The full name of DCR currency is Decred, and DCR currency is an independent digital currency. Decred is a cryptocurrency, similar to Bitcoin, that emphasizes community input, open governance, and sustainable funding and development. It utilizes a hybrid "proof-of-work" and "proof-of-stake" mining system to ensure that a small group cannot dominate the transaction flow or make modifications to Decred without input from the community. A currency unit is called a 'decred' (DCR). To ensure the integrity of the currency and prevent people from making fraudulent transactions or creating their own coins, Decred uses a method of recording transactions called a blockchain. Decred is a multi-platform digital currency that supports Windows, macOS, and Linux. Sending, receiving, and mining Decred is just a few clicks away using the wallet app, so easy to use.

The positioning of DCR is a digital currency with payment function, similar to Bitcoin, its main innovation is to improve the process of community consensus decision-making, emphasizing community autonomy, for which the introduction of POW+POS mechanism restricts the possibility The emergence of the mine bully problem balances the interests of miners and currency holders as much as possible, and effectively reduces absenteeism to dig out empty blocks. This system also allows users to participate in voting on changes to the consensus mechanism.

In addition to community governance, Decred is focusing on the development of cross-chain atomic swap transactions. The so-called atomic swap is to use the scripting language of Bitcoin to build smart contracts and authorize cross-chain transactions. The premise of realizing such transactions is to find a way to solve the original image of the hash function. The significance of atomic swaps is that they hope to truly achieve decentralization and abandon exchanges and other third-party institutions for asset transactions.

Key strengths/opportunities:

Bitcoin implements the POW mechanism, and the computing power is the voting right. However, the disadvantages of this mechanism began to appear in the later stage. The mining equipment became more and more centralized, and then it was controlled by several large households.
The root of the problems facing Bitcoin is mainly governance issues, who is responsible for the project, what rights they enjoy, whether community users recognize them, and so on.
Decred incorporates POW and POS mechanisms to ensure that decisions are led by the community, not a handful of developers or early investors. And the setting of token incentives makes it easier for developers to contribute to the development of the community with higher quality. Adding more functions has been put on the agenda, and the appreciation potential is strong.
The core team has participated in the development of Bitcoin and created a client version different from Bitcoin core, which is relatively high in technical reliability.

Key risks/challenges:

The scope of competition for cryptocurrencies is very large and the competition is fierce. Whether they can gain a competitive advantage in the future needs further observation.
Decred has unique technical advantages and design concepts. In the long run, whether it can effectively use the existing mechanism to implement positive maintenance and stability, as well as the improvement of planned functions, will determine its competitiveness in the cryptocurrency field. Great impact. In addition, the implementation of the planned new functions is not easy, and requires high capital and technology, both of which also depend on the expansion and maintenance of the community.

Issuing body
Decred was officially launched in September 2015, and the main chain was officially launched on February 8, 2016.
The team led by Jake Yocom-Piatt has participated in the development of Bitcoin since 2013 and created a client version different from Bitcoin core, but Core does not welcome the emergence of competing versions. The team realized that despite Bitcoin's technical strength, there was a big problem with community engagement, and in 2014, they left the Bitcoin community and founded Decred.
The founding team participated in the cryptocurrency technology earlier, and has accumulated rich technology and resources. Created an international team consisting of developers, strategy/operations, designers, etc. And supported by Litecoin founder Harlie Lee and Blockchain Capital partner Jimmy Song as advisors.

Core Team
Jake Yocom-Piatt is the main person in charge of the Decred project, and the core team comes from the Bitcoin core team. In addition to a good technical background, Decred also employs a novel contracting method that allows proven contributors to be paid for their excellent work.
According to the official website, its strategic planning is headed by the project founder, 28 technicians are responsible for development, 14 members are responsible for community operations, and 4 members are responsible for market expansion. At present, the promotion team in the Chinese community has been established, and the project leader is Yuwen, and the promotion has begun to increase efforts in the Asian market.

Landing Scenario
In the POW+POS mechanism, its POW mining mechanism is basically the same as Bitcoin in principle. Only when the consent of more than 3 of the 5 randomly selected token holders is obtained can it become a valid block. Any token holder can participate in the lottery, but the premise is to "lock" a certain amount of DCR as a guarantee to promote the drawn votes to make the best decision that benefits Decred. In addition to verifying the validity of blocks, votes also have a more important purpose, allowing users to participate in voting for changes in the consensus mechanism.
And 10% of the newly mined tokens of the Decred project are given to the development team, and the developers can get paid according to the proposal if the community approves the payment.
Decred Wallet supports multi-platform digital currencies of Windows, macOS and Linux, enabling the sending, receiving and mining of DCR.
There are mining machines that support DCR mining, and miners can also join the mining pool to improve convenience and efficiency.

Business Model
In token distribution, 60% of the newly mined tokens belong to PoW miners, 30% belong to PoS voters, and the remaining 10% belong to the project development fund.
People are rewarded for participating in the construction of this community. Participants can contribute computing power or contribute to decision-making as PoS voters. In addition, they can also participate in development and operation to promote its development.
After a virtuous circle is created, DCR does not need external funds to invest, and the development foundation will automatically and continuously contribute, and the development fund is controlled by voters under the POS rules.
Under the above rules, it is necessary to increase the function construction on the chain, which is planned or in the process of implementation: lightning network, anonymous transaction, proposal system, atomic swap, etc.

Phase Progress
Decred's original plan for privacy enhancements has been delayed.
In the 2018 plan, the Decred team will continue to give priority to improving the governance system. For example, complete the proposal system "Politeia". Politeia allows participants to make proposals on matters related to the development of Decred, and the community will jointly decide whether to use the development A pool of funds to pay for the proposal.
In addition, key plans include SPV wallet, privacy maintenance, lightning network, marketing, etc.

Token value
There is no ICO for the Decred project. At the beginning of the launch, the team first created 8% of the total token supply of 21 million, of which 4% was distributed to about 3,000 early supporters in the form of free airdrops, and the other 4% was used to pay development costs.
At present, about 47% of the DCR in circulation are in the vote pool, which shows that the overall community has a high degree of investment, and it can also reflect that its behavior on price speculation and short-term operations is relatively small, because buying votes will involve " Locking coins" link.