What is Reddcoin (RDD)?

Technological advancement in the last few decades has led to the creation of some new industries in the world.

A very notable one is the social media industry. The development of social media platforms has been rapid, but there are a number of human activities that are not accurately structured on those platforms. An example of this is reward for content.

Good content on social networks can be liked, shared, and responded to, but can rarely be tipped. There are incentives on some social media platforms like Facebook Cash and Snapchat Snapcash, but they are limited to their respective platforms.

The need to create a system of tipping that transcends individual platforms is the driving force behind the creation of Reddcoin.

Reddcoin is a cryptocurrency with a peer-to-peer payment system that makes it possible to send and receive money (in RDD coins) on social networks (in the form of readers rewarding content creators) without transaction fees.

What Does Reddcoin Do?

Reddcoin basically allows people to receive tips for their social media content.

Social media content creators open their content to tips via Reddcoin by downloading a Reddcoin wallet and setting it up with their social media accounts. The system is already enabled on the following platforms: Twitter, Reddit, and Twitch.

The goal of Reddcoin is to be the official social media “like.” Instead of it being an ordinary “like,” it would be a “like” with a monetary value.

Reddcoin is also designed to be used to purchase items on websites and play games (such as FortuneJack). Reddcoin is looking to extend into other social networks (such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram) and create a hub to manage all the tipping accounts.

Reddcoin can also be staked for passive income due to its method of generating new coins, known as minting. This is different from mining (as with Bitcoin) because it consumes much less energy, and anybody can participate in it with any device.

Consensus

Reddcoin’s consensus model is known as Proof-of-Stake Velocity (PoSV). PoSV is different from Proof-of-Work (PoW) as it eliminates the need for vast energy consumption, which makes it possible for every Reddcoin user to mint the cryptocurrency from their home devices.

The PoSV is based on Proof-of-Stake (PoS) but with a significant difference. PoSV is unlike PoS in that it has a non-linear coin aging (as opposed to the linear coin aging of PoS).

PoSV is innovatively designed to encourage ownership (stake) and activity (velocity) by giving Staking Rewards. The more coins a wallet contains and the longer it is open online, the higher the chances of getting a Staking Reward.

History of Reddcoin

Reddcoin was announced on January 20, 2014 as a new PoW cryptocurrency, aimed at full integration with social media. The project raised over $100,000 from an Initial Public Coin Offering (IPCO) to support the development, and released 5.45 billion reddcoins to investors.

Reddcoin was officially released on February 2, 2014.

On April 29, 2014, an announcement was made that Reddcoin would transition from PoW to PoSV. PoSV is a new algorithm designed to secure the Reddcoin network. It was first utilized by Peercoin.

PoSV was implemented in the Reddcoin protocol on July 2014, and the transition was made from PoW to PoSV on August 1, 2014. This reduced the Reddcoin hardcap from 109 billion to 27 billion, with 5% annual inflation.

Developments are still ongoing as the project looks to integrate with more social networks and make its platform easier to use. The Reddcoin social wallet already integrates Twitter feeds, Reddit feeds, and IRC chats.

The Reddcoin Team

The Reddcoin team is relatively small and operates internationally. The project is headed by John Nash (CTO and Lead Developer), Jay Laurence (COO and Core Developer), and Chris Whitesock (CSO). The team basically consists of 13 members and they are spread across Europe, North America, and Australia.

Reddcoin Roadmap

The Reddcoin roadmap is divided into short term, medium term, and long term.

The short-term plans for Reddcoin include a browser extension known as Redd-ID (which makes it possible to connect various social media identities to one Reddcoin account), launching of Reddcoin on Instagram, a webpage for tracking network metrics, and more tutorial videos of how to use Reddcoin.

The medium-term plans include a mobile social wallet for iOS and Android, a webpage for tracking funds and donations, PoSV 2.0, Ledger Nano support, cross-platform web wallet, social broadcast, and new features added to the desktop wallet. The short and medium-term plans are expected to be achieved before the end of 2018.

The long-term plans are developments that would take place 2019 and beyond. This includes partnerships with gaming industries, cross-platform staking, and integration with more social media platforms.

Challenges and Competitors

Reddcoin is not a cryptocurrency that is much talked about, but it has been in existence since 2014 (which is quite a long time in the crypto industry).

While the project moves gradually, a number of other cryptocurrencies have been created to reward online content with a faster development and adoption rate. Although each cryptocurrency is different in design and outlook, the problem they solve looks similar to the layman.

Examples of other cryptocurrencies in this sphere include BAT, Stellar, and Steem.

Reddcoin is different in that it plans to integrate with existing social media platforms that are not blockchain related and allow seamless tipping to reward content. This represents a further challenge, as most traditional social media platforms do not favor cryptocurrencies at the moment.

How to Buy and Store Reddcoins (RDD)

Reddcoin can be bought on a number of exchanges such as Bittrex, Cryptopia, Upbit, and Yobit.

To store reddcoins safely, it is advisable to transfer the coins from the exchange to a Reddcoin wallet. A Reddcoin wallet can be downloaded here.

The price of Reddcoin is currently $0.003, having suffered the same downtrend as most other cryptocurrencies so far in 2018. The total supply of coins is about 28.8 billion today, but new coins are being continually minted, as there is no upper limit to the number of coins that can be created.

The historical price trend can be seen below:

Conclusion

Tipping is already a popular concept in the physical world when it comes to services rendered. Thus, it is not a far stretch that services rendered in information online should also be rewarded by tips, and in certain online communities a tipping culture has already gained traction.

Reddcoin hopes to achieve this integration to social media through its cryptocurrency. However, considering its preliminary state of progress, the cryptocurrency still has a long way to go to achieve its goal.