I have been following your spin-off idea since its inception and I have to say it's a really interesting one and I would love to see it implemented, just to see what happens. Are there currently any plans for such an implementation? Unfortunately my coding knowledge is zero but I'm willing to support such an endeavour by donating BTC.
We are working towards a spec for the spin-off protocol at the moment, but it will take some time. Hopefully soon we can come up with a more "decentralized" scheme for donations, as I have received more than a few offers now (which I've so far declined). Thank you for the offer!
By "spin-off protocol" do you mean something akin to coingen, where you just input your specifications (or the code of the protocol you want to spin-off) and it produces the resulting protocol including initial coin distribution according to a specified BTC block? So that like it is easy to start your own coin right now, it would become easy to do a spin-off?
If I were to spin off an altchain, There'd just have to be a limit somewhere. Whatever doesn't get claimed by a particular date ceases to exist in the altcoin chain, or it loses 20% of its value per year until claimed, or -- something -- just so that, at some point, we could write the unclaimed coins off the list and present a rational market where there's at least some idea what fraction is truly lost and what fraction is just in storage.
This is why the idea of spin-offs is so great in my eyes. Personally I think a protocol with built-in demurrage of coins is a pretty bad idea. But I more than welcome a spin-off which incorporates it - just to see my suspicion proven right or wrong. It also gives people more choice how to express their economic preference. Furthermore the copying of the initial coin distribution from the Bitcoin blockchain makes for almost ceteris paribus conditions which might yield very interesting comparative results between original chain and spin-off. It is like a laboratory for testing different parameters of blockchains - a much more exact and telling one compared to alt-coins today.