Author's Note: The developer was given a chance to read and offer comment for this review pre-release but has declined. For full disclosure, the Paycon developer sent me 2000 coins, found here.
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What is Paycon?
Paycon is a parody of Paycoin (XPY) and was created by BitCoinTalk’s muddafudda. The original coin was PoW/PoS. It was created to satirize posts made by GAW’s CEO (Homero Joshua Garza) relating to Paycoin (XPY). The coin originally had a message that has since been continued by it’s current developer, BitCoinTalk’s Crestington:
Paycon is a parody, has no value, meaning or guarantees. If you mine it, shame on you.
Paycon was added to Cryptopia on January 4th and currently now resides on Cryptopia, C-Cex, and YoBit.
CON has buy support of just over 1 BTC across those exchanges and, as of this article, is actively developed by Crestington. Volume is low at around .1 to .15 BTC per day.
You can find both sources found on github below:
https://github.com/muddafudda/PayCon
https://github.com/Crestington/PayCon
Paycon, Proof of Work:
The Paycon blockchain started with block number 1 on 2015-01-02 19:05:42 with an initial reward of 250 CON. This block can be found here: Block #1. This was a mining block sent to PKJZUj7yxYG1Fi1qwLKoTw74fvcPqYHQtt. Block #3 was a mined block of 50000 CON sent to the same address.
int64_t nSubsidy = 5 * COIN;
if(pindexBest->nHeight == 2) // premine
nSubsidy = 50000 * COIN;
else if(pindexBest->nHeight < 5000)
nSubsidy = 250 * COIN;
else if(pindexBest->nHeight < 15000)
nSubsidy = 150 * COIN;
else if(pindexBest->nHeight < 30000)
nSubsidy = 75 * COIN;
else if(pindexBest->nHeight < 60000)
nSubsidy = 50 * COIN;
The announcement for the coin was made on 2015-01-02 06:35:02 (forum time). A subsequent post on 2015-01-02 06:35:34 (forum time) shows that the current block height of the coin was 27:
Since there were, for all intents and purposes, 25 blocks mined prior to the initial announcement we can calculate the actual pre-mine to be:
50000 + (24 * 250) = 56000 CON
The number of pre-mine blocks is assumed based on the first block not mined to the same address which would be Block # 26.
Paycon was originally written to be a hybrid X13 PoW/PoS coin with reducing PoW rewards over time as shown above. It is now a PoS only coin.
Paycon, Proof of Stake:
The original code (Paycon (CON) was transitioned to a PoS only coin after Block #60480 and has a maximum set reward per block (30) and a minimum coin age of two days:
nSubsidyLimit = 30 * COIN;
nTargetSpacing = 1 * 60; // 1 minute
nStakeMinAge = 2 * 24 * 60 * 60; // 2 days
nStakeMaxAge = 14 * 24 * 60 * 60; // 14 days
Due to the targeted maximum of 1 block per minute there is a coded maximum coin addition of 43200 coins per day. Due to timestamp variance this number can vary slightly from day to day.
Paycon, Distribution of money supply:
The top ten CON holders have 2016537.6318119 (as of Block # 123538) which is approximately 42% of the entire money supply. This equates to an average investment of (@ 0.00000262 BTC/CON) .53 BTC or, at $240 USD/BTC, ~$127USD inside the top ten addresses.
For comparison, as of 04/02/15 the #50 address holds just over 15214 coins and the #100 address holds just over 7395 coins.
As this seems to be the case with most monies, FIAT included, this is just a fact that deserves mention. BTC’s richlist shows the same tendency, as shown here.
With volume of ~.1 BTC per day and a buy depth of approximately 1 BTC for, ultimately, just under 6.3 million coins it is difficult to both invest into the top ten or divest out of it.
Paycon, the wallet (Windows):
First installation of the wallet, found here, leads to an error as shown below. This error does not repeat itself after the wallet is reopened. This was replicated across three different computers with two different operating systems (Windows 7 & Windows Server 2012) and was further verified with a clean install of Windows 7.
After an investor gets through the initial error and installs the wallet he will be greeted by the below wallet overview while the blockchain synchronizes. The entire current folder size at block # 126651, including the wallet, is approximately 136MB.
The wallet features options such as coin control, an in-wallet block explorer, and “CON for Charity”. While coin control is a common place option in most altcoins, the in-wallet explorer and the ability to send up to 50% of a block’s stake to a specified address is not as common.
The wallet, outside of the initial install error, is solid. It synchronizes without user interaction and there are no issues with the console commands.
Paycon, Staking:
Staking is turned on by default, which mirrors other PoS coins. Blocks stake to a maximum reward of 30 coins. The 2000 coins sent staked after 2.71 days with that minimum coinage of 2 days. As the money supply grows the same 2000 coin block will take longer to stake and will, at some future time, surpass the maximum coin age of 14 days.
This means that as the money supply grows it will take an ever increasing number of coins in a single block to stake. With a maximum reward built into the code, future inflation pressure will be reduced as address that would previously receive 30 coins per 2000 after 3 days would, at some time, require upwards of 10000 coins, and beyond, to achieve the same 30 coin reward in 3 days. This type of control is a proven method of minimizing the effects of the inflationary nature of PoS coins.
Final opinion: TWO AND THREE QUARTERS STARS
I was originally expecting to see a parody of some sort of the prime and/or orion controllers with differing PoS rewards to continue that parody. This is not the case as each wallet is tied to the same rate calculation and allows for all coin holders to have an equal chance at a stake.
While the coin is now being developed as a currency and not as much a parody, there still lies a 56000 coin pre-mine and 5376870 coins through PoW generated in just over thirty nine days. With a 30 coin max PoS generation per minute, based on target spacing, that could generate up to 15768000 additional coins per year and ~1684800 over that same 39 day period. That would leave early adopters with an approximate thirty one percent advantage over new investors. Taking into consideration the electrical cost of running the mining equipment this advantage is mitigated slightly but still must be accounted for.
The wallet’s initial installation error also must be taken into account, although this can most likely be corrected relatively quickly by finding the specified file that is called before it is installed.
Usability is an issue as there is currently no other use for the coin outside it’s conversion to BTC/FIAT and suffers from a low buy book and very low volume. What compounds this is that the only methods of adding coins to one’s holding are either through PoS or exchange purchases.
Even with all the above counting against it, Paycon has a fair and equitable code that anyone can be invested in using minimal capital, if there was enough depth in the market at or near it’s current buyer valued price of 0.00000291.
While the developer cannot code buy and/or sell orders into the exchanges, this lack of market depth and volume is the primary reason for taking stars away and is lost from the coin in it’s current market and usability state, not the code. The potential for CON to either rise or fall, with regards to market depth, will most likely be tied to getting the coin listed on a higher volume exchange, such as Bittrex or Cryptsy, and not to the continuation of Paycoin (XPY).
I also have to admit that I have a bias against pre-mined coins; even though this pre-mine was put into code as a parody. For that, and as a general rule, all pre-mined coins should lose at least 1/2 star… and more proportional to the size of the pre-mine.
I honestly had a difficult time going back and forth between 2.5 and 3 stars; ultimately deciding to take the middle ground. The coin’s code is solid from a “will this work and is this fair?” perspective. The largest con, pun intended in every way, with this coin is that there are so many other coins out there with the same usability; this also being the case for the coin it is imitating.
Personal note:
While this has no bearing on the above and would add absolutely no value to the coin, I would personally like to see an additional block of code dedicated to specific burn/impossible to use addresses that translate to astronomical staking rates to further this parody.
vancefox 
