Q & A with New York Coin

New York Coin (“NYCoin”) has been around since March 6, 2014, and the NYCoin community is unaware of who implemented the NewYorkCoin genesis block. In mid-2017, some miners and community members decided to “awaken” the coin once again by committing resources to the development of NYCoin. With numerous businesses that accept NYCoin, and news surfacing about NYCoin it seems that they have succeeded! We are fortunate to have James Burrell II who serves in an advisory capacity to the NYCoin community!

Thanks for putting some time aside to answer these interview questions! Tell us about yourself, where are you from, how did you get involved with cryptocurrency, and eventually NewYorkCoin.

“I’ve been observing cryptocurrencies since there were only two: Bitcoin and Litecoin. I’ve always been a tech enthusiast and I was a stock trader prior to becoming a lawyer. My interest in crypto accelerated as I learned about the potential of “smart contracts”, which I saw as a potential competitor to the legal profession. From this, I started to dive deep into learning the technical and practical aspects of various cryptocurrencies and platforms to the extent that I created my own ERC20 token for educational purposes only [Full disclosure: I never offered it in an Initial Coin Offering (“ICO”) however you can find it on Etherscan]. As I began to buy and sell cryptos, I stumbled upon NYCoin last summer when I was looking for a new opportunity. NYCoin at that time had a market cap of around $500,000 and after checking the Github activity, I realized that I may have found a coin that I can help improve and increase my knowledge base in the process.”

How long have you been involved in the NYC community and how did the current team come to be?

“The NYCoin community was very small last summer and as I started to strategize with a few community members regarding obtaining mobile wallets, scheduling Meetups, and finding developers to improve NYCoin’s codebase, more and more community members began to join. There’s no formal membership process other than having an enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies. I think that massive run-ups in cryptos during Q4 2017 and January 2018 helped attract members to the community.”

Consider that I am an average Joe that you meet at a gas station and we had a small talk while pumping gas in our cars. I have heard about cryptocurrency and I am looking to diversify my portfolio. How would you explain NYC in a simplistic way for an average Joe like myself to understand?

“If you have a portfolio, especially one that includes crypto, you’re likely not an ‘Average Joe’. That being said, I advise everyone not to invest in crypto until they’ve reached a certain level of competency in technology and financial markets. The technical competency requires at a minimum an understanding of (1) the blockchain, (2) block rewards, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, NYCoin, or whatever reward that’s given to those who support the network, i.e. miners, (3) the distinction between an ERC20 token or a coin with a native blockchain, and (4) public address and private keys. Financial competency requires an understanding of liquidity (volume of the underlying crypto at certain prices) and how to perform due diligence beyond a cursory “Google” search or skim of a white paper. I would add that you should never purchase an amount of cryptocurrency from which you’re unable to sustain a total loss. One does not need to look back too far to see that although that we use the internet for almost every aspect of our lives, most of the high-flier internet investments of the early 2000s are worthless. The same can (and will likely) happen in crypto. If the Average Joe has obtained the requisite technical and financial competency, NYCoin will appear like a no-brainer.”

NYC boasts to have 20x faster transaction times than Bitcoin and 5x faster transaction times than Litecoin, what makes this achievable?

These claims are supported by the codebase. NYCoin’s code causes blocks to be solved on average at about 30 seconds, which is how some have calculated the speed comparison to Bitcoin and Litecoin.

I assume that the many merchants that accept NYC have done so based on the practicality of the speed and no fees. Fees usually are for paying miners, how are miners compensated if there is no transaction fees?

Regarding “no-fees”, there is still debate regarding the fees since in very rare occasions some community members have witnessed a fee added to a transaction, for example as a disincentive against dust-spamming. That being said, the large block reward, 10,000 NYC, is what likely keeps miners incentivized to maintain the NYCoin chain.

If an individual wanted to actively get involved in the NYC community, where could one become a miner and help NYC move forward?

Getting involved in the community is as simple as joining one of the social channels and learning more about NYCoin at https://nycoin.community. If someone wants to mine, they should have a base knowledge in mining. If not, there are plenty of resources on the internet to help explain the basics of mining.

There does not seem to be a CEO or founder which is understandable seeing as though no one knows who started/implemented the genesis block. With that being said, is there a current team leader that makes the final decisions, or does the community vote on what they should do next? We see a misunderstanding in the bitcoin community that can be seen with the many forks that.

There’s no CEO since NYCoin is not a company. We as a community try to operate via informal consensus. We do add weight to certain community members’ votes if those community members are active contributors to the NYCoin community, as developers, marketers, or strategy. We hope there won’t be a fork but no one can guarantee since this is crypto and the idea is decentralized governance.

Where do you see NYC five years from now and what is the roadmap to achieving that goal?

Our current roadmap only stretches out to Q1 2019, but in 5 years, I hope to see NYCoin being used as a payment or value transfer alternative in every continent on the planet.

Where can an interested party get NYC and store it?

I would direct your readers to the FAQ section of the https://nycoin.community website, choose a wallet, and check out the exchanges listed on it. For now, NYCoin can only be obtained through purchasing from those who have it, exchanging a cryptocurrency for NYCoin on the exchanges that list it, receiving NYCoin in exchange for goods & services (check out https://nycoinmarket.com/ ), or mining.

Anything else that NYC would like to tell the Altcoin Community?

Our community is not a “moon-Lambo” community so if that’s what you’re looking for, NYCoin may not be the coin for you. Instead, we are a global community of crypto-enthusiasts who pride themselves on global collaboration, respect, and education. We see New York City as the melting pot of the World, where thousands of languages are spoken and cultures from east to west interact with each other daily. NYCoin is the cryptocurrency equivalent of that culture.