What are Devcoins?

[No_2]

I've managed to get my head round pretty much all the alt-coins out there but am not clear what devcoins are exactly. Someone reported to me the other that they are designed to have a deliberately low value. Is this true and can anyone give an overview of their design and intended use?

[Sunny King]

Each block generates 50K coins, no halving (constant block generation, infinite future supply), 90% of block subsidy is paid to a list of developers and their project funding reviewed by a supposed committee/foundation.

Why 50K coins per block? Because they thought devcoin could go to the moon like bitcoin so they wanted to handle the shifting of decimal places in advance  

They also included continuous difficulty adjustment and merge mining. Other than that it's mainly intended to be an alternative funding program rather than a cryptocurrency (due to centralized control of distribution). It's running reasonably consistent to their stated goals (funding open source development) I guess, because I don't see too many complaints to its distribution model.

[No_2]

So the coins go to developers, musicians etc. Where do they go from there? Who would then take them as payment?

Assuming the number being mined remains constant per unit time that would mean they would undergo inflation too?

[mitty]

So the coins go to developers, musicians etc. Where do they go from there? Who would then take them as payment?

Assuming the number being mined remains constant per unit time that would mean they would undergo inflation too?

Not sure about the inflation question, but you can exchange them for bitcoins (or other virtual currencies) on https://vircurex.com/

You can then take the bitcoins and exchange for your local currency (dollar, euro, whatever) or just keep them as bitcoins.

Other than that, I don't know of anyone accepting devcoins as payment. (but the world is a big place; I'm sure SOMEONE would accept them)

[Monster Tent]

Devcoins and other such low value coins are better for taking out loans because they shouldnt have massive deflation.

[No_2]

This brings me back to my original question then. I can't see them maintaining any real value; they'll just devalue over time. Unless I'm failing to see something key here.

[Monster Tent]

This brings me back to my original question then. I can't see them maintaining any real value; they'll just devalue over time. Unless I'm failing to see something key here.

I think cryptostocks has a couple of devcoin companies you can invest in. I dont think you can buy much else with them though.

[doublec]

So the coins go to developers, musicians etc. Where do they go from there? Who would then take them as payment?

I don't think it matters for people to take them as payment. Developers/open source people receive their devcoin grant and trade it for BTC or dollars on an exchange. People wishing to support the grants can buy devcoins on the exchange as a way of keeping the value high enough for the grantees to get a good rate. So one could look at buying devcoins on the exchange as a way of supporting deveopment in the fields that devcoin gives grants to.

[No_2]

Ah ok! That makes sense. So you're saying it's a broad brush strokes way of promoting whatever projects the centralised committee/foundation is promoting at that point in time.

Intentionally that's quite a nice idea. I'm wondering what processes could be used to encourage the funding away from opinion/reactionary based methods of selection and toward scientific and evidence based selection… always a problem with committee driven policy.

[Atruk]

Other than that it's mainly intended to be an alternative funding program rather than a cryptocurrency (due to centralized control of distribution). It's running reasonably consistent to their stated goals (funding open source development) I guess, because I don't see too many complaints to its distribution model.

That's how I wrap my head around it. A portion of each block goes to miners so it isn't completely worth excluding from merged mining, but the vast majority are awarded through bounties. They are rather transparent about how things work, and I've managed to get paid.

The odd part compared to other cryptos that work off of a foundation is that rather than awarding a percent of the block or a fixed amount they pay off of a share of what each 4000 block round generates. Your address goes on a list one time for each share you have on a list. When a round starts each address gets paid as a block is solved round robin style until the round ends.

So the coins go to developers, musicians etc. Where do they go from there? Who would then take them as payment?

I don't think it matters for people to take them as payment. Developers/open source people receive their devcoin grant and trade it for BTC or dollars on an exchange. People wishing to support the grants can buy devcoins on the exchange as a way of keeping the value high enough for the grantees to get a good rate. So one could look at buying devcoins on the exchange as a way of supporting deveopment in the fields that devcoin gives grants to.

Pretty much. Vircurex is the easiest place to cash them in, but there is at least one Open Transactions Server exchanges Devcoins that offers a better rate. There are some nice Arbitrage opportunities for people who can get Open Transactions to work. I think at least a couple people involved are pretty excited about ripple because it might create some interesting new uses for them.

Ah ok! That makes sense. So you're saying it's a broad brush strokes way of promoting whatever projects the centralised committee/foundation is promoting at that point in time.

Intentionally that's quite a nice idea. I'm wondering what processes could be used to encourage the funding away from opinion/reactionary based methods of selection and toward scientific and evidence based selection… always a problem with committee driven policy.

The big bounties I know of right now involve developing content for the Devcoin wiki. There's probably others. I'm not really sure about the selection process.

[markm]

Vircurex seems to have turned into a place to pick up devcoins dirt cheap, maybe from people whose pool merges them but who do not have any other idea of what do do with them so just dump them dirt cheap.

-MarkM-