This time we have a coin, which is a look into the future itself. It is a very direct clone of Bitcoin with one change that gave it its name.

Hash algo SHA256 Premine 100% Transaction Speed 10 min/block Developers Competent

While this are the technical details, they did not really matter for its creation. The idea was to create a “Bitcoin” like the original Bitcoin will be in 2140. So while modern crypto-currencies have faster transactions speeds for a good reason, this coin just copied the “bad” behavior of Bitcoin.

What happens with Bitcoin in 2140? The block reward goes to zero. No new money is printed anymore. Why do miners continue to mine then? Because of transaction fees. The plan is that people pay enough transaction fees that mining stays profitable. So much for the theory. Premine set out to test this theory now. All coins were premined and randomly distributed to mimick Bitcoin in 2140.

How did the experiment turn out? Well, the coin is still here, so the basic concept is sound so far. Are miners motivated enough? Currently Premine difficulty is 1793. In comparison, Bitcoin difficulty is at nearly 4 billion. The difficulty and hash power is quite stable, so it seems to work out in terms of mining. A great side effect of the experiment is that a subtle bug in Bitcoin was discovered. It also shows that the developers are technically competent.

The technology is sound, but how good is Premine as an investment? Will it rise in value? It has no advantages compared to Bitcoin and certainly no advantages compared to more modern coins. Why would anybody want to use that coin? Well, most altcoins like Dogecoin are struggling to give a good answer to that question. The usual answers are “community” or “marketing”. Money is a very social thing, so these aspects might ultimately be more important than technical discussions.

Marketing-wise Premine is solid, but not spectacular. The website is well done. The social media parts seem to be covered. Community-wise Premine is ok. Due to its “this is just an experiment” history, the community gives generously. It is interesting how much infrastructure is coming up, when you consider the size of the community.

Conclusion: High risk. It is not a hopeless scam coin, but no high potential either. Personally, I like the developer-culture-feel.

(disclaimer: This review was suggested and generously payed for by “applecoin”)