Let's discuss the distribution of coins.
The most optimal distribution in my understanding (see my hundreds of posts on the issue for the development process of the understanding) occurs naturally if the market is as well as possible unfettered by friction. The greatest visible source of friction are taxes and regulations, but they can't hinder the achievement of the natural distribution in the long run, just make it slower to achieve.
In practice the more important sources of "friction" (I am using the word figuratively to couple it with the previous) are 1) ignorance and 2) length of the thought process before investing. These two issues do not alter the optimal state, but are important for the growth of the tree.
As we know, the tree looks quite much a tree no matter in which stage of growth it is. The same can be observed in the distribution of cryptocurrencies regardless of their phase in lifecycle. They always have the roots, the stump, the trunk, branches and leaves. The premine or other dysfunctional start can make the tree very maimed in the beginning, but if it lives on, it will attain the functionality (the things are consequences one of another; if no functional distribution is achieved, it dies). The taxes and regulations make this process slower. But what are needed for the tree to grow, are the two numbered things.
1) You can only invest in what you know exists.
2) The typical length from awareness to committing money (in case all the factors are favorable) averages 24 months.
The optimal distribution is a circular definition and refers to the dynamic equilibrium where each market participant holds exactly the number of coins that satisfies his utility function. This tends to form a distribution where the largest owners own coins approximately in the power law ratio (if largest stash is 1, the next largest is approx. 1/2, third 1/3, 1000th 1/1000 etc. until about 3% of the total owners own half of it. The 97% own the other half and their proportions are governed by other functions, based on demographics and conditions. Whether debt is possible, also affects the distribution.
It is important not only to reach the distribution, but reach it in a way that the ones on top of the ability rank are also the ones on top of the pyramid. The combined "dev gets premine" & "early adopters get the coins cheaper" & "coins can be bought with existing money" approach is very popular in coins, and leads to this result better than the alternative approaches tested so far.
Its main problems come in the later stage with the hoped mass adoption. No coin yet has a viable scheme to expand the money supply fairly in connection with the extent of mass adoption. I am no tech guy and don't know how difficult it is to code in a P2P software. I am on the opinion that everyone so far has just tried to copy Bitcoin's early success with a declining yearly inflation, perceived to lead to exponentially growing coin value which becomes the mechanism to drive the adoption. I have written brilliant pieces in favor of this approach, but it does not mean it is necessarily copiable (if it was, by reductio ad absurdum, we would have a million blockchains and everyone would become rich - what we observe instead, is that even Bitcoin is struggling).
What has happened to my thinking over the time I've dedicated to the matter, I have become less purist and less dogmatic. When designing the economic engine for Crypto Kingdom, I conceived CKG, which is a 100% premined, 100% non-crypto. The distribution has mainly happened via direct sales against monetary value, and to a lesser degree via grants and donations. It has always had a 2-way market, which has severely limited the effectiveness (and thus the scope) of donations. If I donated too much to a person whose utility function would consequently go out-of-balance, he would feel inconvenient and balance it by selling to the market. The existence of a market is therefore a more important tenet than the exact mechanism of the early distribution.
From now on, the CKG money supply will expand in proportion to the time spent on playing the game. This will be a very equitable way of getting the new CKG to the hands of the people in small increments, and will in my hopes be the missing link for the wider distribution, which in the case of cryptocoins has typically been tried with faucets but with little success. The reason why I hope this will be a much better method is that the playing is a prerequisite for getting the value, so there is the equivalent amount of commitment to the value received. Theoretically, this trumps industrial mining, which is a commercial activity with little connection between profitability and commitment.
The key points in achieving success for a cryptocoin (or in CKG's case, even a non-cryptocoin) are thus:
1) Getting people to know of it.
2) Having the value proposition that makes them interested in getting in, which also typically takes 24 months if they need to divert their existing money to buy it. The coin needs to offer something interesting, or unique, or be fair. The more of these are present, the better.
3) Having the markets that make it possible for the coins to settle in hands who value them the most, and provide the means to cash out to other assets which are needed for cash flow needs.
What I don't regard to be key points, despite popular thinking:
1) Wallet software or ease of making transactions
2) Ways to spend the coin directly on goods and services
3) Trying to reach people who are not ready for it, forcing value down on their throat.
As outlined in the previous post, my stance is that the coin needs to
be valuable and worthy of being a portfolio asset. To achieve this, it needs to have only minimum transactional utility. The stage of mass adoption and mass utility (50,000,000+ users worldwide) will be driven by direct usability, but we will never get there unless the coin first has intrinsic value and the buyers of last resort.