Was darkcoin instamined?~2mn coins were issued in the first 48 hours due to problems with the difficulty readjustment. That represents approximately 10-15% of the total money supply that will ever be issued.
The majority of these coins were distributed through the market in the following weeks and months at very low price levels* (0.0000x BTC per DRK to 0.000x BTC per DRK) and a lot of them were also absorbed in the April/May 2014 price increase.
Examples of prices and selling action almost two weeks after launch:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg4861558#msg4861558https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg4889177#msg4889177Forum member coins101 did a blockchain analysis of Darkcoins distribution as of September 2014:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=778616.0
Will the initial distribution affect Darkcoin in the future?It can bring criticism but other than that, no, as Darkcoin has solid fundamentals which are the basis for its continuous ascent despite FUD and accusations.
The creator of the coin proposed to fix the initial distribution issue by airdroping new coins in order to address criticism and resolve the issue once and for all. The community disagreed and voted down this proposal with most arguing that the distribution is relatively OK by now (April 2014) and that the airdrop would create more problems than it would solve.
Even if there were doubts for the distribution, the late April-May “pump” solved the distribution problem for good, through massive buys that “chewed” enormous waves of “dumping” from prior holders of cheaply acquired coins.
The quick monetary expansion at the start, and the slower rate of expansion later on, actually had a very positive, yet unintended side-effect: It allowed Darkcoin to achieve a very low inflation rate. If every coin was mined at a consistent rate, the rate of issuing new coins would debase the value of existing coins significantly more. Compared to other PoW coins that started around the same period, Darkcoin has the lowest inflation. This allowed it to maintain and increase value when other coins were crashing under the weight of their insatiable demand for new BTCs (that were needed to buy their daily production).
The problem of high inflation in new coins, which tends to suppress their price as supply rises, has now created a new trend where some of the newer coins which are designed, either use a short mining period and Proof of Stake or continue with PoW but with a diminishing mining reward after a few days/weeks/month to reduce the problem of inflation.
http://wiki.darkcoin.eu/wiki/FAQ#Was_Darkcoin_Instamined.3F
