Monthly Archives: June 2014

Introducing Altcoins

MorCoin Launches as Pure PoS with Interesting Distribution Model

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MorCoin

MorCoin just launched today as a pure proof of stake coin (PoS) – see the official MorCoin ANN thread. The distribution model is interesting – everyone can get a free share, but people can purchase additional shares of 5, 15 or 40, by sending Bitcoin to the dev team, which will then use the money to further improve the coin. It’s an interesting distribution model, being a hybrid of free giveaways and IPO type of distribution to raise funds for future development. Since there are always free stakes available, if you don’t want to take your chances, you can just apply for one of these, and no harm done.

On the technical side, MorCoin has a total cap of just 5 million total, which should give each unit of MorCoin a high value. The PoS interest is 15% annual and stakes mature after a coin-age of 4 hours. The number of coins is interesting, as MorCoin is bucking away from the trend of having billions of coins, and instead focusing on the value of each coin by liming the numbers. This might prove to be a good move, since many coins that trade in the range of single-digit Satoshi usually end up dying.

The launch is on June 29, 2014. The IPO closes on June 28, 2014, so if you want to buy your stakes through the IPO as opposed to free distribution (to get more MorCoin), do it now.

With the coin launches cooling off in June compared to May, there aren’t that many new ideas around, and launches try to differentiate themselves from the crowd through other methods such as strong dev team, community, merchant acceptance, etc. MorCoin is one of the few coin launches this month, and it would be interesting to follow its progress.

Introducing Altcoins

CreateCoin Just Launched Today

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CreateCoin
A new coin, called CreateCoin just launched (see CreateCoin ANN thread) today on June 14th 2014, with no pre-mine and a pre-announcement a couple of days ago to keep the launch fair. However, there’s a 30% dev reward for blocks 1-500 and 2% on regular blocks. This is how bounties, etc. are going to be paid by the dev.

On the technical side, CreateCoin uses the currently popular hybrid model of X13/PoS. On the PoW side of things, there will be a maximum of 15,896,875 coins (43200 blocks) that will be mined. Blocks time is 60 seconds.

On the PoS side of things, there’s an annual interest of 8% which isn’t much (remember a coin like HoboNickel is going very strong with controlled inflation even with a 100% PoS interest) but is better than some coins which are in the range of 1%-2%. Higher PoS interest gives people a reason to hold on to the coin rather than dumping on the exchanges.

There are several pools already for those who are looking to mine this coin. Mind you, this just released, so it might be easy to mine some coins now as not many know about it right now.

Introducing Altcoins

Magicoin Brings Back Old-School Cryptocurrency Charm

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MagiCoin

There’s a new cryptocurrency in town, and this time, it’s MAGIC! Unlike the current flavor of the month in terms of PoW/PoS and instamining, etc. , MAGI/MAGIC follows in the footsteps of Litecoin, including its mining algorithm. Magicoin uses Scrypt instead of the other proof of work schemes like X11 which are getting more attention in the last month or so than simple Scrypt. In fact, Magicoin is quite similar to Litecoin, even in terms of the block target of 2.5 minutes and a total coin count of 84 million. This will probably make Magicoin easy to keep track of in the future, as its value can easily be compared to Litecoin.

The distribution of Magicoin however is different. There is a 0.95% premine which will be used to develop the coin and the infrastructure around it through bounties. I know pre-mine isn’t the most popular option out there in the community but if the funds are wisely used, the coin can quickly gain popularity and easily reach the crypto-masses.

Also, even though the coin is very new, Magicoin is already listed on SwissCex, one of the better exchanges out there and one that I have used quite a bit in the past for altcoin trading. Even though the volumes aren’t that great, the site and trading experience is excellent at this site.

There are many giveaways and bounties, to help spread the Magic of Magicoin all over, and to help as many people get their hands on some Magic as they possibly can. In fact, there is already a faucet that you can use to get some free Magicoin, to get started with this new crypto. If you want to mine some Magicoin, check out the MagiCoin Mining Calculator.

All in all, MagiCoin seems like an interesting new cryptocurrency that promises to be fun and inclusive. There is already a proposal for a MagiCoin online store. This might mean it could be a coin like NobleCoin which is gaining steady acceptance in the community and has an excellent online store to buy anything at a discount, like Amazon Gift Cards at 15% discounts.

There is lots of interesting information on the main ANN thread for Magicoin, so do be sure to check it out and follow it for regular updates.

Conferences

Bitcoin in the Beltway: Another Bitcoin Conference

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Gear up for another Bitcoin conference. Bitcoin in the Beltway is a weirdly named Bitcoin conference (yes, it is still weirdly named even if it is happening in DC) that is going to take place in Washington DC from June 20th to June 22nd. The list of speakers is surprisingly good – from Jeff Garzik to Brock Pierce. However, like the conference in Atlanta last year, the one called Crypto Currency Conference (CCC), this one has a fair share of promising libertarian speakers (and hopefully audiences too) – like Angela Keaton of antiwar.com. Jason King is another ‘celebrity’ figure on the list of speakers.

Bitcoin conferences are usually a weird mix of people who are ‘in’ – a perfect showcase of everything that Satoshi conceived shouldn’t be in the world. They are usually very hierarchical and speakers are carefully chosen to be the ‘biggest names’ as opposed to people who might actually matter or people with good ideas.

We at Crypto Sailor are immune to this, though. If there are good ideas floating around, we’d like to know, no matter where they are coming from. Conferences can also be a good way to meet the people behind the scenes. This conference, especially, has an impressive list of speakers, to be honest.

We’re still thinking on whether to attend or not. The conference has been kept surprisingly quiet though, unlike the Inside Bitcoin conference which proved to be the randomest event earlier this year due to the list of speakers. Yes, there was actually a whole panel discussion for one full hour and not a single person on the entire panel had ever used a Bitcoin to purchase anything, ever! Told you – conferences can get weird like that. But this one sounds better though, with a healthy dose of libertarian speakers thrown in (no Jeffrey Tucker, but Cathy Reisenwitz is invited. I might have to swallow my words later, we’ll see).

Are you attending this conference? If so, let us know! We might just end up sailing there as well!

Dogecoin

Dogecoin Price Drop: What Should Shibes Do?

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Dogecoin price drop: Dogecoin still on the way to the moon or to the dump?

Firstly, stop panicking!! Oh no else is panicking here? Never mind … but listen, Dogecoin price hasn’t been the rocket many hoped it to be. Think about it – folks who bought in around 100 satoshi mark today have their wealth halved. That can never be a pretty feeling. Sure, you get to hang around with other Shibes and that’s the price you paid, but what really should be done?

Don’t panic: The world of cryptocurrency is very volatile. Remember the time when cryptocurrencies would rise by a steady 1-2% per day? Yeah, me neither. Fundamentally,

  • Tipping culture is alive and well: Open a random thread from Reddit Dogecoin. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Really random. Notice the tips? Me too! There they are! The tipping culture around Dogecoin is alive and well. It isn’t going away anytime soon. It might just become the default tipping currency of the net even now. That dream is alive and well too.
  • Newbie Friendly: Dogecoin still remains by far the friendliest place for newbies in cryptocurrencies. You could do the noobest thing possible and you’ll still be tipped for trying. Only with Dogecoin. If you don’t believe me, try posting how incredible you felt when you opened your Dogecoin/Bitcoin keychain you bought in the park and come back here to report the results in r/Dogecoin and r/Bitcoin. Go ahead and try.
  • Innovation Diffusion: Whatever innovation happens in Bitcoin that is looking to expand into other altcoins, would benefit Dogecoin the most. Why? Because it is the only altcoin with a profile much different from Bitcoin (among the altcoins that matter). The people who own Dogecoin are least like the people who own Bitcoin (as opposed to say Litecoin). This means innovation looking to reach the most diverse audience would naturally graviate towards Dogecoin. People diversity is good news for Dogecoin.

So why the F is the price dropping, Sailor? 

Firstly, we’re in Dogecoin territory. No swearing Shibe! Secondly, I believe it has a lot to do with media attention to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. Dogecoin shines when new people want to learn about altcoins, cryptocurrencies and even Bitcoin but want a friendlier place. Dogecoin is perfect during those times. The peaks of Dogecoin, in fact, would correspond to the media peaks of Bitcoin, not media peaks of Dogecoin! That’s why even when Josh Wise sailed away (err drove away, sorry mate) on his DogeCar, the price hardly budged. Were you surprised? Well … Remember – more people who come into the cryptocurrency fold, more the importance of Dogecoin.

It might help if somehow Dogecoin pushed the boundaries not just in the social realm of cryptocurrencies but also in the technical realm. Merge-mining with Litecoin was a good option, I feel, that was rejected. What the community needs is some kind of novelty that the world of cryptocurrency hasn’t seen before. Until then, keep tipping and keep charity-ing!

Dogecoin Tips: D9BHLAWFZdMjUxU3G7gg3issRZGEwCB8jx

Introducing Altcoins

Introducing HYPER

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Introducing HYPER

What do you get when you combine the three hottest trends of today’s digital world? Well, you get HYPER, which is a culmination of cryptocurrency meets interest generating asset meets Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming. It is a very well designed cryptocurrency that is in the very initial stages of its birth, and it seems like something every crypto-sailor needs in her arsenal to make money in this brutal world of cryptocurrencies.

So what’s special about HYPER? Here are my impressions and thoughts and the reason I am going to invest in HYPER on a steady, ongoing basis –

  • Active Dev: Very important feature of any crypto-project to succeed. The HYPER dev is, well, hyperactive! He’s pushing for good projects in this space and he has a vision related to the use of HYPER in gaming that I am sure he’ll realize soon. The crypto-space is full of talented people, after all. +1 for an active dev.
  • Community: There’s already a dedicated forum with giveaways for everyone. “I don’t like the idea of free money”, said no one, ever. The community is growing fast, and HYPER is already listed on a couple of exchanges – ShareXCoin (another very interesting crypto) and Bittrex (oh boy, that was fast!)
  • PoS: This is the in-thing, but HYPER took the right approach in having a much higher PoS than coins like Blackcoin. Giving a PoS interest of 1% to 2% per year seems completely meaningless when the price can fluctuate by 10 times that value per hour. I like the 5% monthly interest rate. The inflation isn’t going to be 5% – just look at HoboNickel if you want, with a very steady increase in money supply and no runaway inflation even at 100% PoS. Now, it gives incentive for people to hold rather than dump all their HYPER on the exchanges. Isn’t that good for the price? Yes it is.
  • Future Vision: This is nice to have, although not a necessity for an altcoin. HYPER has a vision for being included in online MMO games, and other virtual worlds. If it fails miserably, there’s nothing really to lose – HoboNickel is a successful altcoin for more than a year with no such ‘vision’ to speak of. If it succeeds, then there’s a decent amount to gain, as the price would rise based on the popularity of games using HYPER. Minimal to no downside risk here.

Investor Advice: Make strategic buys. PoS is high, so if you need money, you can always sell the stake generated instead of selling the principal. 5% monthly PoS that matures in 8 hours is pretty legit. If the price pumps up waaay above where it is now, then I’d sell and wait for the dump to buy back my stash.

Disclosure: Long HYPER, and plan on adding more to my position. May sell the stake generated.

Photo Credit: TORLEY

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Welcome

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Crypto Sailor

Welcome to Crypto Sailor! We aim to be the top news and investment source in the world of cryptocurrencies, and hope you’ll find our analysis useful.

The cryptocurrency space is exploding in quantity, and filtering through the noise to try and find that diamond in the rough (no, I don’t mean diamondcoin) can be a daunting task, even for the nerds among us eating nachos in our mom’s basement all day long while prowling the Altcoins section of BitcoinTalk forums.

The aim of Crypto Sailor is to help you navigate the altcoin world – the promising altcoins that are going to launch, the new algorithms, the good-to-mine altcoins, the new developments in already established cryptocurrencies and perhaps other avenues for you to involve yourself in. Ahoy and welcome on board, sailor!