CoinDaddy makes it easy for programmers and people who are new to Bitcoin to immediately create and use crypto 2.0 assets without having to understand a lot about the technology.

Jeremy Johnson, the developer of CoinDaddy, has been in software development for over 20 years. He is an early miner of Dogecoin and began the service as a way to keep track of his own assets. When he first learned about the Dogeparty platform, he says he “got a little over-excited” about the possibilities, “burned a bunch of Doge and registered a few thousand assets.” The initial idea behind the site was to be able to list all the asset names he registered, with the possibility of someday selling them. He said:

“I had thousands of assets and no way to list them for sale, so I started thinking about tools that would make using and managing assets easier, etc. I started a proof-of-concept website called dogepartyassets.com and a blockchain viewer, dogepartychain.info.”

Johnson recently took the DogepartyAssets.com and DogepartyChain.info sites down, redirecting them to CoinDaddy.io and DogepartyChain.io so he could focus on a single platform. Cointelegraph talked to Johnson about his new service.

Cointelegraph: How would you describe CoinDaddy?

Jeremy Johnson: CoinDaddy is a company that is trying to make this blockchain technology stuff easier for people to understand and use. There is a bunch of cool stuff that can be done with this technology, and it can be used to solve tons of problems, but all this technology needs to be broken down into digestible terms, made easier to understand, and people need to be able to interact with the technology in simple ways.

CT: Where did the name CoinDaddy come from, and how did the company start?

JJ: The name CoinDaddy came to me one night as I was sitting with my wife brainstorming ideas for a short company name which indicated what we did. CoinDaddy seemed like a catchy name which would be easy to remember, and so it just kind of stuck.

I first got into Dogeparty because I was into Dogecoin and later got into Counterparty because more users are familiar with Bitcoin and Counterparty, so the potential to reach more users with the technology is greater.

I started development of CoinDaddy and the blockchain viewers about six months ago and have been working on it everyday since. CoinDaddy was started as a way to focus more on the technology as a whole than a specific coin or technology. CoinDaddy supports Dogeparty and Counterparty currently but we will support other coins in the near future and have already chatted with Nxt and Omni about integrating their platforms with CoinDaddy.

“I see altcoins as something for technical people experimenting with bitcoin 1.0 technology, which is a great thing, but the experiments are over. We have learned all we can from altcoins.”

CT: What problems are you hoping to solve with CoinDaddy?

JJ: Really hoping to:

1.) Get people to understand the true power of blockchain technologies and that it is WAY, more than just a simple financial platform.

2.) Get people to start thinking about how they can use the technology to solve problems

3.) Make the technology easier to use without lots of technical knowledge required.

Ideally, we want to make it easy for people to play with the technology, so if someone has the idea lightbulb go off in their head and they get excited about how they can use this technology, they can instantly start building their idea and integrating the tech into their idea, without having to learn a bunch of technical stuff.

CT: Who is your target audience?

JJ: Our target audience is really anyone who wants to learn about blockchain technologies and figure out what it is all about.

CT: Do you consider CoinDaddy to be a teaching tool for people who don’t know Bitcoin technology?

JJ: Yes. I would actually prefer that people who come to the site have no idea of what Bitcoin is other than understanding the basic idea that it is a way to send something back and forth between users on the Internet without the need for a third party. It makes it much easier to get the creative juices flowing when you don’t put a bunch of preconceived notions on the technology.

I think it is actually tougher to re-educate people who already know about Bitcoin that blockchain and Bitcoin are not one and the same, and that the true power is in blockchain tech, not in the price swings of Bitcoin.

CT: What are some examples of ways that people have used your services?

JJ: Since the CoinDaddy website and services just launched a few days ago, we don’t have any use cases of users truly USING the technology beyond a few enhancing their assets with additional information.

However, there were a few different projects that have developed things for the Dogeparty platform using the Dogeparty API and tools I developed. For example, a programmer named Rob Meyers started playing around with the technology and came up with a way for users to store source code in the blockchain, and then run a program simply by reading the transactions back in order.

While this might not really be the most practical way of writing programs on the blockchain, it is nonetheless still awesome because it is a great example of someone experimenting with different ways to use the blockchain.

“Assets have removed the technical barriers that prevented people from creating their own coins and experimenting with the technology. It is no longer intimidating to create your own coin and play with it. In fact it is encouraged.”

CT: Do you think bad experiences or bad news about altcoins might turn people off from creating their own asset coin?

JJ: Yes, I think that people who have had bad experiences with altcoins will tend to lump assets and altcoins together in the same category and discredit them altogether.

I personally see assets and altcoins as serving very different purposes. I see altcoins as something for technical people experimenting with bitcoin 1.0 technology, which is a great thing, but the experiments are over. We have learned all we can from altcoins. Unfortunately rather than the focus staying on playing with the technology, the altcoin marketplace turned into an easy place to take advantage of others. There are over 500 altcoins and 99.9% of them are just scam coins with no real purpose other than extracting value from naive users.

I see assets as something entirely different. While they might appear similar, in that they are a crypto coin or token that anyone can create, and they can be sent back and forth among users, the focus of assets is NOT strictly financial. Assets have removed the technical barriers that prevented people from creating their own coins and experimenting with the technology. It is no longer intimidating to create your own coin and play with it. In fact it is encouraged.

CT: What are your goals for CoinDaddy’s future?

JJ: Lots of people have ideas of how this technology can be used, but there has to be some basic structures in place before people are able to start tinkering with the technology. CoinDaddy is working towards the eventual goal of being able to build applications that start using this technology in a meaningful way. However, before that can take place, there has to be some structure and organization put in place in the space so that people can start to understand and relate to the technologies.

Everything I am doing is working towards a goal of being able to have all the tools people need to build the apps they want. This basically boils down to a five-step plan that I am working on:

1. Blockchain viewers and APIs (see and begin to understand)

2. Enhancement service (make it easy to obtain and associate data with assets)

3. Reputation system (track who is doing good and bad with assets)

4. Simple vending and sending services (make it easy for people to sell and send assets)

5. Applications (start integrating the technology into daily use)

CT: Is there anything else you would like to share?

JJ: Bitcoin and blockchain technologies have really become the focus of a number of government and financial agencies as they try to figure out how to relate laws and regulations to the technology. CoinDaddy is focused on operating in this space legally and has been working with a legal partner to ensure that we do so.

“If someone has an idea and they want to build something cool, they should be able to, and shouldn’t have to spend weeks and months researching the legality of their service. I am traveling the difficult path, in the hopes that is easier for those who come after me.”

Operating in this space on your own is incredibly difficult, especially navigating the regulation and legal compliance hurdles. Writing the services to use the technology is the easy part. Figuring out how to offer the services legally and not get in trouble is the tough part. It is incredibly difficult for a small guy like me to start up a business in this space because there is so much more than coding involved.

I am not only trying to offer services to help the little guy use the technology, I am also really focused on working within the system to be the voice of the little guy. If someone has an idea and they want to build something cool, they should be able to and shouldn’t have to spend weeks and months researching the legality of their service. I am traveling the difficult path, in the hopes that is easier for those who come after me.

I am really more focused on giving tools to people, so they can build the future, than I am focused on making a personal profit for myself. I have ideas and will build tools to make this stuff easier to use, but I can only do so much. If I get people excited about the technology and make it easy to use, they can build things far greater than I could ever conceive of, or build on my own.

Did you enjoy this article? You may want to check out these ones: