Few topics inspire as much passion as the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The natural right of a citizen to keep and bear arms is both political and contentious.
Despite judicial clarification gun control will remain a sensitive issue as ‘pro-gun’ lobbyists continue to engage ideologically with ‘gun-control’ lobbyists.
The ambiguity around definitions within the amendment and the original intention of the framers does not help. Although, given the divisive nature of the topic, crystal clear clarification probably wouldn’t help.
In this spirit of ‘pro-gun’ constitutional conservatism we now have ‘Guncoin’. If Bitcoin is a libertarian wet dream then we really should have seen Guncoin coming. Perhaps some did.
The freedom movement itself, in a U.S. context, focuses on Constitutional principles. The Constitution is a concise document. But two areas it most certainly covers are money and guns. Control of both are essential protections from the tyranny of state.
Conceptually Guncoin weds two of the freedom movement’s most popular tools: guns and cryptocurrency. So, on the face of it, the existence of Guncoin makes sense.
Guncoin claims to exist out of a real public need. In the United States it is very difficult to find conventional payment processors willing to serve online firearm dealers. When a third party payment processor is willing to process a transaction it involves an incredibly high fee.
Guncoin therefore promises to increase competition in online firearms distribution. This will be achieved by providing a payment option that removes the need for any third parties.
Of course, Bitcoin or any existing alt-coin could fulfill this function. But Bitcoin does not make any obvious political statement. By contrast, Guncoin is brazen in its embrace of political and ideological principles.
Technologically Guncoin (GUN) is a Litecoin clone, utilising Scrypt algorithm. GPU miners currently mining Litecoin, Dogecoin and other Scrypt coins can effortlessly switch to Guncoin with their existing equipment.
An upper limit of five hundred million coins will ever be mined. It should be noted that there is a ten percent pre-mine. The stated intention of the developers is to set aside this amount as rewards to contributors.
Guncoin promises to remove the friction in purchasing firearms and related products online. The intention is to have transactions initiated and confirmed the same day. Eventually the developers hope to see Guncoin accepted by all firearms related businesses.
The core development team consists of a Project Manager, Web and Graphics Designer, two Developers and an Advertising Specialist, all of whom claim to be experienced with buying and selling firearms via online auctions such as gunbroker.com.
In the eyes of a Bitcoin core developer Gavin Andresen, alt-coins are a distraction and harmful to the overall ecosystem. They act to effectively increase the overall money supply and co-opt development talent that could be contributing to Bitcoin’s core code.
Nevertheless, this proliferation of alt-coins is exactly what we’re seeing, all over the internet. Coins are emerging that fit specific and niche community needs and occupy certain spaces online. For example Dogecoin is evolving into a tipping coin for news forums like Reddit.
Perhaps Guncoin can evolve to fulfil certain needs in its own target community. Once born its evolution will take its own path, largely out of the control of its core developers. This is healthy.
The intention of Guncoin’s developers now is to cater to the gun enthusiasts of America, then beyond.
To achieve this goal Guncoin developers are now running a crowd funding campaign with the immediate goal of raising a minimum $130,000. The funds will be used to build an extremely strong web infrastructure and community backing for Guncoin together with a heavy marketing strategy for the public release.
Longer term the core developers hope to foster and inspire a community that will go on and present retailers with options for accepting Guncoin directly.
Guncoin will be officially released to the public on May 1st of this year, regardless of how well the funding campaign does. The fundraising campaign will last for the next 40+ days.
There is already a lot of controversy about Guncoin and it has only been advertised for a few days.
If you are interested, please check out the Facebook page and the Fundraising Campaign for all of the information.