So does this mean MINT is going to become even more "pumpy" so to speak? It increases the pumpability of the coin? Not really sure how this affects it.
Yes, and no. The rate adjustment will probably attract more "trader" activity to the coin, as there will be less downside potential from "losing out" from not participating in minting. However this plays out in the market is anyone's guess initially. Some may decide to dump the coin because they are miffed that they aren't minting as many coins minting. Who knows
But if the coin is minting less, then it's scarcity will rise in the long-run, which tends to mean a higher value per coin.
Since the minting reward will be decreasing, the coin's nominal value will be a "devaluation" at a lower rate. In other words... the nominal devaluation of the coin will be slowed relative to other cryptocoins and currencies, which ultimately over the long-run will probably push the price per coin up. Everything is a function of supply and demand. The increase in the supply is going to be slowed, so if demand stays the same, the price will rise. In other words, all else equal, you will be minting less coins, but the value of the coins will tend to push higher at a faster rate. Ultimately minters are not affected by nominal devaluation. Any minter will receive more newly minted coins at the same rate as everyone else so through the minting process, as more coins are added to the supply, the nominal value goes down, but the real value of your holdings stays the same. So basically, if you are a minter, the net affect on real value stays exactly the same, and if you are not a minter, mintcoin becomes somewhat more attractive to own and trade.
I hope that makes any sense at all
This brings up an interesting relationship. What is the ideal rate? 0% 1% 5% 10% 20% etc. Bitcoin has a hard cap of coins, this means ultimately a 0% devaluation rate. The problem with this is if the nominal value of the coin rises too high, it becomes unfungible, and worthless for to trade. Mintcoin solves this problem by 1) having a lot of coins to begin with that were spread out via PoW in the intial distribution and 2) having a healthy minting rate.
If you go too far in the other direction... a minting rate say 100% per year, your coin's nominal value devalues too much and becomes less attractive to even own by anyone who doesn't participate in the PoS process. If the minting rate is too low, say 0% or even 1%, so few people will take the effort to secure the network via PoS, and you get a problem that way too.
Mintcoin is gradually decreasing to 5% which IMO, I think will be a perfect balance for network participation, continued fungibility, and rarity. This is the science of what makes a good currency and it can be a matter of much debate. So far Mintcoin has survived 20% last year and 15% this year (some might argue, barely survived, lol) which I think most would agree is really pushing on the "too high" side. Next year will bring about the 10% rate which should be interesting to see how the markets respond. 2017 we are down to 5% - interesting times!
