We will be completely revamping the public ledger to make it more readable and understandable. We will also publish the excel spreadsheet with every spend on it done since we released - it's at 2400+ entries (names will be removed but addresses will remain).
We released at a time where premines were still acceptable and considered great for long-term development report. However we immediately knew we had to provide a public ledger and transparent/accountable devs (public social media details and real name, etc.) in order to stay competitive compared to coins like EAC. We knew we had to be legitimate if we wanted to be taken seriously. We delivered this.
Since then, the alt-scene has jumped from coins like Coinye (privately premined and dumped), Panda (massively premined and dumped - worst case so far), and now EAC (seems they are constantly dealing with concerns the private premine has been dumped over the last couple of months and the anonymous devs refuse to release any information). The amount of private premines from now dead coins is too many to list at this point.
We know this has hurt the image of premines. What is frustrating for us is that while miners/supporters cry out for exactly what we delivered, they really just want to jump on the next bandwagon and get rich quick so ultimately they don't really care (excuse the cynicism). I personally feel it is unfair to be lumped in with scam coins when we have provided everything that was demanded.
Without the premine, we would not be supporting charities to do good and get exposure, we could not provide 10% discounts or fund the marketplace, and we would not be promoting on multiple channels as we simply would not have the funds to do so. It's easy for big miners with big rigs to point at us and say mine it yourself and support the coin, but to be frank with you guys we are not wealthy, we are not miners, my graphics card pulls 400khs. There are coins out there with 40x our cap now who can't put together enough to fund anything, can't develop infrastructure or merchants or a marketplace. If you dig deep and read the threads and their fundraising campaigns you will realise this. We have to stick to our initial plan of having a premine to bounty for and provide just that in a transparent manner. Things have changed since BTC and LTC, and miners and newcomers do not want to spend a dime or give in this environment or take risks that might interfere with 'profit'. They want everyone else to spend theirs and reap the rewards should the price rise.
Our initial plan was to spend about 10% of the premine a month to support a huge amount of development and handsomly reward anyone who wanted to build something also. To this day we've spent 10% of it month one and about 7% of it in month two - we will release the sheets/update the public ledger to show this. I don't know of many coins doing this - they are staying private or not building anything at all. I can tell you one thing I know for certain now (and hopefully the sheet shows this): coins that say 1% or 0.5% of premine (private) to be used for giveaways/promo etc. and people believe that because it's so small are getting fooled. If we did just 1% on release and actually dumped any of it (even slowly over a month) during the high weeks we would not have to work for two years and I could be on a beach right now.
We want to spend this, we want to build stuff: but the current state of exchanges taking in flavour of the week, bought coins and 'scam' coins and not even listing us for vote after being here for 2 months with a public ledger that is still legit and myself not remaining anonymous means we have no volume or buy support to reward anyone in BTC or otherwise without crashing the price and getting labelled a scam like PandaCoin. We are worlds apart and still trying to prove ourselves so that we get attention from a big player who doesn't want to abuse us for short-term profit like the rest. The development map is there, the rewards are there, and people will come as crypto grows and this game of deceit and anonymous scam artists comes to an end. Sooner or later this scene will cannibalise itself or start regulating/holding higher standards to save itself. When that day comes, either we all lose no matter what coin we support (cannibalise) or the coins that did things the right way will win.
Cynically I have come to realise (and we all know this), and I'll be real with you here: Noone cares about crypto anymore, this place is a herd of sheep being pushed around by rich p&dumpers and taken advantage of as they try and get rich quick. If they aren't sheep, they are smarter wolves and miners using popular and profitable coins to make cash. I don't really blame them, but we're not running away or budging because of it. We aren't budging from our initial 'noble' plan and intentions - we're going to push on working on building something that works as both a currency and a commodity. There are some big people out there with big plans that I have become aware of - and our game plan is to survive, remain professional, transparent and accountable, and make it if cryptocurrency becomes mainstream with a basket of currencies. I'm not telling you what choice to make, but a lot of people who are still here are here for that same bet (whether it's wise or otherwise none of us know).
Part of me wants the price to drop to 1 satoshi so that we can provide the ultimate proof and continue building with the premine still in position, but we don't want to lose everyone who has stuck with us or let down those who spend real money on this as a vote of confidence. That all being said, over the weekend we will flesh out the premine, the plans, the strategy behind it and where/what we want to spend it on.
Thank you Rofo. For most of us and I we BELIEVE in this coin and price does not matter at this point.
I'll support it, mine it (small) and buy it at any "reasonable" price (especially todays prices).
You have done tremendous job so far and I know you will continue doing so.
There is so much going on in todays alt coin markets.
Most come and go but the real ones will stay.
I know this is THE one and we'll all laugh about todays situation (looking back at those old posts) few months from now... All the best.
Still a long way to go though.