Much noise has recently been posted about “Althouse” on this thread. Althouse is simply a software development company that has employed some members of the NeuCoin team prior to launch of the cryptocurrency. It has been doing contract work for the NeuCoin Foundations that will largely finish by the time of launch. It has no power or control over the NeuCoin Project. There are numerous other legal entities that have likewise done contract work for the NeuCoin Project, such as web design agencies, law firms, PR and marketing agencies, jurisdictional consultants, and a game development studio.
The key NeuCoin entities from the time of launch are the NeuCoin Code Foundation, the NeuCoin Utility Foundation and the NeuCoin Growth Foundation, as well as their wholly-owned subsidiaries. More information about all these entities will be provided upon NeuCoin’s launch. For now, see below. Much more content can be found at
http://www.neucoin.org/en/wiki/.
NeuCoin Foundations
NeuCoin’s core development, consumer marketing, and projects to increase the coin’s utility will be handled by three independent non-profit foundations based in the Isle of Man – the Code, Growth and Utility foundations. Three separate foundations with distinct functions and resources were created rather than a single one, with the object of making this support of the cryptocurrency even more decentralized. This structure also affords NeuCoin greater flexibility and adaptability to navigate the international regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies that is still evolving.
Although the three foundations are independent of each other, they all share the same mission – to maximize the long-term value of NeuCoin. Each one is overseen by independent Council Members, who are aided by Advisors with experience in cryptocurrencies, consumer marketing, economics, finance and regulatory matters.
All foundations are ultimately controlled by NeuCoin holders (1 NeuCoin = 1 vote), who have the power to hire, fire and set compensation for the foundations’ Council Members, and have a right of approval on annual budgets, spending priorities and other matters.
Funding and Expenditures
By the time of launch, NeuCoin’s three non-profit foundations will be funded with 2.4 billion NeuCoins and at least $1.2 million (enough fiat currency to cover their first year cash expenditures).
Each year, the foundations’ goal is to sell sufficient NeuCoin tokens through private sales or exchanges to fund the following year’s cash needs. However, when NeuCoin prices rise, the foundations may sell additional coins, with the excess cash obtained kept as a “rainy day” reserve. When prices fall, fewer (or zero) coins will be sold.
Over time, the NeuCoin foundations must continuously determine what the optimal use of their NeuCoin assets are - optimal from the perspective of maximizing the value of NeuCoin. The Growth foundation must always assess whether NeuCoin’s long-term value would be maximized by giving more coins away to consumers, or selling more coins and using the funds for consumer marketing. The Utility foundation must always assess whether NeuCoin’s long-term value would be maximized by awarding more coins (ideally with sales restrictions) to service providers that make NeuCoin more useful, or by selling more coins and using the proceeds to directly fund projects. The prevailing price and demand for NeuCoin will always have a large bearing on this decision calculus.
During the first few years after launch, the number of NeuCoin tokens held by the foundations is expected to increase, because the extremely high PoS awards during the early years should be considerably higher than the foundations’ expenses. Foundation coin holdings are projected to peak around year five, then decline slowly and ultimately stabilize at under 10% of the total supply.
Direct Democracy and Accountability
Each foundation will be managed by an Executive Director and overseen by Council Members whose compensation packages are tightly linked to the growth in the market capitalization of NeuCoin. Furthermore, each foundation has an “Enforcer,” whose oversight role is to ensure that the Council Members are following the objectives and rules of the foundation and the results of coin holder votes as discussed below.
The initial Council Members were recruited and appointed by NeuCoin’s founders and will serve for an initial term of three years. In the first year, the Council Members will be primarily composed of members of the NeuCoin Project team (however not founders). By the end of year one, the foundations will each recruit two independent Council Members and some of the NeuCoin Project team Council Members will resign from the Councils. After the first term, Council Members will stand for re-election for consecutive three year terms.
Within a year after launch, NeuCoin holders will effectively take full control of the NeuCoin foundations. Using a voting mechanism currently under development by the NeuCoin Code Foundation, NeuCoin holders will be able to “vote their coins” (1 NeuCoin = 1 vote). With a majority vote, coin holders will be able to:
Remove Council Members and Enforcers
Change the compensation of Council Members and Enforcers
Change the Foundation Rules
Change the Budget
Force the Council Members and Enforcers to take any action that a majority of coin holders believes will increase the value of NeuCoin
Note that the NeuCoin Code Foundation, with the support of the founding team, is committed to launching the voting mechanism as soon as possible after the creation of the cryptocurrency. The founding team faces severe financial penalties if the voting mechanism isn’t operational within a year for any reason.
Role of Founders and Project Team
Upon creating the decentralized cryptocurrency, the NeuCoin Project’s four founders are donating NeuCoin’s source code and the 2.8 billion pre-mined coins to the NeuCoin foundations. 200 million sale-restricted coins are retained by the founders and other members of the NeuCoin Project team in exchange for contributing over $1,000,000 of unpaid work from March 2014 through the time of launch in the summer of 2015 (value of $.005 per coin).
While the founders led the NeuCoin Project during its development phase, they are relinquishing control of the decentralized cryptocurrency upon its launch and will not serve as Council Members or Enforcers of any of the foundations or their subsidiaries or affiliates. However, the founders have committed to continue working for the NeuCoin Project for three years after launch, providing marketing, business and technology development services. The foundations have set aside an additional 300 million sale-restricted coins (plus PoS awards earned on these coins) to release to the founders over the three years following launch as compensation for their providing an additional $2.25 million of unpaid work (value of $.0075 per coin). Note that if the foundations fail to institute the voting mechanism described below within one year of launch, the founders forfeit their rights to receive the remaining 200 million coins.
NeuCoin Code Foundation
The Code foundation’s mission is to maximize NeuCoin’s long-term value through stewardship of the source code. Its main goals for the code are:
Security
Decentralization
Scalability
Development and maintenance of NeuCoin’s voting mechanism
Besides core code development, other activities of the Code foundation are:
Building a community of developers
Distributing bounties to community members in proportion to their contributions
Continuing to refine NeuCoin’s technical white paper and advocate its PoS design to the cryptocurrency community
Operating nodes if necessary
Initial funding:
400 million NeuCoins
$300,000
NeuCoin Growth Foundation
The Growth foundation’s mission is to maximize the long-term value of NeuCoin by attempting to grow the largest possible base of users. It will deploy its endowment of NeuCoins in three primary ways:
Distributing small amounts of NeuCoin tokens for free to two types of audiences:
“Freemium” service users. Key success metric is that recipients, on average, find NeuCoin useful enough that when their free coins run out, they buy more
Existing Bitcoin and altcoin users during NeuCoin’s early utility growth period. Key success metric is that recipients, on average, find NeuCoin attractive enough that on top of the free tokens they received, they buy more
Awarding free NeuCoin tokens to people and companies who refer new users to NeuCoin:
Existing user referral program
Celebrities, key bloggers and and other major endorsers
Marketing partners who accept payment for their services in the form of resale-restricted NeuCoin
Game publishers, premium content providers and other distribution partners, as user acquisition bounties
Selling NeuCoin tokens through exchanges and uses the proceeds for:
Marketing campaigns targeted at consumers who would appreciate NeuCoin’s benefits
Developing onboarding websites, such as GetNeuCoin.com, consumer education materials, tutorials, etc.
Developing viral and social applications and experiences that promote the growth of the user base
Initial funding:
1 billion NeuCoins
$600,000
NeuCoin Utility Foundation
The Utility foundation works to maximize the value of NeuCoin by making NeuCoin both “as easy to use” as possible, and “more useful than traditional currencies” for specific applications. It uses its resources in two ways:
Awards NeuCoin tokens to service providers serving other cryptocurrencies in exchange for integrating NeuCoin into their platforms:
Exchanges are top priority
Payment processors and third-party wallets are second priority
Gambling sites, remittance services, discount shopping services and other high-value cryptocurrency service providers over time
Directly funds projects when there are no established players to simply plug into:
MyNeuCoin, the consumer-friendly online wallet
Proof-of-stake mining service in form of simple “growth account” and “vault” for sale restricted coins
Micropayment platforms for tipping and premium content in relevant verticals like music, video, games, blogs, photo, editorial, adult, social media platforms, etc
Discount buying services
Other applications, platforms or services that increase the utility and ease of use of NeuCoin
Initial funding:
1 billion NeuCoins
$600,000
