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In progress

 

Mining

The process of generating new coins. Bitcoin uses proof of work, which lets anybody make new coins. A popular alternative is proof of stake, which uses less electricity but restricts minting to wallets that already have coins. In the future, at some point, most mining is likely to be done by 'useful algorithm' coins, like Gridcoin, Primecoin, Gapcoin etc which do scientific calculations for research in order to mint new coins. A coin that starts with proof of stake plus a useful algorithm is likely to have an advantage going forward. An indigenous language coin could start with a certain number of wallets, distributed to fluent Native speakers, that can generate interest but whose original coins could not be spent. This would protect the initial wallets from hackers and let the coin supply develop slowly while giving long term security to holders of the initial wallets. 

Premine

A coin can start with any number of coins already minted, and these starting coins can be distributed as the developers like. In most cases a premine indicates the coin is not entirely fairly made, it starts with a pile of coins that a few people control. Indigenous language coins are one of the few exceptions. ;"An indigenous language coin ideally should have a large initial coin supply, distributed entirely to fluent Native speakers. Once those coins are made additional coins could be made by one of the mining algorithms. 

Emission curve

This refers to how fast the coin supply grows. A coin can start with no premine, then issue a certain number of coins per block or per day, then after a year for example the number of new coins per block cuts in half. Initially there might be 100 coins per block. After 1 year 50 coins. After 2 years 25 coins etc. For indigenous language coins it might be best to issue most of the coins outright to fluent Native speakers, then emit coins slowly as the economy grew. Those initial holders of coins would have to discuss among themselves how many coins they should release into wallets not controlled by them. For example should they issue a certain number of coins to any person who demonstrates adequate fluency in their language etc. 

Liquidity

Is the degree to which a currency can be traded easily for other currencies, assets, commodities etc. A currency needs to have some overlap with other currencies in order to be useful. Exchanges provide a free market valuation of each currency relative to others, and the ability to buy or sell one currency against another. There are other ways to get liquidity as well. If an indigenous language coin gains some usage locally, if some people use it within a local community to buy groceries for example, the grocery seller will acquire a supply of the coin and will look for additional ways to use the local currency to buy the products being sold. Indigenous language coins are likely to have good liquidity and will probably increase in value substantially for their first several years, or longer. 

 

 

~Counterfeiting~

One of the most important aspects of any currency is resistance to counterfeiting.

Among minted coins, including regular and cryptographic currencies, there is only one currency that is completely counterfeit proof at this point in time. That is coins made from the densest elements.

Iridium, Osmium, Rhodium etc are metals that are the densest stable materials known so far. A coin made from one of those heaviest metals can quickly be tested for density mass/volume and determined to either be one of those metals, or not. There is no cheap material that can be substituted for them to make counterfeits.A person could make a mix of the 3rd heaviest and the 1st heaviest that would pass for density as the 2nd heaviest, but there are other tests that could easily find that out. 

As far as cryptographic currencies, which this site discusses, security relies on cryptographic functions which numerous governments have "approved", which might make some people cautious. Are there flaws in the major algorithms used for digital currency? The answer to that is not widely known, but for the time being they are secure in practice. 

Should a currency have contingency plans in case it becomes obvious that an algorithm is broken? Of course. There are other ways though to secure a currency that might be safer.

Pascal coin uses accounts that are protected by passwords, rather than wallets whose keys are generated using cryptography. Perhaps a coin that used entirely proof of stake to mine, and which had accounts "issued" rather than generated would be more secure for an economy that did not need unlimited numbers of wallets. 

A coin that was initially "issued" only to speakers of a language, and mined only by proof of stake, could be distributed by those people as they saw fit.

 

~Rollbacks~

Several coins have had major hacks that led to discussions of whether it was proper to roll back a blockchain, to undo some fraudulent transactions. 

There is a philosophical argument that a natural currency should not be "changeable". The problem with applying that to digital currencies is that it reflects the wishful thinking that digital currencies are natural currencies, rather than the fact that they are creations by people acting with a motive. 

A language currency should respect that the currency was made to have utility as a currency, and not to pretend to be some natural creation. So probably it would be good to have a clear policy that any transaction could be cancelled by consensus, or anything else could be done, rolling back the blockchain or whatever, by consensus or to preserve the intentions of the people holding the currency against attackers. 

 

~In progress~

 

One of the important differences between crypto and fiat is long term stability. 

Fiat economies are designed to manage scarcity. Those economies use a pseudo commodity, or currency, that a) must be enforced, b) can be diluted, and c) produces nothing. Fiat currency is not a real commodity, you can't eat, drink, smoke or otherwise use it. It does not produce any commodities directly and is subject to being monopolized. The only positive thing that can be said about fiat is that it allows a more easy exchange of wealth. If people used gold or silver as currency the economy would develop slowly. 

Crypto currencies are still in their infancy, but already there are coins that do scientific calculating, Gridcoin, Primecoin, Riecoin, Gapcoin, Foldingcoin, Curecoin etc, and within a few years most high tech jobs will probably involve 'human mining' of science coins. This will allow very rapid development of many technologies and, in effect, the coins of the future will be producing the most important commodity of any technological society. It will be like a resource that not only replenishes but actually increases in quality. The opposite of 'managing scarcity'. 

In Progress. This will be a list of coins as they develop. 

"It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand."

~ Apache