
Auroracoin: Cryptocurrency for every Icelandic resident - milesf
http://www.auroracoin.org/
======
gus_massa
From a link in other comment [http://coinmarketcap.com/mineable-
all.html](http://coinmarketcap.com/mineable-all.html) (with alternative
formatting)

> #: 3

> Name: Auroracoin

> Market Cap: $ 180,504,106

> Price: $ 17.05

> Total Supply: 10,588,226 AUR

> Volume (24h) $ 151,421

I can't get a precise Market Cap graph, but apparently the price doubled since
yesterday, and it increased a lot in the last week. The 24hs-volume is very
low, this coin has the #9 position in that order. With a small volume it's
easier to manipulate the market.

> _Auroracoin is a cryptocurrency for Iceland. It is based on litecoin and is
> 50% premined. The premined coins will be distributed to the entire
> population of Iceland, commencing on midnight 25th of March 2014._

If we discount the 10,500,000 premined coins we 88,226 "wild" coins increasing
slowly until March 25th. So the naive calculation gives a "wild" Market Cap of
only 1,543,955. If this is successful, on March 25th the circulating coins
well increase x120. A less successful hand out to a 10% of the population will
increase it only x13. With a 1% it raises x2. I expect a big drop in the value
and I don't understand why there are people buying this coin now.

~~~
arg01
My money is on people realising there will be a drop in value but want to get
a return on the short term rise due to publicity between now and then. It's
reasonable if you time it right but if everyone is playing the same game...

------
yownie
as part of the local bitcoin meetup here in Iceland, almost universally we
believe it's a scam. The name does not exist in Iceland (we have a national
directory, only 320,000 ppl). Premined 50% doesn't help either as well as the
lack of awareness here Iceland about bitcoin and currency controls. This thing
is preying on most foreigners false narrative of Iceland.

~~~
cookrn
Who is behind Auroracoin? Do they communicate with other Icelandic
cryptocurrency enthusiasts?

~~~
yownie
they're mildly active on fb here, but the name is a made up one.

------
milesf
So am I about to witness something called a "pump and dump" where someone
started buying up Auroracoins to inflate the price, and then will slowly start
selling them back?

I really don't understand how markets work, and cryptocoins are probably a
terrible place to learn, but it's not costing me anything except some
electricity from a spare computer running a GPU card.

~~~
345723
You are about to witness the same exact thing as what just happened in
Iceland—a massive ponzi scheme.

------
milesf
It's now the third most valuable cryptocurrency according to
[http://coinmarketcap.com/mineable-
all.html](http://coinmarketcap.com/mineable-all.html)

~~~
simlevesque
I think that you meant that is has the third biggest market cap.

~~~
milesf
Ah yes, that's what I meant.

I'm new to following the whole crypto currency thing. It's all wildly
speculative and way too risky to bet money on, but I'm enjoying learning how
much I don't know.

\--

" War is God's way of teaching Americans geography."

    
    
      - Ambrose Bierce
    

"Bitcoin is the Devil's way of teaching geeks economics."

    
    
      - Revalin 165YUuQUWhBz3d27iXKxRiazQnjEtJNG9g

~~~
narrator
Bitcoin is the Devil's way of demonstrating F.A Hayek was on to something with
his essay "The Denationalization Of Money."

------
throwaway_yy2Di
Isn't this obviously illegal?

" _I call on the cryptocurrency exchanges of the world to accept transactions
with auroracoins._ "

That's plainly violating the capital control laws (on the Icelandic side).
Notably, the central bank already declared that those laws apply to Bitcoin:

" _It is prohibited to engage in foreign exchange trading with the electronic
currency Bitcoin, according to the Icelandic Foreign Exchange Act_ "

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_Bitcoin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_Bitcoin)

~~~
sroerick
Isn't this the point of the coin? Iceland's government made it illegal to use
Bitcoin, so nobody can buy into the currency. By giving the premined coins to
Icelandic citizens, they are trying to create a stable crypto ecosystem and
help icelanders avoid the legal repercussions of the Icelandic Foreign
Exchange act.

The wiki page you linked said this: "commentators suggest bitcoins mined
within Iceland could be freely traded."

The premine is expressly for this purpose.

------
chm
Everybody gets 30-some coins (which most probably won't happen). Then what?
Who wants to trade them?

No pre-mine would have been the way to go. That would have made money change
hands: people buy hardware, consume more electricity, pay the kid next door to
take care of the mining rig, etc.

EDIT: I might have been too harsh. Good luck. I'm going bull on this, as might
many others.

------
e3pi
Their has been at least one headline of Iceland's cheap electricity has been
harnessed to mine bitcoin. Likely other ecoins as litecoin. That's a nice
marriage of circumstances of a small island nation of talented tech (eg: EVE
Online - CCP Games's evolving vast servers), botched economy, and few other
natural resources to export.

------
heydenberk
Original post:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7271496](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7271496)

------
fleitz
They should call it tailings pile coin instead because it's been premined so
badly.

------
valdiorn
How do I get my coins? (I'm icelandic)

------
boon
Fascinating idea.

~~~
boon
Wait. How do I get down-voted for saying this a fascinating idea? Does that
even imply that I support it? Lame.

~~~
pikachu_is_cool
No, it's because you aren't following the guidelines. Post interesting
content. This isn't reddit.

~~~
Einstalbert
This truly is not reddit. I've noticed so many humor-less posts (not that
every site needs a sense of humor) and so many grammatical errors that it
really paints a picture; reddit is for bored, out of work english majors and
this place seems to be for enlightened, snooty programmers.

~~~
gnerd
I feel like on any given day I could fall into any one of those two camps.

~~~
ChristianBundy
I'm pretty damn sure I've got one foot in each camp.

