Quote from: orinoco on June 08, 2014, 12:10:19 PM

Maybe I've missed it.. but I have a question about the multipool.

Why would anyone mine on a multipool which pays out in ECC?

Sure, mining will raise the price of ECC by purchasing it on the market, but that rise will immediately be pushed down by the supply from the miner(s), and there will be an arms race to sell first after each rise, not just from miners, but from existing holders looking to get out (or trade) on the position. Its a zero-sum game.

I can see a multipool adding value with a higher ECC price in terms of adding liquidity/availability and stability to the price, but right now what we need more is a reason for people to buy and hold, with a reasonable expectation of value increase in the future. Professional miners are not, by their nature, currency holders.

IMO what we need for ECC to succeed as a currency is:

1. Commercial purpose (utility = value)
2. Marketing

Marketing is the easy part. The tricky part is commercial purpose and making a currency which works i.e. which can be used to obtain goods/services or as an exchange of value. We need things like:

commerce tools for merchants

Plugins for supporting ECC on various ecommerce carts (Woo-commerce, Magento and Opencart)
- Check-out payment with ECC
- Pricing in ECC (i.e. treat similar to Forex - price based on exchange rate)
Merchant wallet integration for said carts (transaction lists, balances, outstanding invoices etc.)

Improved tools for users

mobile wallets for android, iphone
merchant directory of supporting vendors (geolocation, search, etc.)
crypto-ATM support
p2p marketplace

Sure, all the things like decentralised marketplaces, online contracts and asset-exchanges are sexy, but this is an emerging market, and the fact is 99.9999% of online and physical commerce happens via existing retail channels, and its a market which is being largely ignored by the crypto market in the face of fads and fashion, and ideology.

It seems that cryptocoins as a segment are currently failing at being actual currencies. Everyone's trying to think 10 steps down the line to replacing fiat currencies and exchange mechanisms, and ignoring the obvious step of working alongside them using existing infrastructure.

I think a strong focus on leveraging those existing channels, even if we only achieve a tiny percentage of merchants, will show vastly more growth and increased awareness among the general public than any decentralised asset exchange.

The crypto community is small, really small.

The whole market cap of Bitcoin is less than the value of some app-store apps. What we should be trying to do is increase the size/appeal of the crypto market, not fight for a share of it.

No offense to hostmaster, but the most exciting thing I've seen for ECC since I started reading about cryptocoins (less than 2 months ago) is Goldmaxx talking about moving the coin forwards. It seems that things have kind of stagnated or been lacking direction, and having someone new with determination and an ability to organise is a good step forwards. At this stage I'm hoping that between hostmaster and goldmaxx, they can build a team who can work to put ECC on the broader commerce map.

Orinoco (BCompSci, MBA)

Nice article. We need more community leaders and they can change everything. I believe ECC has a great potential.