From Adam:
http://ltbcoin.com/discussion/2/ltbcoin-and-the-start-of-private-network-tokensMost coins are valuable because of the network that uses them, first creating a coin and then attempting to bring in service providers who will accept it, thus giving utility to the coin and therefore value. Bitcoin had a bit of a chicken/egg problem, needing to widely distribute this thing to be decentralized but not wanting to give it away in an uncontrolled fashion. Computational mining was the solution they arrived on, it limited the people who would get access to the early Bitcoins to those who were biased towards technically savvy early adopters rather than those generally early recipients of “new money”
LTBCoin is the proprietary token for the LTB Network. It is the exclusive token we accept for Sponsorships, it will achieve you a significant discount in the network wide and ACT-specific ecommerce stores, can be used in our upcoming network app for tipping, and will generally be increasingly useful in every corner of the LTB universe.
LTBCoin is not a mined currency, it is a user-asset created on the CounterParty protocol which is itself built on the Bitcoin network. If you have a Bitcoin address, you have a Counterparty address - they are one and the same. Counterparty uses a special wallet that can see the XCP (Counterparty’s internal currency), or user assets (like LTBcoin) associated with any given Bitcoin address, and if you control the private keys to that Bitcoin address than you control any XCP or LTBcoin attached to it.
The full supply of LTBcoin will be distributed at a decreasing rate over the course of five years. The vast majority of LTBcoin will be distributed in the first three years. Each week a new portion of coins will “ripen” (be created according to the schedule) and be distributed based on the LTB Network Publishing Protocol.
60% of new LTBcoins will be distributed to ACTS who successfully publish media on the LTB Network. 25% of new LTBcoins will be distributed to the audience through giveaways, promotions and Game Shows. 10% of new LTBcoins will go to fund the platform which includes but is not limited to distribution (radio broadcasting fees, off-network advertising, mobile applications, platform improvements, maintenance legacy network inclusion funds, etc) 5% of LTBcoins are to cover administrative costs, insurance, accounting, lawyers, and essential staff.
Those tokens will start off with a low, basically unknown value just like any other cryptocurrency but because we already make content here at the Let's Talk Bitcoin! network, these tokens allow our work to be quantified and rewarded. The market will judge our work through our token and over time determine its per piece value as denominated in LTBCoin.
What we're doing here has never been done, it's an experiment. It could fail and the tokens rendered worthless. But that's actually not a different outcome than any other point in the history of Let's Talk Bitcoin, and I'm not much afraid of failure any more.
If on the other hand we succeed, even the success of a minority of shows or stories will drag up the value for all holders of the token no matter how they acquired it. Because we can set the course of our own economics, we will create incentives that reward this behavior for the individuals who achieve it.
As I write this, we're days or weeks away from the launch of the experiment. Counterparty a mastercoin-like protocol is our vehicle and we wait the release of its multi-currency, locally encrypted web wallet that will support, among other things, one of the first truly decentralized exchanges.
So thanks for being here, journeys into the unknown are always better with companions. I look forward to mapping this brave new world with you over the next months and years.
Adam B. Levine, March 7th, 2014