brought us to know that we could not possibly do worse than this corrupted system we seek to replace.