Where nodecoin becomes part of the fabric of NXT is if we as a community decides to offer it as an official ongoing reward to run a computer and support our network.
Once we do this, once we cross over this line, we can no longer call ourselves a pure Proof of Stake cryptocurrency.  

We will have changed the core definition of what NXT is if the NXT experience is expanded to include the awarding of nodecoin along with the forging of NXT.

Now, we are a very young cryptocurrency.  We have to build a brand if we are to survive.  Branding involves differentiating yourself from other brands; in our case, Bitcoin.  Good branding also has to be clear and distinct and simple to understand on a gut or subconscious level without having to do a lot of reasoning or logic to figure out what the difference is with a competing brand.

The best branding NXT has come up with so far is that it is green.  NXT uses far less electricity than PoW mining - megawatts less, and that's a hugely significant amount.  A simple way of communicating this "green idea" is "They're PoW and use lots of power; we're PoS so we don't have to".  Even at Texas Bitcoin Conference the Jane Sixpack who was sitting beside me in the panel got that idea when I expressed it and said it would resonate among the average public.  

Now I am afraid - I have fear without proof - that officially structuring our product to give out nodecoins as a created-out-of-thin air reward to our users will compromise our brand.  This SOUNDS like Proof of Work.   In fact it is not, since the person doing it hasn't done one single thing they would not have done if the reward was not given to them.  They have done no extra computations.  They have burned no extra electricity.  Really they have just given to NXT Proof of Existence or Proof of Participation.  It's like getting a Perfect Attendance award in elementary school - a piece of paper that makes you feel good for something you should do anyway.  

But now if we do this we take away significant differences between us and our competition.  Now NXT officially gives out "award coins" out of thin air, just like Bitcoin.   Now we WANT people to think the award coins have speculative value and will rise in value on our AE through speculation and trading, just like Bitcoin.  We have created a way for people to get-rich-quick on NXT, just like Bitcoin.  So - how are we different from Bitcoin?

And if we do this we also have to add caveats to our story we tell to brand ourselves.   NXT is green - but their Proof of Work coins are dirty and our Proof of Work coins are clean, because they have to burn megawatts of electricity and throw away literally 15 thousand million billion perfectly good cryptographic block candidates that don't have enough zeros on the front end to win a prize to get their next block and win extra prize coins, and we give our prize coins away at the next block for doing absolutely nothing extra at all.  It makes us sound as crazy as Bitcoin.  

Compare that to "They're PoW and use LOTS of power; we're PoS so we don't have to".

It's not nodecoins themselves I have a problem with.  The ability to create new coins on top of the NXT blockchain is a brilliant piece of work, James.  I can see where that is of interest to many people and will draw many people to NXT.  It's the rationale that NXT has to give nodecoins away to help "secure the network" or "pay for the network" that I question.  If people are creating their own coins and trading them on AE, won't they have their clients open and be supporting the NXT network during that time?   As we become more successful and add the other services such as streaming quotes and AE  candlestick charts and all the rest so AE looks more and more like an "official" exchange, isn't THIS going to keep people interested in keeping their clients open so they can follow the ever-growing action?   Won't THIS support and secure the network?

I would go so far to say that instead of giving out free nodecoins on AE, we should cut NXT transaction fees to zero on AE.  Won't THIS bring more people to AE - making it a TOTALLY FREE exchange with NO service fees or house cut AT ALL?  Now THAT'S branding.  THAT'S a product differentiator.  That will bring people to NXT in droves:  FREE FREE FREE.  And it costs us nothing - it's just another feature in the client software, and a choice we make as a community on how to operate our coin, and an approach that DOES NOT COMPROMISE OUR STATUS AS A PURE PROOF OF STAKE COIN.

James, don't be discouraged.  You have done a brilliant piece of work that will draw many people to NXT.  As you say, though, this tech is so revolutionary and so disruptive that it has the potential to disrupt NXT itself.  And something with that much power we have GOT to have open conversations about and decide if we want to do genetic engineering on ourselves and alter our very DNA and mutate into something new.  

I say let everybody in the world create 1000 new coins and trade them with wild, crazy abandon on AE - but not NXT itself.  In my opinion, NXT itself should not do this.  Do not create a "special" extra NXT coin, and certainly not one that is then GIVEN AWAY.  The casino runs the game, it doesn't play at the tables itself.  Let the action generated by everybody else's coins being traded cause clients to be open and the NXT network supported.  Don't try to generate this support by the emotional draw of a "free giveaway" that tries to pull people in by playing to their greed and raise in them hopes of get-rich-quick.

cool il get on that one!

LOL

U, guys, can't stop creating memes as I see. YUB, HODL and LICK!

Edit: Oh, I forgot about FOGRE...

@Damelon

i read your comment on reddit where you mention 4 companies that will ipo on the AE? i know of NMAC and DGEX but may i ask what are the other two and would anyone have links to more information about them and their ipo's? thanks

If you run a NXT node, you are supposed to receive NXTcoins and it is called forging. That is what NXTcoins are designed to do. If you think people running nodes don't get enough Nxtcoins, you need to fix it by increasing the transactions or compensate with NXT or btc. You don't compensate them with nodecoins because nodecoins are created from nowhere and almost no cost. Then you pay 0.01 Nxtcoin for 1 nodecoins. You devalue the Nxtcoins right here. All transactions (dac, nxtcash, Escrow service and so on) on NXT platform should be charged with NXT and NXT alone.

Imaging in the future, if there are 30% nodes are compensated by nodecoins, will you still be able to control the price and only pay 0.01 NXT for 1 nodecoins? No, it will be 1 nodecoin=0.3 Nxtcoin. It will devalue NXTcoins right there.

It is great to create coins on top of NXT. It is also BCNext's vision. But you need to do it with a business purpose, not doing what Nxtcoins are supposed to do. BCNext has mentioned that he tried to reduce mining for mining (selfish mining). We should not double reward this kind forging/mining for mining thing, especially at NXT owners cost. This is definitely not consistent to BCNext's vision.

This is the key point of rj's argument. Nodecoin is not any "ordinary" coin anyone can create on top of Nxt. If it were, no one would have any reason to object to it.

Reasons why it is not any ordinary coin:-

1. It was designed to be used as an integral part of Nxt. At the heart of any crypto currency is the blockchain, and how it is secured. NodeCoin has been positioned to be the mechanism to (help) secure it. Anything, whose function is to secure the network will be seen as an integral part of Nxt, whether it is in the NRS core or otherwise. This alters, or at least can be perceived to alter, the DNA and hence the very identity of Nxt. Therefore it cannot be treated as just an ordinary coin anybody can build.

2. It is designed to power the key engines of Nxt (AE, gateways, NXTCash, NXTmixer, etc), which are projects funded by the community. "Nodecoin should be redeemable for accessing services (DAC, NxtCash, whatever)". So if a Nxter has millions of Nxt but no NodeCoins, he has to buy them just to uses the very services that are suppose to make Nxt unique? That makes NodeCoins to be more superior in function than NXT.

Edit: I hope I have got this point wrong!

3. It has been positioned by James as a non-profit, community project. This gives further credence to Ricky's point that "we as a community decide to offer it as an official ongoing reward to run a computer and support our network". If this has been privately developed by James as a random Nxter, this association will be absent.

If we agree that it is no ordinary coin for the above reasons, then we should consider Ricky's point about NodeCoin altering the very fabric of Nxt; and not just brushing it aside as just a coin anybody can create on top of Nxt.

Idea:

Don't know the feasibility of it though.

1) Inf-Com puts up 1,000,000 Nxt. in an account.....issues a Sell on AE....sets the price at 100 Nodecoin for 1 Nxt or whatever ....then if anyone who has been running his node has 100 nodecoin he can redeem it and get 1 nxt.

Nodecoins should not be transferable. Once they are redeemed they should be send back to the nodepool for collection by others.

I'm sure we can fix the Nodecoin generation rate so the program can run for x amount of time.


This is a rough idea....I don;t have the time to think this thru into more details.


It will allow new nxters to determine how much Nxt they can get if they run their clients for x amount of time.

 

Im thinking about it from a network design and scalability perspective.  IMO the scalable way do handle things is with a light client.  A VPS will be able to support 2x more light clients than unltrlight clients.

Nodasset!