It's not a bad review, its just an honest review.
Potcoin still needs a lot in ways of development and implementation, its still very much the early stages for this coin.
It has a few hurdles in the sense that it hasn't really done much new in the ways of improving upon the standard scrypt algo, but that scoring based on the algo itself isn't really that fair, since more or less the negative scrore could of been avoided simply by choosing a different algo for no reason (like scrypt jane or N-Factor or w.e).
The innovation in Algos has primarily been geared towards escaping ASICS (the entire point scrypt was created in the first place).
Now that scrypt Asics are all over-the place, scrypt in essence seems "pointless".
Things potcoin could do to improve its score
-X11/Jane/N-Factor
(this would quelm the complaints that Potcoin isn't "innovative" enough.
-Keep improving/developing the Android/Mobile Wallets to make them safer more secure and easier to use/more robust/trust worthy.
-Add some kind of encrypted texting to the android wallet of sorts, nothing screams potcoin like being able to text people you want to buy weed off of anonymously lol
The entire point of crypto is:
-Anti Govt
-Anti Banks
-Anti Mega Banker dude buying Asics and owning the universe-Anti Obama NSA SPY Agency reading your texts and browsing your transactions
Coins that do not embrace those ideals will not last IMO.
IMO Potcoin has essentially been over-run with ASICS , and lets face it, anyone that dumped money into Asics mines scrypt coins at a very low cost (per KW) so they have A LOT of incentive to dump.
The best way to preserve a coins value is to keep it away from cheap per k/w $ mining rigs, as the cost of the mining operation will drive the price up.
That is why coins that cost more to mine, are worth more and coins you can mine with ASICS are worth less, that is why BITCOIN continues to go down in value, because it costs around 20$ to mine a bitcoin that can be sold for almost 500$ (the natural market pressures will make price come down towards cost of production).
ASK yourself this, with an ASIC how much does it cost to mine a single Pot Coin, is the current price of potcoin justified ?
I mine Potcoin with ASICS it costs me nothing to mine Pot, I would gladly turn off My ASICS and mine Pot-Coin with GPUS if given the chance, but it is not cost effective/worth it, but if it was the only way to mine Pot the dumping would surely cease.
Quickest way to make Pot go up in value is -> X11 / Jane / N-Factor (raise cost of production)
I have to disagree. Your premise is that ASICs are bad because somebody can swoop in and buy a bunch of hash power to dominate the network. Highlighted in bold above.
What is stopping the same person from buying a bunch of GPUs, or a bunch of CPUs to do the same thing on a different algorithm? Nothing. Its all just dollars to an investor, they don't care what the hardware looks like.
ASICs protect our network by ensuring its network hash power can never be compromised. They are designed for a single purpose, mining SHA256, scrypt, etc. which means you can't just re-purpose existing technology (ahem...GPUs, CPUs, etc) to defeat the network. You have to build something to do it. That costs money. The higher the network hash rate the more money it will ultimately cost.
There are a number of sites that attempt to estimate the cost to 51% attack the Bitcoin network. Nobody really knows the cost but these are decent estimates. And its a lot less than you think:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi2thGzzNSshttp://www.coinometrics.com/bitcoin/brixSomebody, or more likely a group of somebody's could potentially pull off a 51% attack of the Bitcoin network, with enough cash. And something worth pointing out, is that you don't actually need 51% of network hash power to fork a coin. It simply guarantees it. There have been reasonable estimates that claim it can be done with decent probablity with as little as 35-40%
And thats Bitcoin. The supposedly untouchable, Bitcoin. How easy would it be to fork and obliterate a small coin.
So all of that being said we need lots of and lots of hash power. How do we get it cheaply and cost effectively? ASICs. Plain and simple. An R9 270 GPU mines at 450 kh/s and draws 150 watts. A gridseed 5 chip asic mines at 350 kh/s and draws a whopping 7 watts. Thats right...7 watts. And they are getting even more efficient. Not to mention they now cost less and are dropping fast.
Instead of complaining about ASICs, go buy some. Help us improve our network. We can't have warehouses full of GPUs and inefficient CPUs wasting energy.