Quote from: killerstorm on June 09, 2013, 09:43:41 PM

Quote from: Luckybit on June 09, 2013, 06:51:50 AM

The problems with Devcoin are with the math behind it. There is infinitely many Devcoins but finite shares and a decreasing share value over time.

Monetary base supply isn't really a problem: inflation slows down with time, so that eventually it will be negligible.

Inflation slows down because more people use it faster than it generates but it wont slow down fast enough, and it also means less money for those who do use it under the current math. I just don't see it working.

Quote from: killerstorm on June 09, 2013, 09:43:41 PM

Well, the idea was that more shares are allocated once Devcoins get more and more valuable. So basically as more and more people start using Devcoin it gets more valuable and allows more people to work for Devcoin bounties.

So why aren't Devcoins getting more valuable? More people are using Devcoins than ever.

Quote from: killerstorm on June 09, 2013, 09:43:41 PM

What is broken is Devtome bounty allocation.

I'll remind you that the idea was to do projects which will increase demand for Devcoins, thus also increasing the market cap.

One problem which I mention is that all words cannot be sold for the same price. Writing in english costs more to produce than other languages due to the high cost of living in these countries. Right now all Devcoin words are priced alike. Then you have the various different dialects and subcultures which bring even greater value to words and you'll see that eventually unless something changes all of this will be lost and we will have many articles written in foreign english.

Quote from: killerstorm on June 09, 2013, 09:43:41 PM

But Devtome bounties are paid for words, and they are not tied to market cap in any way. So we have a case of perverted incentive. Devtome leeches value off Devcoin without giving anything in return.

I think you don't understand what Devtome is trying to do. I'm not saying they get it right, but it's critical. There are more writers available than just about any other kind of worker so monetizing writing is an excellent way to grow market cap. The problem isn't that Devtome is offering nothing in return, go read some of the articles and you see it does offer something. The problem is the math is unsustainable, if the growth of Devtome actually somehow is making Devcoin and the shares less valuable then it's going exactly backwards. The more people write and work for Devtome the less valuable writing and working for Devtome becomes and it seems to do nothing to improve the value of Devcoins.

The only way it would be able to improve the value for Devcoins is to literally charge people per article per view. But that approach would be undesirable on a philosophical level and unsustainable as well because once again there are infinitely many Devcoins and the inflation rate is just too high. Maybe if they set it nice and low this wouldn't have been a problem.

Quote from: killerstorm on June 09, 2013, 09:43:41 PM

So I don't think Devcoin needs anything like hard fork... Just some accountability. Stop paying bounties for failed projects.

I agree it needs to stop paying for failed projects but I still think it needs a hard fork. I'm not the only one who thinks Devcoin messed up in the design phase.

Quote from: killerstorm on June 09, 2013, 09:43:41 PM

If anything I'd say that it makes sense to finance variety of smaller projects than to sink it into a huge one which might or might not be successful.

Another problem is lack of decentralization in management. Unthinkingbit manages both Devcoin itself and also he manages Devtome. The problem with it is that person cannot be critical to himself, so no matter whether he does great or shitty job maintaining Devtome, he will just follow his vision.

I agree with this. But I would like Unthinkingbit to consider doing a hard fork to save Devcoin and Devtome because I think both are critically important to the success of Bitcoin. I think Bitcoins will never become popular until anyone can find a Bitcoin job. Since almost anyone can write it's a good place to start.

Quote from: killerstorm on June 09, 2013, 09:43:41 PM

Instead imagine that Devtome was managed by other person, and Unthinkingbit's duty would be to allocate bounties according to project usefulness. Now hypothetical manager of Devtome will be interested in achieving usefulness, and he will likely try various things... If he doesn't do a great job, he can be replaced and other person has a chance to apply his ideas. Eventually control will get to a person who actually has some great idea to make project useful.

The problem with Devtome isn't that the articles aren't useful. I've read some of them and the majority seem to be pretty useful. The quality is also pretty good at this time. The problem is I don't see how this can be sustained if the profit pie keeps shrinking. There will be no incentive to produce quality when the share value goes down.

Something has to be fixed so that the share value can go up and down but there must be a minimum value for words in english, a minimum for words in spanish and so on. Eventually if Devcoin does become more valuable the minimum value would raise for all words if Devcoin were truly deflationary.