I think R0ach knows well the market of XC. Maybe next time he comes here he could share with us some his knowledge!
What do you guys think about Hobonickles and TEKcoin ? They also are a kid of PoS coin but they give respectively 2% of your stake per 10 days and 40% of your stake per 30 days. For instance, with TEK, if you have 5000 coins, after 30 days you'll receive 2000. At the moment 2000 TEK = 1 BTC, so if you have enough invested you could in theory live off your stake as long as you can sell them. Though I think the % of the reward decreases when there are many new players.
It sounds seducing to some but it works only as long as there are new entrants on the market. To me it sounds like a PONZI. At first, I panicked bought into it, a few days ago I panicked sell when I realized that I had missed the whole PONZI thing. I really wonder what you guys make of these type of coins - are they truly PONZI or am I missing something ?
While I don't know much about the particular coins you mention, my opinion is that there has to be an inherent value proposition presented, so that a given coin will maintain its value. Otherwise it trades on excitement, which wanes, and the price/value goes south, before its left for dead with a bunch of people stuck holding worthless coins.
So yes, there is an element of ponzi scheme in many (most?) alt-coins - they're designed for the early adopters (IPO buyers, developers, tipped-off miners) to see a huge return at the expense of the eventual holders' wallets.
I think the market will polarise into four broad categories of coin..
1. Coins which have value due to their ability to operate as currency (i.e. paying for actual goods) (BTC, LTC, DRK/MRO, maybe BC)
2. Coins which are "shares" in something else which generates value (Noirshares, CAIx spring to mind, probably more) and which may pay a dividend of some variety
3. Coins which are experimental and develop new features/ideas/communities, and which may form the direct or indirect basis for category 1 or 2 above, or may just never see widespread adoption (BTC is one, Bytecoin BCN, Fedoracoin TiPS springs to mind - implemented coinjoin algo back in Feb, months ahead of the Darkcoin implementation, )
4. Coins which are basically copies of other successful/fashionable coins and have no inherent value other than goodwill/fashion.
Each of these breaks down further - e.g. I can see a need for several different (competing) feature sets for currency-coins, depending on use-case.