Hmm.

At base, an altcoin is a value transfer system implemented in the form of a peer-to-peer networked cryptocurrency. The cryptography securing the implementation imposes some inherent constraints on the peers:

1. The protocol cannot treat peers as anything other than homogeneous
2. The protocol requires that peers can only be distinguished via serialized cryptographic hashes.

Corollaries:

a. The protocol-enforced egality of untrusted peering nodes is inherently inimical to the imposition of a hierarchy.
b. The modelling of peering nodes as serialized cryptographic hashes inherently prohibits any reference to identity.
c. Malfeasance by unidentifiable pseudonymous participants is inherently immune to both financial and social sanction.

So, “official” this and “official” that are meaningless in the context of a peer-to-peer networked cryptocurrency because no-one has the authority to stamp anything “official”.

Or rather, anyone and everyone has the opportunity to stamp anything they want as “official” or make a claim to be “the official dev” but it carries no inherent authority, only that which it can engender by it own efforts.

When it comes to p2p apps, the bottom line is that as soon as the source code is publicly released, no-one is ”in charge” of anything.

Cheers

Graham