Mintpal has raked in almost 450 BTC through their voting system

[nutildah]

I added up all the .001's listed on their voting page.

That's almost $200 grand if you cashed it all out today.

I dunno, just thought it was an interesting factoid. Some power getting behind the fringe alts...

[r0ach]

If they actually used that funding to reinvest in their operation, we could have USD trading pairs for every currency on the site that isn't a ticking time bomb, then they could integrate with a payment processor and we could unhinge from BTC instead of having every ALT locked into it.

[nutildah]

If they actually used that funding to reinvest in their operation, we could have USD trading pairs for every currency on the site that isn't a ticking time bomb, then they could integrate with a payment processor and we could unhinge from BTC instead of having every ALT locked into it.

I thought about this... While its cool to think that alts being based on the BTC standard allows for the possibility of exponential gains (as well as exponential losses), I find it odd that the dollar price of an altcoin should necessarily be subjected to the rise and fall of bitcoin. But I suppose it makes the most sense for practical reasons, such as legality and relative level of financial backing...

Also, the total they made is probably closer to 600-800 BTC if you include votes for all the coins that won the vote and went on to be listed. Forgot to include those.

[m_murfy]

Wow. I had no idea how lucrative this aspect of their business model is. Seems to me they are preying on the desperation of certain coin developers who think they need a trading pair on Mintpal to be recognised as a legitimate altcoin contender.

Am I the only one who thinks the potential for moral hazard here is significant? The cost of the number of votes required to get a coin to the top of their list appears to have ballooned in recent weeks. One coin in particular I was trying to slowly vote up required only 6btc 2 weeks ago to get it to the top. Today it costs upwards of 25btc despite the fact it has not changed its position relative to the other coins. This is because the number of votes held by the coins at the top of their lists seem to be steadily increasing. IXCoin has been at or near the top there for ages, and it has not been added.

I think Mintpal need to tread very careful with this. It is starting to stink of scam. It could rapidly become a major fraction of their profits, if it isn't already. I will be paying close attention to this situation going forward.

[1btcdream]

Voting system on exchange platform is a profit-making business. That's why big exchanges like Cryptsy and Mintpal implemented it.

[m_murfy]

Shouldn't it be less to do with profits and more to do with allowing the trading community to fairly select new coins to add to their platforms? Some coins are allowed to bypass the entire voting process at the whim of the exchange. This completely stinks of scam and it's getting worse daily.

[spinnel]

Shouldn't it be less to do with profits and more to do with allowing the trading community to fairly select new coins to add to their platforms? Some coins are allowed to bypass the entire voting process at the whim of the exchange. This completely stinks of scam and it's getting worse daily.

I watched a few coins that obviously paid to get on exchanges. None of them did well, they all sank in value and there was no volume in sales. It looked to me like the only people making aything out of it were the ones running the exchange.

[MisterGreen]

Also Mintpal forces you to make more trades if you want to vote for a coin everytime when they're changing something on their voting system.

[BTCat]

Yea, they are sure squeezing out a big pile of BTC from coinfans and dev's, but it's all voluntarily and perhaps it puts some healthy obstacles for the coin-babyboom.

Actually for USD trades and registering at FinCen etc. can cost more then US$1 million.