[ANN] SIN - The Token for Forgiveness

[tetzelcoin]

TetzelCoin (https://tetzelcoin.com) is an Etheruem-based app that is reviving indulgences for the modern era with its SIN token. Users confess a sin in the TetzelCoin app and pay an amount they believe their sin is worth in ether. In return they receive SIN tokens, marking them as forgiven. The sin is further logged in Ethereum and displayed in a Table of Sins showing all of the confessions and their value in SIN.

Once costs are covered, 85% of the proceeds from the project will go towards medical debt forgiveness. Specifically, we will be donating to RIP Medical Debt, a New York-based nonprofit that seeks out, buys and forgives medical debt in the United States.

TetzelCoin is a conceptual art project designed to explore several questions. Given the blockchain's immutable and near-limitless memory, what does it mean to forgive someone when we can't ever forget what they did? How do we value our guilt? What does it mean for us to translate our sins into SIN tokens, and what is their true "value"? Can technology act as a spiritual intermediary? You can read more in the white paper.

TetzelCoin is named after medieval-era Dominican friar Johann Tetzel. Johann Tetzel famously peddled indulgences to raise money for the Catholic Church in the early 1500s. Johann Tetzel's sale of indulgences left a deep impression on Martin Luther and contributed to the start of the Protestant Reformation. The beginning of the token sale, October 31st, 2017, marks the 500th anniversary of Reformation Day.

Confession / SIN Token Sale Key Info:

• Name: SIN
• Ticker: SIN
• Start Date: October 31st, 12 PM PST
• End Date: January 1st, 12 AM PST
• Cap: Uncapped
• Price: 1 ETH : 500 SIN
• Use of funds: 85% of ether goes to RIP Medical Debt; remaining 15% goes to the team
  
• SIN token distribution: 85% token holders; 15% team. At the conclusion of the sale, the token supply will be increased by 15% and the additional 15% will go to the team.
• SIN is an ERC20 token
• Link to white paper

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[1714795433]

1714795433

[tetzelcoin]

The price of 1 ETH = 500 SIN is pretty arbitrary, but I think works out well enough in practice. Hard to say that it's "cheap" or "expensive" since the amount of SIN you get is directly proportional to the amount of ETH you spend.

But the overall price is still a good question. How much should 1 SIN be worth? I would think something very small but demonstrably wrong should be worth 1 SIN. E.g., "I stole a pen" should be 1 SIN. Thinking how much you'd pay for that in USD... I don't know, $0.50? At the current ETH price ($306) that gives us 0.8 SIN. So I think 1 ETH = 500 SIN is approximately right.

[webwakko]

Hahaha... the modern way to confess your sins
I can already see the sunday donations in church when they come arround with a basket or paying per chair in church, modernized into cryptocoin
Allthough I think the idea is good, sins are supposed to be kept safe with the priest who hears them.. not thrown on the blockchain.
We need to be careful when all sins are gatheres and they FORK again the sins don't get mixed up.. some weird sins could come to life

Good luck with the project, but I'll pass for this one

[tetzelcoin]

airdrop of this coin?

I'm not planning an airdrop because everyone has to confess in order to buy SIN tokens. There is no way to get SIN tokens without first confessing a sin. This isn't JesusCoin, where everyone gets saved.

Allthough I think the idea is good, sins are supposed to be kept safe with the priest who hears them.. not thrown on the blockchain.

In this case there's no centralized, spiritual authority like a church to certify that someone has both confessed and been forgiven. How are we to know that anyone has confessed in earnest? People can always take the extra effort to anonymize themselves if they want to with TetzelCoin, but it's better that the confessions are public. There are cases in our normal social institutions where confessions have to be public in order to be legitimate. We see many examples of celebrities, politicians, executives and others making public statements about their guilt on an issue. Why, then, aren't we satisfied with them just going to a priest? We demand a public apology because we feel they've wronged everyone / society at large. In the end, all sins are sins against society. The blockchain just allows us to scale this effort of public apology up. A blockchain-based confessional is, in fact, more cathartic for both the individual and society.

We need to be careful when all sins are gatheres and they FORK again the sins don't get mixed up.. some weird sins could come to life

That's a great point! I didn't think about what would happen in the case of a fork. Which chain would hold the "true" record of sins? What would it mean to have SIN valued at one price in one chain vs. the other? Maybe it's a new way to quantify moral relativism 

I mean yes, it is great that a lot of the money will be donated, but for me... but the main idea is pretty bs.

Would you mind telling me more about your objections? I'd love to hear them and discuss!

[phreeksta]

I mean yes, it is great that a lot of the money will be donated, but for me... but the main idea is pretty bs.

Would you mind telling me more about your objections? I'd love to hear them and discuss!

Well like I said ... it is just like the old days, when churches did that, but they at least gave you the absolution as reward :-) If I understood it correctly, you just want to take money from people, that did something wrong. You had a fight with your wife ? you feel bad? Why don't you give us some money ... because why not?! :-)
I like the donation aspect, but besides that, it is just a very weird (almost scamy) idea.

[tetzelcoin]

Well like I said ... it is just like the old days, when churches did that, but they at least gave you the absolution as reward :-) If I understood it correctly, you just want to take money from people, that did something wrong. You had a fight with your wife ? you feel bad? Why don't you give us some money ... because why not?! :-)
I like the donation aspect, but besides that, it is just a very weird (almost scamy) idea.

Thanks for responding

Why is absolution in the form of tokens any less valid than absolution from a priest? Who really has the power to grant anybody forgiveness? From an atheist/agnostic point of view, a normal spiritual institution's claim that they can forgive you of your sins carries the same weight as the claim that a smart contract can forgive you of your sins. The only difference there is cultural.

Can you tell me more about what makes it scammy? I personally stand to make very little money from this project. I'm donating 85% of the proceeds and also have to pay people who are helping me with the remaining 15%. SIN tokens only have spiritual authority if you decide they do. I can't personally guarantee any forgiveness; I'm not a moral or spiritual authority. But if TetzelCoin does relieve you of a sense of guilt, that could be a good thing. My intention here is not to prey on people's guilt. It's to spark a conversation about our relationship to technology, spirituality and money.

[phreeksta]

Well like I said ... it is just like the old days, when churches did that, but they at least gave you the absolution as reward :-) If I understood it correctly, you just want to take money from people, that did something wrong. You had a fight with your wife ? you feel bad? Why don't you give us some money ... because why not?! :-)
I like the donation aspect, but besides that, it is just a very weird (almost scamy) idea.

Thanks for responding

Why is absolution in the form of tokens any less valid than absolution from a priest? Who really has the power to grant anybody forgiveness? From an atheist/agnostic point of view, a normal spiritual institution's claim that they can forgive you of your sins carries the same weight as the claim that a smart contract can forgive you of your sins. The only difference there is cultural.

Can you tell me more about what makes it scammy? I personally stand to make very little money from this project. I'm donating 85% of the proceeds and also have to pay people who are helping me with the remaining 15%. SIN tokens only have spiritual authority if you decide they do. I can't personally guarantee any forgiveness; I'm not a moral or spiritual authority. But if TetzelCoin does relieve you of a sense of guilt, that could be a good thing. My intention here is not to prey on people's guilt. It's to spark a conversation about our relationship to technology, spirituality and money.

In my opinion, absolution from a priest was not valid, nor is this coin :-) I kinda feel, this exploits the mental weaknesses of certain people and that's why I meant it looks scammy ... Of course you can argue, after they pay SIN tokens, the feel better, BUT I think helping that kind of people in that situation should be free. The people have obviously problems and taking from them money is not the greatest idea in my opinion. Besides, some may think, after paying their debt, that they are off the hook and again good with the universe (although they did some bad stuff). Also not the greatest argument for that coin.

[tetzelcoin]

I kinda feel, this exploits the mental weaknesses of certain people and that's why I meant it looks scammy ...

I sincerely hope that's not the case! But, the more I think about the idea that mentally "weak" people might get tricked into doing something they don't want to do the more confused I get. Who do you imagine this person is? Are they any different from a normal church-goer who might go to confessional?

Of course you can argue, after they pay SIN tokens, the feel better, BUT I think helping that kind of people in that situation should be free. The people have obviously problems and taking from them money is not the greatest idea in my opinion.

Should it be free? There are lots of instances where people get emotional or spiritual help for money. It's pretty common. Psychologists, spiritual healers, even priests and Buddhist monks charge money for services that benefit others. Churches, of course, ask you for a percentage of your income. That doesn't make any of this right or wrong. It's just what we've deemed culturally acceptable in a capitalist world. Part of the commentary in TetzelCoin is that it isn't free.

Besides, some may think, after paying their debt, that they are off the hook and again good with the universe (although they did some bad stuff).

Yeah! That's a great point. When are they off the hook? Who gets to decide that? Has the universe ever let you off the hook? Who owns this debt that you mention? Is it possible to pay it off?

[phreeksta]

I sincerely hope that's not the case! But, the more I think about the idea that mentally "weak" people might get tricked into doing something they don't want to do the more confused I get. Who do you imagine this person is? Are they any different from a normal church-goer who might go to confessional?

It has nothing to do with religion. Some people are mental just (let's call it) unstable.

Should it be free? There are lots of instances where people get emotional or spiritual help for money. It's pretty common. Psychologists, spiritual healers, even priests and Buddhist monks charge money for services that benefit others. Churches, of course, ask you for a percentage of your income. That doesn't make any of this right or wrong. It's just what we've deemed culturally acceptable in a capitalist world. Part of the commentary in TetzelCoin is that it isn't free.

I was thinking about that too ... but it is something different when I go to e.g. psychologist, that actively trying me to help (and gets paid for that of course), as when I pay some SIN coins and that's

Yeah! That's a great point. When are they off the hook? Who gets to decide that? Has the universe ever let you off the hook? Who owns this debt that you mention? Is it possible to pay it off?

Yeah, unfortunately some people have REAL mental issues and are really receptive to that kind of stuff.

[luksbit]

Then there will not be an airdrop, because tokens acquisition will be through an ICO? Does this project have as main objective the donation of values?

[tetzelcoin]

It has nothing to do with religion. Some people are mental just (let's call it) unstable.

Yeah, unfortunately some people have REAL mental issues and are really receptive to that kind of stuff.

Mental illness is a real tragedy and I really hope that TetzelCoin doesn't provoke anyone to behave irrationally. However, pretty much everyone that creates something new has this same problem. It's always possible that a mentally ill person will react poorly to what they did and cause harm to themselves or others.`

Religion really has this problem. There are all sorts of mentally ill people that latch onto religion and misinterpret it. Sane people do the same, but a little less. If I had to guess I would say that things that touch on existential / cosmic themes are more liable to be misinterpreted in the way that you're thinking of. Is that fair? Our existence is, in many ways, defined by our fear of death and inability to answer the question of "why are we here?" When someone comes along and offers a solution our ears perk up. But, TetzelCoin isn't this solution, and I hope that's clear enough from the website and white paper. Nobody gets "salvation" or anything from this. The only thing I can definitively say you get from TetzelCoin is some SIN tokens, and maybe a tax write off for the donated portion The absurdity of the relationship between SIN tokens and forgiveness is a major part of this project. But, if someone were to find it not absurd, is that a bad thing? Art that dips into the spiritual always runs the risk of being interpreted in wildly different ways, and that's part of what makes it interesting.

[tetzelcoin]

Then there will not be an airdrop, because tokens acquisition will be through an ICO? Does this project have as main objective the donation of values?

That's right, there's no airdrop because the only way to obtain SIN tokens (and by extension forgiveness) is through confession, where you confess a sin and send some ether to the TetzelCoin smart contract.

The main objective of this project is to explore the questions I mentioned in my original post, as well as raise money for medical debt forgiveness. There's also a possibility that I'll create something else that only accepts SIN tokens as payment later on, e.g. a machine that automates prayer-based penance by praying for you. But, I haven't finalized anything yet.


Bloomberg wrote about TetzelCoin!

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-17/what-is-an-ico-anyway-a-few-theories


TetzelCoin is live and confession has begun! Happy 500th Reformation Day, everybody!

Confess now at https://tetzelcoin.com!

[Moderator note: consecutive posts merged (separated via horizontal lines)]