Team Earthcoin Newsletter

[earthcoin]

Earthcoin is dead.  Long live Earthcoin!


By Jay Kevin "Biomech" Putzier



The scuttlebutt says the coin is dead. Prices dropping into the teens, maybe lower. Too much production, not enough demand, and where the hell are the devs?

Further, they say that the hype is all we got going on for us. And the hype is dead. Great promise, they say, but now it's nothing.

I know you've heard it all. And amidst it, desperate cries for the developers to "do something" right now. Pump it up, make it smaller, make it bigger, do this, do that.. do something!!!

And of course, each camp with their pet theories, convinced that they are the saviours, and that ONLY their solution can possibly rescue Earthcoin.

Trouble with that is that in addition to calling for contradictory things, they are attempting to, to put it bluntly, put a band-aid on a sucking chest wound.

But what if the patient don't need a band-aid? What if there is not sucking chest wound? What if things are actually going according to the original vision, and just not happening as fast as we'd all like? Rome was not built in a day, and neither will Earthcoin's ecosystem.

The original vision of this coin is a global currency, used for trade and charity. Not just a thing to exchange on a currency exchange to get more bitcoin! There are hundreds of coins whose only purpose is just that. Maybe they had some vision, though a great many appear to just be a lark for people to play with. It's nice to have and play with shiny things, but that's not the purpose of Earthcoin.

The vision, to be very blunt, is a hell of a lot bigger than that. We envision a time when Bitcoins, Dollars, Euros and what have you are traded on exchanges where the BASE of the pair is Earthcoin. To make this happen, we need as a community to do some thinking, and some things.

The development team is indeed looking into various technical issues, securing the network being the primary one. From our side, we now have a dedicated team updating the wallet. It will include the latest code from the "standard" templates as well as our own very robust difficulty retargeting. It is right now, as you read this, being coded and tested. It will very soon be released, and yes, that will mean a hard fork. Not a big issue, really, and ample warning will be given. This will help to close any issues with securing the network.

However, this is only part of what needs to happen. Miners, this network is currently vulnerable due to it's size. We need asic farms online ASAP, with a good portion of their hashrate pointed at bitcoin. With a big enough farm of gridseeds, you can successfully and profitably solo mine, which further decentralizes and secures the network. We need to get this network big enough, quick, that nobody can take control of it via a 51% attack.

Also, on difficulty retargeting. Our tech experts have informed me in no uncertain terms that Kimoto's Gravity Well, which several of you have called for, has several serious vulnerabilities, including one known as a "time warp" attack. I don't understand it well enough to comment on it, yet, but it can cause forks. Our built in code, however, retargets both better and with far less vulnerability. It has been thoroughly tested and has passed with flying colors. It does what KGW is supposed to do, and it does it without the vulnerabilities.

Once that is done, and this can be ongoing, we need MERCHANTS! Lots of them. The more, the merrier, as the saying goes. Got something you know how to make? Especially something you can make by recycling what would normally go in the landfill? All the better that you make it and sell it for EAC. And HOLD that EAC while we grow, if at all possible. Exchange enough to replensish your materials and meet your expenses, certainly, but hold back most of it and sell it dear when you do sell it. Just because the multipools are willing to dump any coin at any price doesn't mean jack to our vision. They drive down the exchanges because they are solely interested in bitcoin. If we start branding Earthcoin as a true competitor, and following through, you'll see that change. You'll see them start to pay out in EAC instead of or alongside BTC, and they won't be selling it at the lowest possible cost just to move it. But even if they do, and you have other options, why sell it low? Who cares what they do? So they sacrifice their ten minutes worth. If we build a merchant ecosystem, then we don't NEED the exchanges, we get goods, services, silver, gold, land... Whatever. We make it a real currency, and the daytraders and multipools will become irrelevant. They'll also love us, because we'll drive the price up. Dramatically.

I recently started a separate thread with a list of the current merchants who accept Earthcoin. It had a couple errors in it as some had dropped out. It's still a fair list, but it has a problem. It's too short. There are a little over a dozen merchants accepting Earthcoin right now. There should be hundreds, building towards thousands. We at Team Earthcoin are working on this, but you need to as well. As mentioned above, you can do it yourself. You can also encourage people and businesses you know to take it either as full or partial payment for their goods and services. Earthcoin is traded on exchanges, thus has a real world value. Wider adoption will only drive the price higher. Think globally, but act locally. If every miner of Earthcoin, every holder of earthcoin, and every supporter or Earthcoin recruited JUST ONE business, we'd rival Bitcoin in acceptance in very short order. Think what you could do if you recruited two. Three. See what I mean? The problem isn't oversupply, it's underutilization. The Earth is abundant, and so is it's coin. This makes it useful for large and small transactions, and everything in between.

Go to It! We are!

Kevin Biomech for Team Earthcoin.

[1715506308]

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[1715506308]

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[Raxe.io]

If you guys need any service development, online wallets, android wallets etc. Please contact us:

https://twitter.com/RaxeSoftware
contact@raxe.io
Skype: raxe.io (Raxe.io Support)

Raxe.

[Biomech]

Resistance is Futile

Scrypt enters the ASIC era.

By Jay Kevin "Biomech" Putzier

Much to-do has been made about "ASIC resistance" based on two terminally flawed ideas. One, that increasing the hashrate while reducing power consumption is somehow a bad thing, and two, that Scrypt was very difficult to implement an ASIC for.

Ladies, Gentlemen, whatever you are in front of center stage, I give you the Gridseed. Well, I don't give it to you, because it ain't free. But it's not ridiculously expensive either. It costs about the same as it's equivalent GPU, and consumes a pittance of electricity. Not only is resistance futile, it's wrong headed.

ASIC's are an advancement in technology over the GPU. Putting it in mining terms, a CPU is a gold pan, and a GPU is a sluice box. An ASIC is a 10" dredge! While I suppose there could be some arguments in favor of keeping one coin or another somehow resistant to ASIC's, those arguments most assuredly do not apply to Earthcoin. We are about sustainability, wide distribution, and playing an important role in developing nations. GPU's don't meet these criteria. They are expensive to run,. Noisy, hot, and generally a pain in the environment. Any environment! Gridseeds and their successors, by contrast, are quiet, cheap to run, and massively efficient per joule. There is no good argument against their use for Earthcoin. They will secure the network in short order. They are small enough and cheap enough to keep the "hobby" miner in business, and they are so easy to power that off grid systems are a real possibility, which is great since we are focused on the emerging economies in the developing world! We ar not some super elite group that wants to deny access to everyone but a chose few. We are not a novelty who's value is dependent on extreme scarcity or eccentricity, we are EARTHCOIN.

ASIC's are your friend! The advent of SHA ASIC's rendered the bitcoin blockchain nearly invulnerable to any traditional attack. It would take the combined efforts of most of the world's government's computing power to even make a dent in the code, let alone execute a 51% attack. Even if they were successful, it would only be for minutes, as there are enough miners in enough locales to simply pull off that chain. This is not the case with Scrypt. Any government that wanted to could fork a coin right now. Any corporation that wanted to, could do the same. All they'd need is to buy a shitload of GPU's. They wouldn't even have to be the latest and greatest, just a lot of them. Gridseed has changed that. Very soon, those coins worth securing will be secured. Those who have something to offer, will be mined with ASIC's. Today, Gridseed. In a few months, Alpha-T and KNC. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Bitmain got in on that action either.

Further, those of you grumbling about how they are going to kill your GPU profits? Buy a couple of 'em and you'll profit much longer. Find a way to power it off grid, and you'll profit even longer than that! You'll hit a point in the difficulty curve where your GPU's are just sucking too much electricity real fast. But 7 watts for 350 KH/s? That is going to go for a long time. And those are just the first generation. Nothing terribly special about them other than being the first to market. Give it a few months, and they will look terrible.

In short, there is no reason to fear the ASIC invasion. It will, in fact, ensure the success of Earthcoin's network far more than any other fix we can envision, because it will make it nearly invulnerable to attack. Given our robust difficulty retargiting algorithm, it will happen quickly and seemlessly.

[Biomech]

Transparent Accounting

Ladies, Gentlemen, You over there in the corner,

Greetings!

The accounting/premine issue has plagued us from both sides of the floor. Mistakes were made, people were frightened, and a lot of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt came to be cast upon this worthy project. Some of it was founded, much was not, but in the silence, the issue became deafening.

So without further ado, we'd like to announce a clear and transparent future.

The original team consisted of two people who never met in person but communicated through the online forum BitcoinTalk.

Norb was in charge of marketing, graphics and communication. “John” was the coin developer and he wished to remain completely anonymous even to his own team.  Although Norb is still involved with Earthcoin, he is encouraging the community to take it forward into the future.  “John” has decided to leave claiming personality clashes were the issue. These things happen, and it led to problems that couldn't be resolved. See Link

Going forward, we will be very open and detailed in the way bounties are paid, what the criteria are for claiming them, and the specific transactions involved. Due to the chaos of the past, and the fact that some of those involved may wish to remain anonymous, we are showing what monies have been spent upon bounties in aggregate. Anyone who has been bountied and wishes to make it public is free to do so, and we would encourage it, but we will not demand it of you.

The amount spent on bounties from the original premine was approximately 70,000,000EAC.This figure is very close, and as accurate as the mess we’re cleaning up allows.  The remaining premine monies will be disbursed at the discretion of the Earthcoin Team, and will be detailed in our newsletter on an ongoing basis. If a bounty is claimed by someone who wishes to remain anonymous, we will respect this and only show the amount paid and what it was paid for. We would prefer to make the transactions public to the extent possible, but in all cases the accounting will now be done in a transparent and timely fashion.

This issue must be mitigated as best we can, both by us and by you, the community, if Earthcoin is going to amount to something. We can fight amongst ourselves while another coin takes our place, or we can band together and make THIS the coin that everyone knows about, and uses.

For my part, I think Earthcoin is a great idea with a great community. Let's put this harsh time behind us, and move forward and make this the single greatest currency ever. One day, Bitcoin will be outcompeted. The only thing stopping us from making that assent to the throne is our will, or lack thereof.

These are great days. Trying days, as great ones often are, but that's what makes life worth living. You won't tell your grandchildren tales of the easy days sipping coffee, you'll tell them about the struggles, the tribulations, and ultimately, the triumphs.

Thank you family.
The EAC Team.

Earthcoin. THE global currency of the future!

[markm]

How does Earthcoin's hashrate compare to e.g. Litecoin and DOGE?

Can it act as a child/secondary chain in merged mining, so that it can benefit from the hashing power of other scrypt coins, or is its goal to fragment the scrypt space and require miners to add to the Earth's burden of electricity use instead of re-cycling the existing supply of hashpower/electricity-use?

Presumably the idea of in effect "recycling" hashes thus in a sense the electricity used to generate hashes, is something Earthcoin is eagerly in favour of, right up its alley so to speak?

So that we will see it become a major proponent, possibly the major proponent, of merged mining?

Imagine all the scrypt coins, or all that matter anyway going forward, all being able to help support the Earth by including Earthcoin in their merge when mining!

How can Earthcoin possibly resist such a vision? Let alone oppose it?

-MarkM-

[Biomech]

How does Earthcoin's hashrate compare to e.g. Litecoin and DOGE?

Can it act as a child/secondary chain in merged mining, so that it can benefit from the hashing power of other scrypt coins, or is its goal to fragment the scrypt space and require miners to add to the Earth's burden of electricity use instead of re-cycling the existing supply of hashpower/electricity-use?

Presumably the idea of in effect "recycling" hashes thus in a sense the electricity used to generate hashes, is something Earthcoin is eagerly in favour of, right up its alley so to speak?

So that we will see it become a major proponent, possibly the major proponent, of merged mining?

Imagine all the scrypt coins, or all that matter anyway going forward, all being able to help support the Earth by including Earthcoin in their merge when mining!

How can Earthcoin possibly resist such a vision? Let alone oppose it?

-MarkM-

hadn't thought of it, but it seems a ridiculously good idea!

EDIT: I posted it up for the team in our dev chat. We'll see if we got what it takes.

[Bit_Happy]

Earthcoin is up almost 100% on April Fools Day.
Earthcoin is not dead
Long live Earthcoin!

[twospirit]

nice!

[Oldminer]

Some great posts & its this support for Earthcoin that made me decide to sell a significant number of other altcoins & 'jump ship' so to speak 24 hours ago. Looks like I bought just at the right time for a change 

[Biomech]

Some great posts & its this support for Earthcoin that made me decide to sell a significant number of other altcoins & 'jump ship' so to speak 24 hours ago. Looks like I bought just at the right time for a change 

We're certainly trying!

Thanks for the support!

[twospirit]

How does Earthcoin's hashrate compare to e.g. Litecoin and DOGE?

Can it act as a child/secondary chain in merged mining, so that it can benefit from the hashing power of other scrypt coins, or is its goal to fragment the scrypt space and require miners to add to the Earth's burden of electricity use instead of re-cycling the existing supply of hashpower/electricity-use?

Presumably the idea of in effect "recycling" hashes thus in a sense the electricity used to generate hashes, is something Earthcoin is eagerly in favour of, right up its alley so to speak?

So that we will see it become a major proponent, possibly the major proponent, of merged mining?

Imagine all the scrypt coins, or all that matter anyway going forward, all being able to help support the Earth by including Earthcoin in their merge when mining!

How can Earthcoin possibly resist such a vision? Let alone oppose it?

-MarkM-

supporting this!

[IceGuru]

Fix forum registration!

[Biomech]

Fix forum registration!

Huh? at earthcointalk? PM Centurion if there's a problem, but it was fine a couple days ago.

[AltAccept]

Lots of new things on the horizon!  EAC could always factor in to ANY of it

[cryptowho]

lol . why did you bother posting. the pump is over. dump was successful.

[Biomech]

lol . why did you bother posting. the pump is over. dump was successful.

Not particularly interested in the day to day swings. Working toward and uptrend requires a focus well outside of the exchanges, and instead building the coin into something useful and useable in the real world. That takes time. It seems to have stabilized for the moment at a rather low value. For those interested in the brand, that's an opportunity. I'm buying as much as I can get at the low prices, and when we get it working at various shops and person to person, the value will rise in accordance with it's utility.

If day trade is all you're interested in, this is probably the wrong coin for you. If it's only one facet, stay tuned

[cryptowho]

lol . why did you bother posting. the pump is over. dump was successful.

Not particularly interested in the day to day swings. Working toward and uptrend requires a focus well outside of the exchanges, and instead building the coin into something useful and useable in the real world. That takes time. It seems to have stabilized for the moment at a rather low value. For those interested in the brand, that's an opportunity. I'm buying as much as I can get at the low prices, and when we get it working at various shops and person to person, the value will rise in accordance with it's utility.

If day trade is all you're interested in, this is probably the wrong coin for you. If it's only one facet, stay tuned

Nothing's wrong with having a purpose on a coins.it's all i want on all coins.

 I just wanted to point out that your post seems directly proportional to the pump and dump.

[Biomech]

lol . why did you bother posting. the pump is over. dump was successful.

Not particularly interested in the day to day swings. Working toward and uptrend requires a focus well outside of the exchanges, and instead building the coin into something useful and useable in the real world. That takes time. It seems to have stabilized for the moment at a rather low value. For those interested in the brand, that's an opportunity. I'm buying as much as I can get at the low prices, and when we get it working at various shops and person to person, the value will rise in accordance with it's utility.

If day trade is all you're interested in, this is probably the wrong coin for you. If it's only one facet, stay tuned

Nothing's wrong with having a purpose on a coins.it's all i want on all coins.

 I just wanted to point out that your post seems directly proportional to the pump and dump.

Oh. I see what you're saying now

Pure coincidence. I wrote all of that a few days prior. It was supposed to be for the first newsletter, but I got delayed as well as some technical issues, so I decided that something was better than nothing. I'm still working on doing a regular newsletter, and the rest of the team is engaged in several things as well. Just didn't want to be silent, and it seemed a new thread for news was a better idea than it getting buried in the main thread.

So, until I get the newsletter right, I'll just be updating either here or in new threads. I hadn't actually thought out how it would look during the little trade game.

[commandrix]

It will be interesting to see if the Earthcoin team can put their crypto where their mouth is and start getting some results. Did I hear something about an internship thing?

[earthcoin]

You probably did; I posted about it in another thread. Our plan is to provide a way for unpaid interns to support themselves even when their employers are being stubborn about paying them. You can see the details here: https://earthcointalk.org/earthcoin-program-to-support-unpaid-interns/