Doubling Down on Decentralization
The Ycash block reward will soon be 100% decentralized, just like Bitcoin
By Howard Loo, Ycash Foundation
Five years ago a small band of revolutionaries brought forth a new cryptocurrency, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to proposition that all coins should be fairly distributed.
Now we are engaged in a great struggle, testing whether that grassroots currency — Ycash — or any currency so conceived after the launch Bitcoin, can long endure in world full of venture-capital-funded corporate coins and market-manipulated memecoins. Many abandoned us long ago; still more will abandon us going forward. The journey up to this point has been arduous; nothing suggests that the path forward will be any less so.
If Bitcoin has taught us anything, it is that maximal decentralization matters. When Zcash broke it’s founding promise to cap its centralized developer fund at 10% of the coin supply, we revolted and created Ycash to uphold that founding promise. The 5% allocation of the Ycash block reward to the Ycash Development Fund (YDF) and the commencement of that allocation at exactly block-height 570,000 (the moment of the Ycash-Zcash fork) were all carefully chosen such that 90% of all Ycash coins would be fairly distributed through the free market mining process.
But we can do better. The 5% allocation of the block reward to the Ycash Development Fund is still a form of centralization. Going forward, let us fully embrace decentralization. Today I am honored to announced that we are ending the 5% allocation to the Ycash Developer Fund in order to make the allocation of new coins completely — 100% — decentralized. Once the second block halving occurs in a few weeks, Ycash miners will enjoy 100% of the block reward. A miner may choose to donate to the YDF, but doing so will now be entirely at their own discretion.
I repeat: Going forward, 100% of all new Ycash coins will be awarded to Ycash miners. Just like Bitcoin.
The future of Ycash lies in hands of the billions of people who have never even heard of Ycash or Zcash, but as both Ycash and Zcash approach their respective second halvings, it is instructive that Ycash has chosen to fully embrace true decentralization while Zcash, in contrast, has yet again decided to continue allocating a full 20% of the block reward in a centralized manner.
My fellow Ycash brothers and sisters: From this doubling double on decentralization, let us take increased devotion to our cause. Let us here highly resolve that our past efforts shall not have been in vain, that Ycash shall have a new birth of freedom, and that a coin — of the people, by the people, for the people — shall not perish from the earth.
Thank you to Miodrag Popović for implementing the consensus changes that ended the mandatory allocation to the YDF.
