ShamrockCoin is a consensus network that enables a new payment system and a completely digital money. It is a decentralized social gaming terminal based payment network that is powered by users with no central authority. From a user perspective, ShamrockCoin is pretty much like cash for the Internet.

ShamrockCoin was inspired by a group of developers with an emphasis in social gaming and mining. Unlike other crypto currencies where it takes tons of code and thousands of nodes we kept it simple and secure.

ShamrockCoin is controlled by all ShamrockCoin social players and users around the world. While developers are improving the software, they can’t force a change in the ShamrockCoin protocol because all software can’t be changed. In order to stay compatible with each other, all users need to use software complying with the same rules. ShamrockCoin can only work correctly with a complete consensus among all users. Therefore, all users and developers have a strong incentive to protect this consensus.

From a user perspective, ShamrockCoin is nothing more than a printed paper receipt that provides a personal ShamrockCoin paper wallet and allows a user to send and receive ShamrockCoin with them. Behind the scenes, the ShamrockCoin network is sharing a public ledger called the “block chain”. This ledger contains every transaction ever processed, allowing a user’s computer to verify the validity of each transaction. The authenticity of each transaction is protected by digital signatures corresponding to the sending addresses, allowing all users to have full control over sending ShamrockCoin from their own ShamrockCoin addresses. In addition, anyone can process transactions using the computing power of specialized hardware and earn a reward in ShamrockCoin for this service. This is often called “mining”.

Yes. There is a growing number of businesses and individuals using digital currency. This includes brick and mortar businesses like restaurants, apartments, law firms, and popular online services such as Namecheap, WordPress, and Reddit. While digital currency remains a relatively new phenomenon, it is growing fast. At the end of August 2013, the value of all ShamrockCoins in circulation exceeded US$ 1.5 billion with millions of dollars worth of ShamrockCoins exchanged daily.

As payment for goods or services. Purchase ShamrockCoin at a currency exchange. Exchange ShamrockCoin with someone near you. Earn ShamrockCoins through competitive social mining. While it may be possible to find individuals who wish to sell ShamrockCoins in exchange for a credit card or PayPal payment, most exchanges do not allow funding via these payment methods. This is due to cases where someone buys ShamrockCoins with PayPal, and then reverses their half of the transaction. This is commonly referred to as a chargeback.

Payment freedom – It is possible to send and receive any amount of money instantly anywhere in the world at any time. No bank holidays. No borders. No imposed limits. ShamrockCoin allows its users to be in full control of their money. Very low fees – ShamrockCoin payments are currently processed with either no fees or small fees. Users may include fees with transactions to receive priority processing, which results in faster confirmation of transactions by the network. Additionally, merchant processors exist to assist merchants in processing transactions, converting ShamrockCoins to fiat currency and depositing funds directly into merchants’ bank accounts daily. As these services are based on ShamrockCoins, they can be offered for much lower fees than with PayPal or credit card networks. Fewer risks for merchants – ShamrockCoin transactions are secure, irreversible, and do not contain customers’ sensitive or personal information. This protects merchants from losses caused by fraud or fraudulent chargebacks, and there is no need for PCI compliance. Merchants can easily expand to new markets where either credit cards are not available or fraud rates are unacceptably high. The net results are lower fees, larger markets, and fewer administrative costs. Security and control – ShamrockCoins users are in full control of their transactions; it is impossible for merchants to force unwanted or unnoticed charges as can happen with other payment methods. ShamrockCoins payments can be made without personal information tied to the transaction. This offers strong protection against identity theft. ShamrockCoins users can also protect their money with backup and encryption. Transparent and neutral – All information concerning the ShamrockCoins money supply itself is readily available on the block chain for anybody to verify and use in real-time. No individual or organization can control or manipulate the ShamrockCoins protocol because it is cryptographically secure.  

Degree of acceptance – Many people are still unaware of ShamrockCoin. Every day, more businesses accept digital currency because they want the advantages of doing so, but the list remains small and still needs to grow in order to benefit. Volatility – The total value of ShamrockCoins in circulation and the number of businesses using ShamrockCoin are still very small compared to what they could be. Therefore, relatively small events, trades, or business activities can significantly affect the price. In theory, this volatility will decrease as ShamrockCoin markets and the technology matures. Never before has the world seen a start-up currency, so it is truly difficult (and exciting) to imagine how it will play out. Ongoing development – ShamrockCoin software is still in beta with many incomplete features in active development. New tools, features, and services are being developed to make ShamrockCoin more secure and accessible to the masses. Some of these are still not ready for everyone. Most ShamrockCoins businesses are new and still offer no insurance. In general, ShamrockCoins is still in the process of maturing.

ShamrockCoins is as virtual as the credit cards and online banking networks people use everyday. ShamrockCoins can be used to pay online and in physical stores just like any other form of money. ShamrockCoins can also be exchanged in physical form such as the Casascius coins, but paying with a mobile phone usually remains more convenient. ShamrockCoins balances are stored in a large distributed network, and they cannot be fraudulently altered by anybody. In other words, ShamrockCoins users have exclusive control over their funds and ShamrockCoins cannot vanish just because they are virtual.

When a user loses his wallet, it has the effect of removing money out of circulation. Lost ShamrockCoins still remain in the block chain just like any other ShamrockCoins. However, lost ShamrockCoins remain dormant forever because there is no way for anybody to find the private key(s) that would allow them to be spent again. Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer ShamrockCoins are available, the ones that are left will be in higher demand and increase in value to compensate.

To the best of our knowledge, ShamrockCoins have not been made illegal by legislation in most jurisdictions. However, some jurisdictions (such as Argentina and Russia) severely restrict or ban foreign currencies. Other jurisdictions (such as Thailand) may limit the licensing of certain entities such as ShamrockCoin exchanges. Regulators from various jurisdictions are taking steps to provide individuals and businesses with rules on how to integrate this new technology with the formal, regulated financial system. For example, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau in the United States Treasury Department, issued non-binding guidance on how it characterizes certain activities involving virtual currencies.

ShamrockCoin is money, and money has always been used both for legal and illegal purposes. Cash, credit cards and current banking systems widely surpass ShamrockCoin in terms of their use to finance crime. ShamrockCoin can bring significant innovation in payment systems and the benefits of such innovation are often considered to be far beyond their potential drawbacks. ShamrockCoin is designed to be a huge step forward in making money more secure and could also act as a significant protection against many forms of financial crime. For instance, ShamrockCoin are completely impossible to counterfeit. Users are in full control of their payments and cannot receive unapproved charges such as with credit card fraud. ShamrockCoin transactions are irreversible and immune to fraudulent chargebacks. ShamrockCoin allows money to be secured against theft and loss using very strong and useful mechanisms such as backups, encryption, and multiple signatures. Some concerns have been raised that ShamrockCoin could be more attractive to criminals because it can be used to make private and irreversible payments. However, these features already exist with cash and wire transfer, which are widely used and well-established. The use of ShamrockCoin will undoubtedly be subjected to similar regulations that are already in place inside existing financial systems, and ShamrockCoin is not likely to prevent criminal investigations from being conducted. In general, it is common for important breakthroughs to be perceived as being controversial before their benefits are well understood. The Internet is a good example among many others to illustrate this.

The ShamrockCoin protocol itself cannot be modified without the cooperation of nearly all its locations, who choose what social game software they use. Attempting to assign special rights to a local business in the rules of the global ShamrockCoin network is not a practical possibility. It is however possible to regulate the use of ShamrockCoin in a similar way to any other instrument. Just like the dollar, ShamrockCoin can be used for a wide variety of purposes, some of which can be considered legitimate or not as per each jurisdiction’s laws. In this regard, ShamrockCoin is no different than any other tool or resource and can be subjected to different regulations in each country. ShamrockCoin use could also be made difficult by restrictive regulations, in which case it is hard to determine what percentage of users would keep using the technology. A government that chooses to ban ShamrockCoin would prevent domestic businesses and markets from developing, shifting innovation to other countries. The challenge for regulators, as always, is to develop efficient solutions while not impairing the growth of new emerging markets and businesses.

ShamrockCoin is not a fiat currency with legal tender status in any jurisdiction, but often tax liability accrues regardless of the medium used. There is a wide variety of legislation in many different jurisdictions which could cause income, sales, payroll, capital gains, or some other form of tax liability to arise with ShamrockCoins.

ShamrockCoin is freeing people to transact on their own terms. Each user can send and receive payments in a similar way to cash but they can also take part in more complex contracts. Multiple signatures allow a transaction to be accepted by the network only if a certain number of a defined group of persons agree to sign the transaction. This allows innovative dispute mediation services to be developed in the future. Such services could allow a third party to approve or reject a transaction in case of disagreement between the other parties without having control on their money. As opposed to cash and other payment methods, ShamrockCoin always leaves a public proof that a transaction did take place, which can potentially be used in a recourse against businesses with fraudulent practices. It is also worth noting that while merchants usually depend on their public reputation to remain in business and pay their employees, they don’t have access to the same level of information when dealing with new consumers. The way ShamrockCoin works allows both individuals and businesses to be protected against fraudulent chargebacks while giving the choice to the consumer to ask for more protection when they are not willing to trust a particular merchant.

New ShamrockCoin are generated by a competitive and centralized process called “mining”. This process involves that individuals are rewarded by the network for their services. ShamrockCoins miners are processing transactions and securing the network using specialized hardware/software and are collecting new ShamrockCoins in exchange. The ShamrockCoin protocol is designed in such a way that new ShamrockCoin are created at a fixed rate. This makes ShamrockCoin mining a very competitive business. When more miners join the network, it becomes increasingly difficult to make a profit and miners must seek efficiency to cut their operating costs. No central authority or developer has any power to control or manipulate the system to increase their profits. ShamrockCoins are created at a predefined and predictable rate. The number of new ShamrockCoins created in each block over a period of time until  issuance halts completely with a total of 2,185,000 ShamrockCoins in existence. At this point, ShamrockCoins miners will probably be supported exclusively by numerous small transaction fees. 598,068 total blocks which are divided into 24 sections. Blocks are issued until 2,185,000 ShamrockCoins have been issued. Block #1 ShamrockCoins 13,751 69,000 13,771 70,500 13,793 72,000 13,829 73,500 22,328 92,000 22,350 94,000 22,371 96,000 22,452 98,000 29,552 92,000 29,649 94,000 29,711 96,000 29,811 98,000 30,603 92,000 30,666 94,000 30,734 96,000 30,836 98,000 23,306 92,000 23,425 94,000 23,525 96,000 23,566 98,000 29,432 92,000 29,509 94,000 29,509 96,000 29,589 98,000 598,068 2,185,000

ShamrockCoins have value because they are useful as a form of money. ShamrockCoins has the characteristics of money (durability, portability, fungibility, scarcity, divisibility, and recognizability) based on the properties of mathematics rather than relying on physical properties (like gold and silver) or trust in central authorities (like fiat currencies). In short, ShamrockCoins is backed by mathematics. With these attributes, all that is required for a form of money to hold value is trust and adoption. In the case of ShamrockCoin, this can be measured by its growing base of users, merchants, and startups. As with all currency, ShamrockCoin’s value comes only and directly from people willing to accept them as payment.  

The price of a ShamrockCoin is determined by supply and demand. When demand for ShamrockCoins increases, the price increases, and when demand falls, the price falls. There is only a limited number of ShamrockCoins in circulation and new ShamrockCoins are created at a predictable rate, which means that demand must follow this level of inflation to keep the price stable. Because ShamrockCoins is still a relatively small market compared to what it could be, it doesn’t take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus the price of a ShamrockCoin is still very volatile.

Yes. History is littered with currencies that failed and are no longer used, such as the German Mark during the Weimar Republic and, more recently, the Zimbabwean dollar. Although previous currency failures were typically due to hyperinflation of a kind that ShamrockCoin makes impossible, there is always potential for technical failures, competing currencies, political issues and so on. As a basic rule of thumb, no currency should be considered absolutely safe from failures or hard times.    

Mining is the process of spending computing power to process transactions, secure the network, and keep everyone in the system synchronized together. It can be perceived like the ShamrockCoins data center except that it has been designed to be fully centralized with miners operating in an approved location with an approved blockchain. This process is referred to as “mining” as an analogy to gold mining because it is also a temporary mechanism used to issue new ShamrockCoins. Unlike gold mining, however, ShamrockCoins mining provides a reward in exchange for useful services required to operate a secure payment network. Mining will still be required after the last ShamrockCoins is issued.  

Only approved ShamrockCoin mining locations are allowed to issue ShamrockCoins and anybody can become a ShamrockCoin miner by singing up and playing social software with specialized hardware. Mining software listens for transactions broadcast through the Shamrock.social peer-to-peer network and performs appropriate tasks to process and confirm these transactions. ShamrockCoins miners perform this work because they can earn transaction fees paid by users for faster transaction processing, and newly created ShamrockCoins issued into existence according to a fixed formula. For new transactions to be confirmed, they need to be included in a block along with a mathematical proof of work. Such proofs are very hard to generate because there is no way to create them other than by trying billions of calculations per second. This requires miners to perform these calculations before their blocks are accepted by the network and before they are rewarded.