I know how it started, but not the rest of the story. And I don't have time to read all forum posts... So it would be great if somebody can provide a summary.
I'm willing to pay like 25 LTC for a summary (or equivalent about in BTC). Maybe more if it is necessary...
Particularly I want to know:
1. What happened to first version of SC, why did it die?
51% attack. It was merged mined with BTC so this was easy to do for any pool operator. This is the same reason why no exchange will add TRC, because the possibility of a 51% is outrageously high since the authors didn't bother to change the mining algorithm.
2. Why SC2 was necessary, what were the features (!), was there SC->SC2 upgrade process (I mean, keeping coins)?
Addressed 51% attack by using trusted nodes to solve every other block and thus make it impossible to achieve 51% of the network hash rate without being a trust node. The trust nodes were mostly RealSolid/CoinHunter and his friends.
A 5% tax on all transactions was added.
Additionally a new hashing algorithm was implemented; interestingly, this algorithm hashed with AMD cards only slightly more quickly as with nVidia cards and CPUs.
3. What happened to SC2, why haven't it took off?
1. Nobody trusted the trust node system because of RealSolid's megalomania
2. RealSolid decided it would be neat if he were to manipulate the market by making blockreward nearly 0 for a long period of time (in order to "make the blockreward correspond to the amount of electricity costs used to produce it", whatever that means). Soon after the price of the currency tanked.
3. Taxes.
4. Why do they want to make MicroCash, what interesting features will it have?
Because the price of the chain died after RealSolid's Communist manipulation of the currency market. Nobody knows really.