thanks to most for some great replies and not bashing me for honest questions. i really am wanting to see the truth behind SolidCoin.

regarding it not being open-source, i would TOTALLY AGREE that any such system must be open source. but it seems to me that it *is* open source: i see the site has their open source posted at this page:
http://solidcoin.info/downloads.html

i downloaded the zip and it has several code files in it. i did not even try to compile it as i'm not even on a puter that has Visual Studio installed. (i'm a windows programmer [my appologies ] and c# is my specialty, but i'm familiar with c++ too.) so my point is at first glance, it appears that the source code is released. for those saying it's not open source, do you have a response to that?

i agree that he has a hot-head attitude tho. that shows a lack of professionality about him tho. i give that negative aspect too.

and thanks for that post to where he asked how many coins should be pre-mined. it was quite hillarious!

but about pre-mined coins, in the explanation at the solidcoin site, it explains that premined coins cannot be spent like normal coins. i have to give him/them/SC credit, that it's a good idea. (i think brilliant to overcome the 51% 'danger' that other cryptocoins face.) but i also admit that i only half understand stated solution as to how those premined coined and 'trusted nodes' actually keep the network safe from a powerful attacker. but i'm pointing out that SC claims those coins cannot be spent as regular coins.

and yeah, when i took a second look at difficulties, i found SC difficulties to be very low with as mentioned, hardly any miners. but in response to it not being worth the electricity to mine them, neither is BitCoins worth mining.

i read here that SolidCoin has issues. i just found out about LiteCoin recently (maybe a week ago). i thot it was a cool idea too. and i fell for the "all the other bitcoin alternatives are flops" lie too... till i looked into it.

here's the bottom line: lots more people are mining SolidCoin than LiteCoin, as far as i can tell. LOTS. do you have evidence that LiteCoin is more popular? i read up on the SolidCoin forums because i like to read about the "underdog". but my findings seem to indicate that LiteCoin is more likely the culprit here. LiteCoin being designed from the beginning to have "GPU hostile" and "CPU friendly" mining. and it turns out that the benefits to mine LiteCoin by GPU to mining by CPU are GREATER for LiteCoin than that same ratio is for BitCoin. basically, the very claim to make LiteCoin CPU friendly ends up being the exact opposite: LiteCoin is more GPU friendly than it is CPU friendly! it is true that whether the originator had honest intention or malicious intention with this is speculation. but here's the bottom line: if it was malicious intention then he's a con and i don't want to follow a cheater and deceiver by using his LiteCoin alternative. and if he had honest intention, then LiteCoin is a failure to deliver what it was intended to deliver. either way: it's a flop. but hey, we all should know that all these crypto-currencies are high risk to begin with, so we should not be too surprised.

the hashing pools are where the evidence really is. far less hashes for LiteCoin. and SolidCoin was ranked #2 is how many hashes were being performed. so it seems to me that Solid Coin is the trump over LiteCoin. plus SolidCoin claims to have overcome weaknesses in the BitCoin system too: the 51% takeover, which has been used against other bitcoin alternatives. it seems to me that SolidCoin is kicking butt! but that's just what i gather.

and for bashers: please don't bash me. i'm not bashing others. i'm not bashing *people*. i'm only saying that from what i find, a lot of claims are flaky, and from this new person to take a fair look at both LiteCoin and SolidCoin for just about 1-3 days now, it appears to me that LiteCoin has a pretty high chance of deceptive intentions, but if it's not, then it failed at its #1 goal, to be CPU friendly. and that bashing SolidCoin is just foolish.

but i think "SolidCoin" is a rather lame name, myself. but apart from the "look at me, I'm solid" tout that SolidCoin has, i still give it a fair look. so i ask you SolidCoin haters: why is it bad? what is really wrong with it? i mean, fairly. please talk me out of SolidCoin. i'm asking you to keep me from such a mistake.. if it is a mistake to run with SolidCoin

i know popularity does not mean good. i mean, look at Mt. Gox. it got hacked and it is still the most popular BTC exchange site in the bitcoin world. i don't understand people. and it claims to be secure. *rolling my eyes* but it has nice features. i'd be stupid to not look at the big picture and find why people still use it. it does have more features than other exchanges that i find. but i mention Mt. Gox to only show that popularity means nothing.

and my findings show me that SolidCoin is the 2nd most popular BitCoin alternative with BitCoin holding in as top most popular. so what is really wrong with SolidCoin? i have yet to understand this. and apparently, the mass of users too.

thanks for the litecoin faucet. hey, are there any litecoin exchange sites? where can i find those? and what about a bitcoincharts equivalent for litecoin? (thanks in advance)

i want to add BitCoins to our site at sorren.com, an online video rental site. please whitelist me. best way to contact me is on Skype. my skype handle is humilulo.

i hardly remember how i found bitcoins. i think it had to do with encryption stuff i was looking up and i probably stumbled onto it from a page or document about encryption that mentioned something like a particular algorithm i was reading about was used in BitCoin. but that's my best guess. i wish i remembered. i will need to ask my fiance.

it is good for people to mention random things to other people like ... if you have not read about the Dvorak keyboard layout, then please, check it out! i love BitCoin, but i love this great, simplified keyboard layout as much as i like BitCoins too! here are a few highlights to tease your interest then i will stop because i don't want to turn my subject into other topics. but while i'm on this bunny trail... the Qwerty keyboard layout was designed to make typing slower! and the Dvorak keyboard layout was designed for the opposite: to be the most efficient typing layout for our English language. (i personally attest that it is MUCH more comfortable! because more efficient means less work on one's hands, thus easier and more comfortable. i hate the Qwerty layout now.) um, i will stop there, but if you want to inquire of this just email me at shawn2012 (at) sorren.com.

and BitCoin... i love it too! it is a powerful tool that big banks are scared of. consider how they essentially forced Paxum to stop assisting BitCoin exchanges! it is like the petroleum industry hating electric cars (which are better for the end consumer and the environment) but worse for petroleum companies and car manufacturers (because electric cars don't break as often and their design is FAR simpler, so MANY less parts in an electric car to wear out). but with much power that BitCoin has, it can be abused too. BitCoin is only a tool that can be used for good or bad. it is the users behind it that make the good or bad. just like cash. so if you hear anyone putting BitCoin down, remind them that the internet is used for good and bad too. they are both technologies that give *people* the power to choose their fate.

p.s. if anyone want's to rent movies with bitcoins, my brother and i already have a website up and running that uses USD via PayPal for users to pay for credits and watch movies. (we made it before NetFlix was popular.) i recently learned of BitCoin, and now i am interested in coding it to accept BitCoins. any programmers interested in helping, please contact me. for now, if you give me $1 worth of BTC, i will give you $2 USD worth of credit.

enjoy!