As a general note, it's quite difficult to define the exact costs of establishing another crypto currency. If we're talking about "just forking" then it's pretty much copy & paste stuff, although even then there is fair amount of work to do anyways - if nothing else, at least all the graphics, sales talk etc.
the cost can be 0
- you just change some constants in the bitcoin code (or whatever code you're forking)
- tons of coins were made like this. some even had some success (sadly!)
You all have raised a good point. The cost of developing a new altcoin may be low, yet to make sure that others would start using it (e.g. mining and trading the coin), the marketing cost can be significant. Our research group is trying to quantify such costs. How much does marketing cost? How many man-hours does it involve?
I'm surprised that most respondents so far say that the revenue from creating altcoins is close to zero. If indeed it costs effort to create and market a new altcoin, a rational altcoin creator would expect to receive some form of revenue in return (in addition to feeling good).
What would be the revenue? And how to generate this revenue? (You can respond to the thread or on the anonymous survey above. Thanks!)
just launch your own coin with NXT monetary system ... and you can even mine it yourself just to get an idea of how it works. no need to fork bitcoin.
Nxt may be a good choice moving forward. Rather, we are interested in a retrospective analysis. For the past two years, there has been a surge in new altcoins that are directly derived from bitcoin or litecoin. While some coins are created to make a better world, others may have a more rational motive. What's their business model? What are their costs and revenues? How do they maximize returns?