Quote from: arturius on August 24, 2014, 03:33:00 AM

My apologies if I've overlooked a relevant post, but are the Lakota mining this coin or just crypto-enthusiasts ?

This isn't quite as simple an issue as one might think. There are 2 questions here. 1) Is the Oglala Lakota Nation mining mazacoin. No. 2) Are any of the Oglala themselves mining. Unfortunately, again, no. But let's take a look at the real reasons.

For any type of government to become directly involved in the daily creation and distribution of a currency, there are many issues that need to be addressed. Legislation needs to be drafted, laws need to be enacted, and regulations need to be put into place. As you can imagine, this is no small task. The Mazacoin Development Team is in the process of building a legal team that will assist in all these matters. As we progress, we will see what the direct involvement of the Oglala Lakota Nation is with mazacoin.

We have to ask....what should that direct involvement be? How much do you want to see the direct involvement of any government in bitcoin? We feel the matter must be approached carefully to avoid outcomes like the one we may see developing in The State of New York.

We think it's much better if a cryptocurrency that is truly intended to effect change is a decentralized service provided by the community, and not one that is under any sort of control by a government. We do intend to form a council in such a way that tribal governments, who will become stakeholders, have some voice in the mazacoin, but they cannot be the only voice, or we will perpetuate and move problems that exist today.

Now, that brings us to the more important question (IMO). Are there any Oglala mining themselves. As of right now, unfortunately that answer is no again. This is primarily a function of money. Mining is not a poor man's game. Most of the Oglala are poor, and it's not an option for them to run out, buy some bitcoin, risk it on pre-ordered asics, and maybe be able to mine mazacoin. Even if this were possible, mining mazacoin is an investment in the future.

But, this does bring us to one of the important design considerations in mazacoin. Maza is a sha256 coin, and as such, it's design it to help older mining gear find new, profitable homes as it becomes to small to mine bitcoin in a meaningful way. We're starting to see the first generation of sha256 asics become much less profitable now. My own team is likely to repurpose our own 55nm gear as home heating units. We believe there are ways that we can use this shift in the mining market to put more gear on the reservations. Of course, this will take time to secure gear, and put distribution in place. We want to ensure that this is not any kind of a handout, but provides real skill building opportunities. The mazacoin development team is committed to putting mazacoin into the hands and control of the people it serves.

We also need to consider, in the specific case of the Oglala Lakota, reservations are often large, remote, and under-served by public utilities. Telecommunications and power can be less than ideal in many homes and businesses, and this definitely increases the challenges we see in bringing mining, and cryptocurrency in general, to the average reservation. Again, the Mazacoin Development Team is committed to finding solutions that bring cryptocurrency within the reach of even the most remote villages. We believe this is necessary even the the proper adoption of bitcoin, worldwide, and we intend to be leaders in making crypto serve every tribe. This is what is needed to make real change happen in this world. While mazacoin was created with the Oglala Lakota as our first Tribal Partner, we do not intend to stop there. We intend to make mazacoin the currency that supports bootstrapping a new inter-tribal economy.

We are committed to doing everything necessary to make this happen.