A decentralized cryptocurrency designed for online microtransactions
easy and useful for regular consumers
free to get started with close to zero friction
distributed to all who grow its value and utility
developing tangible utility over traditional currencies by creating platforms for online microtransactions
secure, efficient and decentralized in the long-run based on an innovative proof-of-stake technology
supported by well-funded non-profit foundations dedicated to maximizing its utility
founded by a team who have launched multiple consumer services with millions of users
backed by highly accomplished strategic angel investors
$2.25 million in initial funding
100 million Neucoin tokens presold to future users for 4,012 Bitcoins
launched in September 2015
Summary
Cryptocurrency Landscape
Cryptocurrencies, or digital currencies, offer significant potential benefits over traditional currencies, including greater privacy, lower transaction fees, simpler and faster international transactions, and the ability to make small digital payments of $.01 to $1.00 (“microtransactions”), thus enabling new digital business models and behaviors not feasible with legacy payment methods.
The leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (market cap of all coins $3 billion), has mostly attracted computer experts, speculators and niche users who want to keep their transactions out of sight. But it hasn’t been popular with regular consumers, few of whom find it easy or useful. Moreover, Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (“PoW”) mining design, in which all Bitcoins ever created are awarded to miners, has several drawbacks, including inherently high costs, conflicts of interest between miners and Bitcoin holders, and increasing transaction fees in order to maintain security long term. While Bitcoin does enjoy sizable network effects, it has left the door open for competitors.
Source: Coinmarketcap.com, blockchain.info, coingecko.
Note: market caps are based on the total supply of coins that currently exist (100B in cases of both Ripple and Stellar), including the coins held by Ripple Labs Inc. and the Stellar Foundation.
The two most valuable “altcoins” Ripple ($1.4 billion market cap) and Stellar ($400 million, just months after launch) eschewed expensive PoW mining. Opting for a different technology using consensus algorithms based on trusted nodes, these altcoins can keep transaction fees low in the long run and - crucially - distribute coins to participants other than miners. This is a huge competitive advantage over Bitcoin.
Ripple’s founders and early investors opted to keep some of the cryptocurrency for their own profit and to sell some of it to investors, using the proceeds to develop a platform for international transfers and payments - an application where cryptocurrencies have the potential to offer more utility than fiat currencies. While Ripple never disclosed how much of the cryptocurrency would be kept as profit and how much would be sold and used for all coin holders’ benefit, investors still bought the cryptocurrency because they could see real utility (and hence potential for future demand) being created.
The not-for-profit Stellar is taking the opposite approach. Prior to launch it sold 2% of the entire supply for $3 million, kept 3% to cover future expenses, and pledged to give away the remaining 95% to users and charity. This strategy could lead to a large user base if users hold onto their free Stellar instead of simply selling them, but doesn’t answer how utility will be developed. And since consumer demand is ultimately driven by utility, real adoption may never come.
In summary, Bitcoin has network effects and a growing ecosystem, Ripple is developing real utility for international transfers and Stellar has the potential to attract a large number of users. However, none of them, let alone the hundreds of other altcoins out there, are (a) easy, (b) free to try out, and (c) useful for mainstream consumers. As a result, consumer adoption of cryptocurrency is still flat.
We believe that a cryptocurrency could in fact achieve mainstream adoption if it were free to try out, easy to use, and offered some real, immediate utility to make consumers want to come back for more. This is NeuCoin’s vision.
NeuCoin Competitive Advantages
People behind NeuCoin - experienced, consumer-oriented and successful
1. NeuCoin was created by an experienced team of entrepreneurs and technologists that previously founded multiple companies with millions of users in the music, gaming and shopping sectors - hundreds of millions of users in total.
2. NeuCoin has $2.25 million of initial funding from its founders and strategic angels with ability to help NeuCoin forge strategic partnerships and drive consumer adoption. NeuCoin’s angels include the co-founder of King (Candy Crush Saga), Head of Growth at Facebook, SVP of Business at Uber, President of Hotwire, the Producers of American Idol and X-factor, multiple founders of consumer internet companies sold for $100M+, and dozens of others top tech, media and VC executives.
3. Strategic Advisors include the co-founder and Chief Architect of King (Candy Crush Saga), a Core Developer of Peercoin and the Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation.
Core strategy - use coin distribution to drive growth and increase utility, with a focus on microtransactions
4. NeuCoin is the first cryptocurrency to be strategically distributed to reward and incentivize all participants who help increase its utility and value:
- Some for free to consumers to try using NeuCoin and for recruiting other users
- Some to companies that make NeuCoin useful: content providers that accept micropayments in NeuCoin, exchanges, payment processors, wallets, etc.
- Some sold to purchasers, with proceeds used to fund code development, user acquisition, and projects to further develop utility, with a focus on micropayments
5. NeuCoin is the first cryptocurrency that is easy and free to get started, and useful from day one for regular consumers. NeuCoin is launching with a number of fun, consumer-friendly services making it easy for mainstream consumers to discover, earn and start using NeuCoin tokens.
- Onboarding websites such as GetNeuCoin - a game-like tutorial designed to convert mainstream users in a fun and educational way
- An online wallet - MyNeuCoin - that is as user-friendly as any leading Bitcoin wallet (Circle, Coinbase) with several ways to earn and use NeuCoin tokens
- A consumer-friendly cloud mining service that lets users effortlessly earn PoS awards through “growth accounts”
- Easy and intuitive without tech jargon on the front-end, but heavy security and robust Blockchain.info style handling of private keys on the backend
6. NeuCoin will develop real consumer utility versus fiat currencies by developing platforms for online microtransactions (from $0.01 to $1 value). In the months after launch, NeuCoin will roll out protototype online/mobile games and microtransaction solutions for tipping and premium content. Pilot partners include RadioAirplay.com, an artist promotion company with over 250,000 independent musicians as customers; Jango.com, an online music service with over 8 million monthly listeners; and video content producerMondoMedia, the number one animation channel on YouTube with over 2 billion show-views.
- Platforms will be tested and optimized with pilot partners and then rolled out for use by any content provider looking for tipping or micropayment solutions
- Platforms will be powered by freemium distribution of NeuCoin tokens to users, who will be able to try premium content for free - a significant advantage over micropayment platforms using Bitcoin (because 99.9% of consumers don’t have Bitcoin, and it’s not easy to get)
- Participating content providers will receive user acquisition bounties for every new user converting to NeuCoin
NeuCoin Foundations - well-financed, decentralized, accountable
7. NeuCoin’s core code development, user growth programs, and projects to increase utility is supported by three non-profit foundations based in the Isle of Man: the Code, Growth and Utility foundations. The three foundations are independent of each other but share the same single mission – to increase the value of NeuCoin. The foundations are overseen by independent Council Members and Advisors, but are ultimately controlled by coin holders (1 coin = 1 vote). This structure makes NeuCoin more decentralized and accountable than Bitcoin, Ripple or Stellar.
Technology - secure, efficient, decentralized
8. NeuCoin chose a Proof of Stake (“PoS”) technology design instead of an inefficient Bitcoin-style PoW design or a centralized consensus algorithm protocol like that of Ripple and Stellar. This choice was made in order to distribute the coins strategically, keep transaction fees low and security high in the long term, and still maintain decentralization. See the Technology and Economics Overview section below or the Neucoin Technical White Paper for a more detailed analysis of NeuCoin’s PoS design versus PoW and consensus algorithms.
Economics – rewards early buyers, enhances security, fully transparent
9. NeuCoin’s economic model uses very high PoS awards, starting at 100% per year in year one and gradually declining to 6% by year ten. The total coin supply begins with a 3 billion pre-mine and will grow to an estimated 100 billion over ten years, with the actual number dependent on the percentage of coins that are mined over time. A limited number of coins in year one are also awarded to PoW miners, to engage the community that will most likely become active PoS miners long-term.
NeuCoin’s high-mining-awards model offers several benefits:
- Rewards early NeuCoin buyers and adopters for holding onto their NeuCoins while NeuCoin’s mainstream utility is still evolving (coin holdings will multiply by 50X over 10 years with non-stop PoS mining)
- Coin prices should be less volatile and remain intuitive for consumers from launch ($0.01 per NeuCoin) and into the future
- Incentivizes PoS miners to stake many coins and operate many nodes, either individually or via cloud-mining services, solving a critical security issue with previous PoS coins
10. Three billion pre-mine allocation:
- 2.4 billion held by the three non-profit foundations
- 0.2 billion - Code foundation
- 1.4 billion - Growth foundation
- 0.8 billion - Utility foundation
- 0.2 billion retained by team for $1 million of work invested (restricted for use or sale)
- 0.1 billion sold to initial seed investors for $250,000 (restricted for use or sale)
- 0.2 billion sold to strategic angel investors for $1 million cash invested (restricted for use or sale)
- 0.1 billion pre-sold to users in the crypto-community for BTC 4,012 (unrestricted for use or sale)
In contrast to virtually all previous cryptocurrencies with pre-mines, all NeuCoins held by the founding team, seed and angel investors are subject to strict re-sale provisions for five years, so that holders may only sell 2% of their holdings per month in the first year, 3% per month in year two, 4% per month in the year three, 5% per month in year four and 6% per month in year 5.
From: NEUcoin.org
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