I have a friend, let’s call him “Dave”. Dave would like to get in on the ground floor of one of the many new bitcoin clones. But which one?
In fact, why not cut out the middle man and just make his own? Why not indeed?
Here’s how it works:
Steve wants to mine some DaveCoin, so he takes a guess at a number Dave has in his head. After a few tries, Steve says: “5?” and Dave says: “You’re right! You now own one DaveCoin!” Huzzah!
Now what? Dave keeps a spreadsheet which keeps track of who owns which DaveCoins and looks like this:
| DaveCoin ID | Owner |
| 5 | Steve |
Now what? The DaveCoin Marketplace!
Let’s say Steve has been kidnapped by pirates, yet again. Dread Pirate Topknot demands 20 Bitcoin as ransom which Steve doesn’t, so they make a deal and Steve give Topknot his 1 DaveCoin in return for release. How this happens is Steve takes a postcard and writes on it,
“Help! I’m being held hostage in a Postcard Factory! Please transfer one DaveCoin from my account to Topknot!”
Dave gets the postcard, and from underneath a pile of sleeping cats first updates the DaveCoin owners spreadsheet like so:
| DaveCoin ID | Owner |
| 5 | TopKnot |
…and updates the DaveCoin transaction spreadsheet like so:
| Date | DaveCoin ID | Seller | Buyer |
| 4/1/2022 | 5 | Steve | TopKnot |
Now TopKnot has one DaveCoin he can use to buy Rhum and black powder in the same fashion.
So what’s in it for Dave?
Simple. For every DaveCoin transaction he credits himself a 5% fee on the total and updates the spreadsheets accordingly.
Wait? How do I know any of these numbers add up?
Easy. Anyone can view the ledgers online at any time and perform their own audit to see if the numbers add up.
What? How do I know this is secure?
Any system that relies primarily on cats, postcards and public transparency to work is inherently more secure than anything your phone is doing right now.
Ok, I want in. How do I get a DaveCoin?
I’m thinking of a number… Any guesses on what it might be?