Thread by @APompliano

One of the biggest complaints that I hear across the bitcoin community is that something non-bitcoin is "pre-mined."

This is an interesting concept, but I'm not sure I fully understand both sides of the debate.

Here are a few thoughts & questions 👇🏼

A pre-mine is specifically referring to the creators of a token-based project setting aside (or exclusively mining) a portion of the total tokens for themselves and their team.

There are thousands of examples of this happening.

The critics argue that a pre-mine gives an unfair advantage to the creators of a project.

Also, a pre-mine arms the creators with coins that can be sold into the market early on as the price of the token increases (aka dumping on non-creator token holders).

The proponents of a pre-mine would argue that the creators need to be compensated for their time and effort.

The pre-mine also allows the creators to hire additional people to help them build their technology, product, and community.

One question that I keep coming back to is "Pre-mines are the standard in the equity world, so why do people freak out about it in crypto?"

For example, every bitcoin company founder pre-mined their equity and then didn't share the opportunity for upside with their customers.

No one questions a pre-mine of equity because it is understood that the creators/founders and their team need to be compensated for their efforts.

This is how capitalism has worked for a long time.

But in bitcoin and crypto, pre-mines have a negative connotation.

The best explanation I have heard is that pre-mines of for-profit, private companies are the default because of the capitalistic nature of the effort.

Pre-mines in "open-source" or "decentralized" systems go against the very goal of these open-source, decentralized efforts.

It appears that Satoshi pre-mined Bitcoin in some sense?

He/she launched Bitcoin on 1/3/09 and mined the first bitcoin.

On 1/8/09, he/she emailed the cypherpunk list announcing the bitcoin release.

5 days from launch to email announcing the release: satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptog…

So I have a few questions. These are genuine in nature and I would love to learn how others think about it:

1. Do others consider Satoshi to have pre-mined bitcoin? If not, what is difference?

2. What is main difference you see between pre-mine of equity vs pre-mine of a token?

Here are a few more questions about pre-mines:

3. Is there ever an appropriate time for a pre-mine?

4. If there is an appropriate time for a pre-mine, what is the standard way to conduct it?

5. What are the main risks with pre-mine?

6. Best argument against pre-mine?

I know this topic will be debated by a bunch of different people. I'm not sure there is one single "right" answer.

It is likely to be dependent on "what are you optimizing for?"

But I would appreciate opinions from anyone & everyone. All perspectives welcomed.

It would be wonderful if people tried to enter into the conversation in good faith.

My point in publishing this thread is to learn. There are many others that would like to learn here as well.

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to contribute thoughts & opinions 🙏🏼