How Aliencoin was born

Aliencoin
Aliencoin
Nov 3 · 5 min read

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Alien’s Origins

Aliencoin was born out of an “accident”.

One night in 2018, I decided that I wanted to learn how to code a cryptocurrency. I didn’t want to be a mere investor anymore. I wanted to leave a visible mark in the blockchain universe. What better idea than looking at the universe itself?

When I coded my first ERC-20 token on the Ethereum mainnet, I though: “Why not Aliencoin? Nobody has matched aliens and the blockchain! How come?”

And that was it. Aliencoin was the name I inscribed on the Ethereum blockchain, forever…

First of all, I wanted my ERC-20 token to resemble more the first cryptocurrencies, that were built around a community. For this reason, I didn’t include any ICO contract address in the code. I didn’t want any ICO associated with Aliencoin. First you build the community, then you ask for funds. Moreover, we all know the reputation that ICOs have nowadays…

The token was ready, but I needed pals to test some transactions. Here, my business partner Nicholas Jackman came in with his team. They simply replied to my post on the Facebook group “Blockchain Island”. It was an amazing collaboration from Malta to Serbia! Internet used at its fullest and most noble potential! The guys put a lot of enthusiasm and encouraged me to carry on, seeing a great potential in the idea.

The Conspiracy

Of course, the process wasn’t all that linear. We needed to find what an Aliencoin could be useful for. The first scenario was to spark a new conspiracy theory according to which the blockchain technology was created by aliens. At first, the idea sounded effective. I was wondering how come that it hadn’t been proposed yet! But after thinking carefully, the concept looked far-fetched. The blokchain is indeed based on our computing system, based in turn in a decimal numeric system. We use a decimal numerical system because we have 10 digits. It’s improbable that another civilization uses our same computing system, resulting into a total incompatibility. This would make software transfers between civilizations impossible. Nah, Satoshi Nakamoto didn’t fit the ET role…

Help SETI!

The second idea regarded the biggest problem of the proof-of-work cryptoccurencies. These currencies require increasing computational power that created a real GPU bubble. Prices for GPUs were becoming unaffordable for most people and the major cryptocurrencies were draining computational power from many collaborative projects, like for example SETI@HOME!

Aliens would have never given us the blockchain technology, for the simple fact that this technology was driving humans away from communicating with the universe! Why searching for an improbable WOW signal when I can make tons of money with my computer? The question was legit and most of the nerds gave the same answer: forget ET, let’s mine Bitcoin instead!

That’s how we introduced the proof-of-contribution concept. You contribute for a cause? Great! Here are your Aliencoins!

What people had to do? They simply needed to install SETI@HOME on their computers, taking a screenshot while running the software and send the image to our team along with their Ethereum wallet address, where we would have sent 500 ALN.

But again, with our surprise, the idea didn’t get traction. We met some people that even preferred to buy our tokens rather than install the SETI software and getting their coins for free!

Learning by failing

Business, more than anything else is trial and attempt learning. Fail much, fail fast, fail cheap. That’s what we’ve been doing at Aliencoin.

These failures are what helped us to redefine the Aliencoin model and find a possible path to the creation of a profitable and sustainable business.

We started from these questions:

  1. If I believe in Aliens, what platform would I like to use?
  2. What other needs would I have?
  3. Do I have all that I need concentrated in one place?
  4. How much am I ready to spend for aliens?
  5. How strong is my faith?

Just as incredible as it was that nobody associated aliens and blockchain, it’s even more incredible that as of now there are no serious platforms where people passionate about aliens and strange things in general can share content, blog, connect, trade all in one spot. There are several small communities spread across the internet, but without a central hub. This is a problem especially for those businesses that sell merchandise dedicated to UFOs and aliens.

Moreover, some of these people might feel lonely, for the simple reason that who believes in aliens usually is mocked. These people tend to hide their believes or to be ashamed of. What if we provide them with a space where they can express freely and connect with like-minded people?

Plus, alien believers have a strong faith in their beliefs, as demonstrated during the Storm Area 51 event. They took the event seriously, traveled miles, faced the harsh desert conditions and spent much money to gather in Nevada!

Beyond Imagination

And what else these people might like, after we gave them a social media, a market place and a blogging space? The possibilities are endless, but the most powerful we can think of could change history!

What if we use the Alienchain to launch special ICOs to fund space missions directly aimed at discovering life on other planets? Such a tool could revive the Titan Mare Explorer. This mission aimed at exploring the methane lakes on Titan, the Saturn moon which has high chances of hosting some basic form of life. If we send a probe on these lakes, we could potentially find some forms of life and change history once for all. This mission was turned down in a NASA contest during the late stages of a competition, meaning that the project is more than viable. What if common people could use the power of the blockchain to fund this dream and translate it into reality without the need of public money?

Here the impossibilities are endless!

Alessandro Giuntini, Aliencoin founder, believes so much in this idea that he eve tattooed the Aliencoin logo on his car!

Sources

Aliencoin on Etherscan

Aliencoin Site

What is Aliencoin?

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