Ok.
I've watched this coin since a couple days before it launched. I've watched the devs talk a great game and gather a pretty hellacious community. I've watched the whole debacle. So now I'm gonna tell the lot of you what I see, offer some opinions, and duck.
First off, I have to say I have nothing invested in this coin other than time and interest. I'm not a day trader, I don't know how to be. I'd actually enjoy that game, but I haven't yet done it. That being said, I understand a couple of things about day trading, and I think I can offer some words that'll piss off everybody. This is good. If you're pissed, you're at least thinking.
One. Daytraders will not IN THEMSELVES kill a coin. In fact, in the early days they probably make the coin. They follow the wild swings and get caught up in the game and do a lot of shit that is apparently detrimental. It's not. If the coin is moving at volume, just like any sort of security, it's growing. It's value may not be, yet, but it is. The day traders are one group of the good guys. Those who jump them for their wild speculations and "gambling" are frankly doing themselves and the traders a disservice. Let them play their game.
Two. Multipools.
Fuck 'em. They only will hurt the coin IF it has nothing going for it BUT day trading. Those of you trying to develop actual markets are the next group of good guys. If this is going to be what it's promise was, then YOU are the next phase. You are out there opening store fronts, getting the word out and trying to make this coin something with real world value. This is cool, and MOST coins DO NOT have that element. BUT, y'all tend to snipe at the traders. Don't. They are doing their part, and you are doing yours. Multipools won't kill your coin, and may even spike interest in it from time to time. What will kill it, if anything, is not building this wide infrastructure.
Three. "The devs gotta get off the pot".
No, they don't. They should, they ought to, and they have a moral obligation to, but they are completely fucking irrelevant to the coin's success or failure. The community they gathered can and should view them as just another group. This coin, like most, is open source and community owned. Even with the premine, it's open to anyone capable of mining it or buying it on an exchange. Or selling goods and services for it.
Cryptozark seems like the prime mover these days. Wes seems largely caught in the middle. It don't matter. It's guys like Earhazaar and ATXsilver who will move this coin to the next level. Being traded on Cryptsy is cool in the short term. Being traded for real world goods and services is PRICELESS. Bitcoin wouldn't work if you couldn't buy shit with it. If it just traded on exchanges, it would have died already. Forex and commodity trading are quite valid markets, but without a wide dispersion OUTSIDE that paradigm, the coin is worthless.
It's speed and, frankly, it's cool name will take it far, IF y'all quit giving a shit about the devs. Hopefully, they step up. You DO NOT need them. Think about it. Does Bitcoin need Satoshi? We better hope not, he's been gone for years.
And lastly, Charities. There were several (0ne of whom I got in a fight with early on) who raised a big bitch about the coin coming to represent charitable giving. Those of you who stand against that are just plain wrong. There are a whole lot of people who WANT to help other people, and if this coin gets to be the "go to" cryptocurrency for charities, guess what? You just got yourself access to some of the largest pools of wealth on planet earth. Think, all of you in all the warring camps, of what entry into that market really means. The largest aggregators of charities on the planet, to my knowledge, are the various religious societies of the Catholic church. I am an atheist, and I see the value in this. They work all over the world to help people in need, and they NEED a good way of transmitting money 'round the world. They have sniffed around Bitcoin, but it's a much more commercial coin. Positioning a coin to facilitate transfer of funds to the third world is fucking LUCRATIVE. Instead of condemning this, you should be embracing it. There is money exchanged all down the line for charitable giving, and in the arena of cryptocurrency, there is an advantage that you can and SHOULD promote. Charities working in the developing nations FREQUENTLy have problems with local governments, using the word loosely, taking their money before they even see it. Think those warlords can take a brain wallet?
All of these are the things to consider. The day traders are likely to only see this coin as another avenue of trade. It's what they do. No harm there, and their ravings are entertaining. But the wider community has a lot of work to do.
I like this coin. I would like to get involved in it. But if y'all are waiting for leaders, you have failed. Not only have you failed earthcoin, you've failed yourself. You want a leader? Go look in the mirror. If that son of a bitch can't lead you, neither can anyone else.
Biomech, you are right about all of these things if they are done properly. What, in my opinion, is a major problem is that the branding is unfinished. It is rushed as the developers themselves admitted and as the devs don't show anymore, locked away from those willing to pick up. So in my opinion they started something and dropped it half way to completion, put it behind a glass wall and are now hoping something good will come out of that. And this will be a problem for this coin for a long time.
