Lifecoin
Algorithm: Scrypt
Est. Total Coins: 7,000,000,000
Est. Block time: 5 minutes
Est. Initial block size: 1000
Est Launch: Spring 2014
As a disclaimer, this coin is still in development and nearly all parameters are open to change. We will be polling the community on a regular basis in regards to them. I have been working full-time on this project for nearly a month now, acquiring additional staff along the way. This is a big moment for us and we are eagerly looking forward to your feedback. Our concept was created weeks before the name was chosen(which was yesterday)and we were astounded to find that Lifecoin has not been made, we are thankful to those who avoided the temptation to burn this one out, as we have an idea worthy of the name. I ask that anyone offering comments/questions/suggestions publicly in this thread please read the thread in its entirety before doing so. There is a lot of information here and plenty more will be pouring out.
With the Bitcoin architecture, we have been given an enormously powerful polling system. We are, of course, aware of this and depend on it to keep an accurate proof of ledger. What Lifecoin will do is make use of this ledger/stake system as a polling method for the purpose of directing a corresponding charitable exchange.
By itself, Lifecoin is similar to most Litecoin based crypto-currencies and will exist independently of any foundation. We plan to use a scrypt based algorithm, with a total coin amount corresponding roughly to the current world population, as well as block halvings to create a deflationary environment. Alongside(or shortly after) the launch of Lifecoin, we will be launching the Lifecoin Foundation, a completely transparent, charity based exchange designed entirely to allocate its profits to charities at the sole direction of Lifecoiners. The only requirement for a charity to be eligible is that A) Its primary purpose is to help or save the lives humans or animals AND B) Does not use or advocate the use of violence to achieve its goals.
Every Lifecoin you have in your wallet will grant you 1 vote on the Lifecoin Foundation. On a set schedule, likely once a month, we will disburse our entire profits for that month in accordance with the exact ratio of all of those polled. The current state of voted shares will be displayed publicly, meaning all users can see what percentage of the next donation is scheduled to go to which organizations. I could type endlessly about the power of this idea, for now I will let your imagination run with it. Also, to make this perfectly clear, we are donating all of our profits to charity, not all of our revenue. The foundation will need to be self sustaining and cover its own operating costs. Given that we already own the hardware and have a substantial initial investment, I do not anticipate this being any sort of concern beyond the first days. We do have a lightweight, grassroots type model we can implement as a "plan b" if needed long term.
In either case, there will of course need to be as much transparency as possible. We will offer all of the basic nuts and bolts of the exchange(security measures will obviously be hidden) and will be procuring code and verification from the community on a regular basis. We also anticipate the growth of a community dedicated to influencing and, by extension, verifying the allocation of our donations. It is our belief that an open transaction code, paired with an active community, will squeeze out any room for doubt or illegitimacy. Obviously, this piece will be the biggest hurdle for most non-miners/traders to overcome. As always I encourage any and all to express your concerns with regards to this. Talk to your friends and family about this, the only way we can effectively overcome these issues is if we are made aware of them.
Transactional Value
While this polling and charity system in itself gives a value to Lifecoin far beyond the majority of other coins, it is not the primary or even the most powerful one. The real value lies in the statement you are making by investing in, carrying and seeking trade in Lifecoin.
So what does it mean then? Let me give you some quick background. For the past 3+ years I have been the operations manager of a multi-million dollar e-commerce website. I was responsible for the protocols and resulting performance of both our customer call center and web-based ticket system. If I learned anything from this task it was that the value of a customer was NOT found primarily in their purchasing power but in their human capital. This means that an honest and educated customer with less money to spend is actually more valuable to your business than an angry and entitled one with more. It might sound crazy to those who have never ran their own business, but I promise you it is true.
When a business owner or customer chooses to transact in Lifecoin, they are making a statement about their personal values, their generosity and their willingness to empathize. Sure that sounds warm and cuddly but that's not the point I'm making. What this really means, from a business standpoint, is the likely-hood of a smoother deal, less refunds and problem orders, minimal fraud, positive recommendations, exponential retention rates, etc...The power to inform yourself of the human capital of a business or customer simply based on the type of currency they transact in has never been seen before. As we call it around here, this is a "game-changer".
To put it another way, my wife and I own a small bed and breakfast in rural New York. After what is now probably 50 discussions about Lifecoin, it recently dawned on her how excited she is to meet the first people who choose to pay us in Lifecoin. While I could be wrong, I anticipate any patron transacting in Lifecoin to be world-minded, intelligent and generous. These people haven taken their time and their money and voluntarily chosen to dedicate those to others in need, man or beast. These are not just people I want frequenting my business, these are the people I want in my life.
I believe this concept will prove to be the true gift of Satoshi's invention. For this technology to ever reach its maximum potential, however, we need to stop thinking of it exclusively in terms of monetary value. When explaining Bitcoin to somebody for the first time, we always run up on the question - "Well why is it worth anything?". If you're like me, you try open their eyes to the world of debt slavery and dismantle the legitimacy of paper fiat in a single powerful stroke of verbal masturbation. Anyone whose tried this knows it's a lot like pissing in the wind, especially if the person is not tech-minded to begin with. My goal with this project was to find a better answer, to give crypto-currency advocates some real ammunition when talking with people who have no regard for our movement.
With that in mind, there will be no bounties paid to exchanges for listing our coin. Though we have no problem with our supporters doing so on our behalf, the idea behind Lifecoin is so blatantly more powerful than 90% of these coins being traded that we will have no issue gaining popularity organically. To be clear, we welcome all participants in this project and have no problem with people trading our coins across any exchange, in any volume, we are looking forward to it. While this coin has many aspirations, we are miners and traders ourselves and do not intend to discredit anyone with our "real-world" intentions. Basically, what I am trying to say is that the immediate expansion of Lifecoin onto several exchanges and subsequent "pumping" of its price is not a priority for our development staff. There a plenty of other coins to play that game with, we're going to try and save the world with this one.
Going Forward
As of right now, we have been in develop for nearly a month. We have purchased a web/pool server, hired an artist, compiled an early wallet build and have started web development of the Lifecoin foundation/exchange. While I am a competent enough coder and developer, I plan to take an advisory role in the Lifecoin development, concentrating my efforts on the Lifecoin foundation and the practical implementation of Lifecoin within the non-profit and charitable donation community. With that in mind, and taking into account the large scope of this project, we will be requesting the help of the altcoin community to finish development, effectively starting now.
This leads me to the last thing I wish to discuss with you. I have shown this document and given a handful of presentations on Lifecoin to potential investors and have been met with a tremendous response. I have enough OPM to pay for development directly and am confident my project management background will facilitate that just fine.
Initially, I had planned to do nearly all the coding myself. What I am running into now, is my web development skills are quite outdated and I am bogging down in creating the exchange system(as basic as it is, BTC/LIFE only). Planning on minimal development cost, I intended to use our start-up money(~$10,000USD) to bolster our first round of donations and to help fund a corresponding PR push spotlighting them. This is something I am surprised few other coins are doing, my guess is most of their creators have zero experience in marketing. This is where we have an advantage, I have several years experience in internet marketing and lead generation and know how package a campaign. I've walked into countless rooms filled with strangers and convinced them to buy what I was selling...I guess that's kind of what I'm doing here. I believe a well timed series of donations, matched with legitimate and relevant news coverage, will be reflected at minimum 3x in the value of Lifecoin over the following 6 months.
The only realistic way I can follow through on this original plan is by completing development of the exchange grass-roots style and perhaps even through this forum. There is much debate within our group as to whether a pre-mine is even a possibility. During our first meetings we all agreed to never consider it, but at this point we have grown in scope beyond what we could've imagined. After an entire week with no consensus, we would like to turn this decision over to the community. We can either spend our initial investment on hiring professional help to complete our foundation exchange OR we can offer a premine/prelaunch and procure a competent web developer from within the community, preserving our initial investment for a PR push this Fall/Winter. Of course, any alternative ideas are more than welcome, we truly need your help with this decision.
Feedback
Please respond to this thread or private message me with your input on this issue, or any of the other items mentioned. Our domain was purchased yesterday, as soon as our webserver is online we will be accepting tickets and donations there as well. If you are weary of the concept, or any part of it, I kindly ask you to offer those concerns here for now. We know we've got something very special with this idea, we just need to make sure we get the details right. We have spent literally hundreds of hours discussing and brainstorming every issue and problem we can think of with Lifecoin and, while we like to think we've thought of everything, we know that is not the case.
Finally, thank you for reading this extra-lengthy post. As you can probably tell, Lifecoin has consumed my life these past weeks and I am relieved to finally unveil a small part of it to the world. It's been a pleasure introducing myself and my idea to you, I look forward to meeting with you soon.
