Someone asked me this via email, I thought I'd post the answer for everyone:
I'm looking for some clarity on the amount of Darkcoins that will be minted. I've read some where that it is something quite large. I'm looking to invest founds into emerging crypto's that have a possibility of longevity. I'm very concerned thought with the total number of coins that will be minted. Please advise. thanks.
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DarkCoin is unique in the since that it has a variable block reward that is based on difficulty. This means that while currently the block reward is 120, when difficulty rises the block reward will fall. Eventually the block reward will be driven down to it's lowest amount which is 15DRK. After that, every 2 years the block reward is halved again. So in 2 years, 7.5DRK, in 4 years, 3.75DRK, etc.
So, we don't know how many there will be, but it definitely won't reach anywhere near 84 million. It mostly depends on how long it takes us to reach the lower block reward cap. At this of rate of growth that should happen this month (it happens at about 100 difficulty).
if (nSubsidy < 25) nSubsidy = 25;
I would push a fork to update it to 15, makes more sense and I think most people would prefer it, it means diff has to be 112.29 to arrive to the minimum reward. Currently network hashrate is around 600mh/s and diff gonna be of 20, so it means once the network hashrate hits something around 3.3gh/s the reward will be minimum. I think 3.3gh/s is doable in maybe 3 weeks?
Otherwise if you keep it at 25, we will hit it once the network has a hashrate of about 2.2gh/s.
(let me know if I'm wrong with my calculations, wouldn't surprise me much, lol)