Scrypt-Jane was a specific implementation of Scrypt-Chacha with pre-programmed N-Factor changes, and fundamentally my problem is that they were poorly chosen. Now we're at the point where things are slowing down, but it's also "too difficult" to get miners up and running, so only those that got in early are still worried about mining UTC. Really, can you imagine anyone new to the cryptocurrency scene saying, "Oh, look at UTC -- I wonder how I can get set up to mine at NF-13?" They can do Scrypt, X11, X13, etc. and mine any of a couple hundred coins, whereas Scrypt-Jane requires tweaking parameters for just one coin (or at least on N-Factor). It's a major pain in the butt! Scrypt-N is practically the same algorithm but with NF changes more widely spaced; in January the first Scrypt-N coin will move to NF-11, and most of the difficulties with that N-Factor are now known; the next change will be in another year or more, so SJ gets to pave the way with little reward for doing so.
I have VERY limited knowledge in the realm of coding. But from what I understand, Scrypt-Jane is a
software library and Scrypt-Chacha is a
mixing algorithm:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2332885.
You say tweaking the parameters is a "pain in the butt," but I would rather tweak parameters than have to drop thousands on an ASIC just to be profitable. Oh, and when that ASIC is no longer profitable, I have to sell it at the right time because it eventually just becomes an inefficient space heater. Now you are saying Scrypt-N is fine because the scrypt-chacha coins 'paved the way' by showing some people how to tweak their parameters? BTW people will definitely wonder how to mine UTC if it is the most profitable for their GPUs as with anything else. Go to the cudaminer thread... when the 750ti came out, tons of people were mining YACoin because it.was.the.most.profitable. I agree the start of the NFactor schedule was painful but that has passed and the changes are spaced out now and CPUs with high cache are relatively profitable--at least with YAC.
The ironic thing is that all of this was done to "protect us from the evil ASICs", and yet I'm not even convinced ASICs are the real enemy here. This has become a big business, and that means the small fries (you, me, and anyone else that can't invest millions of dollars) are probably just lucky to have gotten in early enough to have made some good earnings. I don't think we'll actually see a fully functional Scrypt-N ASIC in a time frame that will be profitable for the buyers, but the manufacturers of the ASIC will still make money -- or just scam people and disappear with the coins they're paid. But how do you stop that from happening? Government oversight, laws, regulations, etc. are all things that BTC was trying to avoid early on, yet now we're trending more and more towards having all of them. Oops.
I personally would be ok with ASICs if basically all of the companies didn't screw people with empty promises. ASICs, in a way, are a sign of success for a coin. But I think the most successful coin
long-term (very) must have one of the best
perceptions of being fairly distributed among the
most people. Scrypt-Chacha coins are currently the most poised to earn that perception over time, even though the marketcaps
currently do not even compare to other algos. YBCoin is the highest chacha coin btw at #26 ($1.5 million).
The power efficiency issue is also real -- I have given up on Scrypt-N and anything else above NF-10 for that reason
What is this power efficiency issue? Scrypt-Chacha uses LESS power as the NFactor increases as I measured myself and posted on this very thread. Do I need to post pictures of my measurements? (serious question)
In regards to reducing the block reward AGAIN or changing to POS, I will quote the guy who created both PeerCoin and PrimeCoin:
Inflation model cannot be changed or market will lose confidence in the currency. It doesn't matter that a majority agree with the change or not. Market often disagrees with majority opinion.
Even just smoothing the sudden drop would be a dangerous exercise as that opens a precedence that inflation model is changeable.
