Now, here's the gotcha - any person running a node that generates $15K per year in sales is not a "miner" or a "forger" - they must be a VENDOR by definition. A vendor that must add their own (always-on) Crypti node onto the network to allow processing of Crypti as a currency in a transaction. Any guy who just slaps a new PoT forging node on the network WITHOUT SETTING UP AN ONLINE SHOP TO GO WITH IT is a PARASITE that is requiring the TRUE vendors to sell (MUCH) more and so keep the average sales-per-block figure high enough to support the forger.
FOR A COMMERCE BASED CRYPTOCOIN THAT USES FORGING AS A REWARD, THE NUMBER OF NODES MUST BE KEPT IN LOCKSTEP WITH THE INCREASE IN SALES REQUIRED TO SUPPORT IT.
Just how does Crypti propose to do THAT?
So focusing on these comments, this is something I also put quite a bit of thought into. In essence, the network would weed itself out in this manner naturally. Once it grew to a certain number of merchants, who were running their own nodes / implementation, whether it be through ATMs, Point of Sale terminals, etc, the network would start to adjust itself based on the RoI. People would only run a node and forge so long as it was profitable. We see this in Bitcoin mining.
Early adoption would be from individual users who would be supporting the network and forging, but over time it would adapt to be run by those who weren't concerned with RoI due to the declining rewards as more nodes enter the network and limit the amount of blocks each node forges. This, as you said, leads you to assume it would be vendors running a Point of Sale terminal. I had already considered the possibility and likelihood that this would eventually occur organically, but the initial adoption and user base is an important aspect of building and making Crypti successful in my mind.
Fundamentally speaking, if you are going to eliminate PoT and build the network irrespective and unconcerned with user base issues, why not just build a centralized network internally and then build it out through PoS terminals to vendors without ever involving any form of community in the actual running of the nodes? At that point all you would need is a strong web wallet with multi-sig, 3 factor auth on transfers, and added features such as a merchant directory and built in promotions, etc. You could focus the majority of your development around merchant outreach and the web wallet.
You still run into the same issue with early adoption. Merchants won't sign up if no one is there to spend it and users won't sign up if they get nothing in return. Chicken / Egg.