I was following a link from a thread about transaction fees and the scaling issue, and this "challenge" sounded interesting to me.
First I want to mention
Helpix.world's list of decentralized altcoins. Perhaps you can find some alternatives there - it is already a bit older (2019), but not much has changed since then. I have
also made my own list of decentralized, no-premine cryptos, I call them "Classic Altcoins" (however without discriminating instamines, because it seems difficult to me to find really convincing criteria for that).
I second NeuroticFish that Monero is clearly one of the "good" ones (may be in my personal top 5, too).
Now to my contribution to the thread: a very small altcoin called
Slimcoin (SLM), which I support (not as a developer but writing help texts and small secondary apps). Here's why I'm interested in it:
Name: Slimcoin
Reference implementation (source code on GitHub): https://github.com/slimcoin-project/SlimcoinIs the link above original code (as opposed to copying/forking another project such as bitcoin core with minimal change)? (yes/no): Yes. It is based on Bitcoin/Peercoin code but with major changes, see below.
Is it truly decentralized? (yes/no): Yes, it follows the Bitcoin model closely.
Does it have any premine, instamine, shadowmine, ICO fund raising, etc? No
Can any individual mine this altcoin? Mention the mining algorithm. Yes, it uses a custom ASIC-unfriendly algorithm called DCrypt.
Can any individual run the full verification node (or equivalent e.g. witness nodes in DAG based coins) capable of enforcing consensus rules of this altcoin? Mention some of the requirements. Of course. There are no requirements other than running the client. Memory usage however is relatively high compared to other coins, above all when mining and/or minting.
A short (max 100 words) summary describing the cryptocurrency: Slimcoin started in 2014 and was the first cryptocurrency which uses the
Proof of Burn mechanism as part of the consensus algorithm. It also uses Proof of Work and Proof of Stake, thus it might be unique as a (still existing) coin using three different mechanisms at once. In most other aspects it follows the Bitcoin model.
What makes this altcoin different from bitcoin as a decentralized currency?To put it into few words: It is likely that the consensus mechanism encourages long time involvement and discourages short-time speculation. Also, the three different consensus mechanisms may lead to a better power distribution than in Bitcoin (where miners hold a strong position in the governance scheme and can potentially block progress). In Slimcoin's PoW/PoB/PoS system normal holders (PoS) and "burners" which can be described as long-term risk-taking holders (PoB, see below) also have strong positions.
What is the innovation in this project? The main one is Proof of Burn. Basically, it works this way: People can burn coins sending them to a special address without known private key. The more coins you burnt, the less hashrate you need to find a proof-of-burn block. See below for the possible advantages.
Proof of Burn wasn't invented by the Slimcoin creators, but by another developer called Iain Stewart, but Slimcoin is the first known implementation. There were a couple of other PoB implementations, the only surviving one to my knowledge is Litecoin Cash (which calls it "hive mining"), but I wouldn't call this one decentralized.
A second innovation is the DCrypt algorithm mentioned above.
How is that new innovation used in real world? What real world problem does it solve?The first advantage is that it provides an additional way to participate in validation, which does not only take into account the mining hashrate or your holdings, but also a risk you're willing to take. A person who burns coins cannot use them anymore - only for minting. They will normally need several months to break even with block rewards. So they "commit" to the coin's success when they burn.
The second possible advantage is the main reason why I support this coin, but is pending confirmation because there was never really a mature market to confirm the hypothesis: Proof of Burn could in the long term lead to more stable cryptocurrency prices and lower volatility. This may come from those factors:
1) Proof of Burn encourages long term investing, as already written. So if you burn coins, these coins cannot be sold, they become a "frozen" asset which only can be used for minting. This may help to lower selling pressure in bear markets, above all in "panic"-like events.
2) It is easier to burn more coins when they're cheap. So the "burn rate" could increase when the price is low. As burnt coins reduce the available supply, this could lead to a phenomenon that in low price phases the supply will grow slower (or even decrease) than when the price is high and the risk is higher to burn the same quantity of coins. However, there is a limit to this effect, because when people burn many coins in a timeframe, there is more competition for block rewards.
I think I don't have to explain the possible benefits of a significantly less volatile cryptocurrency than Bitcoin and most altcoins. But again, these effects are speculative, but they could make sense.
Most important of allHave you ever used this altcoin?I could say that I received a small "donation" in this coin but the work I did was related to it, so it probably won't count for you. It's still more an experimental project than a currency. What I already did was proof of burn minting, and it worked fine.
What wallet are you using for this coin (full node, web wallet, hardware wallet, custodial such as exchanges)?Mainly a full node, and temporary an exchange node.
Are you running or have you ran this coin's full node?Yes, I run a full node, but not permanently. I also have run a testnet node when it was needed.
Some additional notes: Slimcoin is a very small coin (market cap: ~$100K) and has also a lot of related disadvantages - practically zero acceptance in commerce, only one exchange, a lack of developers, and a general lack of "ecosystem". The advantages I described above are currently purely "theoretical". So I currently can't really recommend to invest in it. It has potential, but it has to be seen if it flourishes or continues to sleep. In the last months however there were developments which give some hope (a new innovative token system, possible total code renewal).
