Why is Darkcoin so valuable?
Let me give you a business analogy to try an see if I can make it more clear as to why Darkcoin is so valuable. When you think about miners, difficulty, etc, you are thinking too hi in the supply chain. In my mind the miners are part of the "manufacturing" of the product(the coin), so by solving the problems of the miners you are solving manufacturing issues, which is good but in this times is not the key factor, then you have the exchanges and traders which in my mind are one level below in the supply chain they are part of the "distribution channels" the mission of the "distributors" is to spread the coin and promote adoption, buy for x / sell for y and keep a profit, facilitate the exchange and keep a commission in the case of exchanges. And then you have the "consumer" the end user and modern business dictates that we should focus on the needs of the end user of the product. Other coins like Vertcoin focuses on the miners, in my mind a coin like Blackcoin is self-contained and focuses on the investors (PoS), same with most coins, they really don’t offer anything to the consumer that Bitcoin (the market leader) does not offer, they don’t have good differentiators or added value from the perspective of the consumer.
Now what is something that Bitcoin does not have but people desperately want? Privacy! And that is where Darkcoin comes in, it offers something valuable to the consumer and they will use it. Merchant adoption will take time for Darkcoin, but that doesn’t matter, Darkcoin offers new things unrelated to retail: store of value, a way for other coins to anonymize transactions e.g. you have Bitcoins you change for Darkcoins send to a different address then buy Bitcoins again you are done. So Darkcoin is private banking for cryptos.
The coin is of really good quality all around, new algorithm X11 for which Asics will come a lot later in the coins life allowing it to develop as opposed to killing it in the crib. Scarcity and a very nice deflation model making it ideal for long term investment and as a store of value. Added value for the end users beyond what Bitcoin offers through its privacy features, and most importantly a world class development team that has shown transparency, creativity and competence that will continue developing new features and strengthening the coin. So in my mind, if Cryptocurrencies don’t disappear (and I don’t think they will disappear) Darkcoin will be a high value product with private banking applications. AlexGR made a nice metal analogy where Darkcoin would be platinum. So keep your coins safe as they will be worth a lot more in the future.
Obviously the features that DRK provides are extremely valuable, and the I applaud the project enthusiastically as well (as I would other similar projects)... but I must say your (and others') confidence of future valuation seems a little on the optimistic side. No one can say for certain what technology will end up being widely adopted for anonymity. Maybe DRK is the best contender at this point in time... even if it is, it's still no certainty that it will remain so or end up winning this game in the end. Seems as likely as not that some other tech gets adopted to fill this need and DRK fades away. I can't say the best tech is necessarily the clear winner either... mass appeal is a more important factor I would guess.
At this time, isn't price is about what the whales happen to decide to do with their money more than anything? If DRK makes it long term, then sure, it will be worth a lot. But that still seems kind of like a hefty "if" to me, and short-term, all bets are off as well because the P&Ds make it very difficult to know what will happen to price (unless you're one of them lol).
I'm both grateful and skeptical of people who provide insight and analysis. There are some smart people here, but there are also a lot of deceptive people, and people with the agenda of protecting or growing their investment, and everything they say is written for that purpose rather than being truthful. I'm not accusing anyone of being this way, honestly I can't tell very well who is and who isn't (yeah I'm a noob), and I'm sure there is a lot of innocent exuberance as well... but I think it's good to be a little skeptical of any predictions regarding future valuation esp ones made with confidence.
Because that guy made a total arse out of himself... 
