All Things Alt: Feathercoin Forks and a Joint Crypto Charity

A joint effort to raise money ahead of the holiday season is currently underway, combining the crowdfunding capabilities of both the litecoin and dogecoin communities.

The organizers said in a message on the dogecoin subreddit that the effort is the first joint donation drive since dogecoin instituted auxiliary proof-of-work and merge mining with litecoin began.

Late last month, feathercoin officially switched over to NeoScrypt, a new type of memory-intensive hashing algorithm that supporters say will protect the coin from the influence of ASIC miners.

The move, announced at the beginning of the summer, comes amid both the broadening deployment of second-generation scrypt ASICs and a shift away from coin projects based on litecoin's approach.

According to a post on the official feathercoin forum, founder Peter Bushnell outlined why the team wanted to push out the new algorithm.

"As the majority of people buying Scrypt ASICs are not doing so to mine feathercoin and the fact that some very large ASIC suppliers will be releasing products soon it seems sensible to move algorithm now before we face the challenges that hit many SHA-256 alts when the SHA-256 ASICs hit. We are moving to a new tier of hashing where feathercoin can be the leading coin."

As outlined in the NeoScrypt press release, the algorithm seeks to make it economically impractical to develop mining products that can generate large hash rates.

The rising tide of scamcoins and pump-and-dump schemes has led to suggestions that altcoin investors need to be more proactive in their research, scrutinizing of new coin launches and, in general, more careful about what they do.

Despite the risks, some continue to invest in coin launches and initial coin offerings that carry all the warning signs, including inflated returns and unrealistic expectations of public acceptance.

"All bagholders just bought rektcoin and hoping for a pump and quick profit, just like all other shitcoins you are buying: it doesn't matter what the coin brings.you are just hoping for a whale who will pump it and you can make a quick profit. I guess no whale pumped rekt so you all got rekt! Including us!".