I disagree vehemently with the characterization of Nyan-cat being the most annoying internet meme since the Hampster Dance. Surely the "Crazy Frog" (a.k.a. Annoying Thing) could be awarded that accolade.
Sorry, there's an article?
Nyan Cat, the most annoying internet meme since the Hampster Dance , has spawned its very own Bitcoin clone. Nyan Cat appeared in 2011 in this video depicting a cat shaped like a pop tart streaming an endless rainbow from its rear parts as it flies through space. The background music is a Japanese pop song, which may explain …
> Many coin, very whimsy
Many coin, many creators designing roll-off algorithms like bitcoin so they (and their friends) can mine the first few hundred coins very quickly before it is public, and then open it up to the public on the hope their random pile of bits suddenly appreciates in value.
All of the coins all verging on ponzi scheme type behavior - those in first are funded by those joining later - albeit they are up front with how the algorithm works so no one should be taken by surprise.
I'm sticking with a pile of gold.
So a few people get rich; those who had the best idea (created the most popular/valuable option), and those who supported it the earliest; and most people just get a modicum of value from its existence. That's pretty much the way capitalism seems to work AFAICT.
Don't let jealousy or envy of the fortunate cloud your judgement of what could be a good thing for human society as a whole.
And by that I mean Dogecoin.
One snake oil salesman rakes in the money and soon everyone thinks they'll have a go too. Minimal risk and, should it catch on, they get very rich.
I imagine most of us would have liked to have been in on the BTC game early on, to have created huge amounts of money from nothing. Greed and envy are powerful motivators to jump on the next bandwagon that rolls by. Everyone knows you don't get rich by joining a pyramid scheme; you get rich by starting one. The promise of riches beyond our wildest dreams prevents us seeing the true game being played.
Probably most seriously proposed by Hayek: http://mises.org/books/denationalisation.pdf
http://mises.org/daily/1854 is a genuinely enlightening article on the matter. I think the premise is good: more competition and choice promotes a *stable*, *counterfeit-free* and *convenient*.
I think bitcoin only really satisfies one to two of the above and fails almost catastrophically at being stable, probably the most important aspect of a currency.
The Nyancoin crypto should be based on playing the Nyan Cat music at high volume into a room, quantizing the reverb and distortion with a microphone, and then seeding the encryption with those parameters. For this to be perfect, the encryption technique needs just enough mathematical flaws that Nyancoin miners will go absolutely insane attempting to model and reproduce them.
Cryptocurrency is currency, and to be taken seriously - bitcoin is working hard to been seen as legitimate and secure. So why make some joke currency that is likely to disappear? OK, that might be fun, but why would anyone actually buy any of such a currency when it might not be here next week (like the Kanye one)?
"So why make some joke currency that is likely to disappear?"
Probably cos geeks have always liked an inside/practical joke based around techy-type stuff. LOLCODE, the programming language based on lolspeak, is but one pertinent example.
Besides, throw enough (rainbow coloured) poo at the wall and some will stick. Who knows? Maybe Nyancoin will be the one *-coin to rule them all. I doubt it, though...