Neptune was launched with a premine of 831,488 NPT, 1.98 % of its total supply. Ideally I would have liked for the premine to be 0 % such that Neptune’s launch was completely egalitarian and fair as this legitimacy is needed to have a shot at becoming a global unit of account. But we needed the premine to fund development during the four years it took us to get to launch – and to fix unavoidable deficiencies after launch.
During those four years of development I sometimes fantasized about accumulating an amount equivalent to the premine and burn it, in order to wash away the taint of the premine. But after launch it became apparent that that would not be possible as professional miners were much better prepared for Neptune’s launch than we anticipated and difficulty quickly shot up. This made it impossible for us amateurs to mine anything substantial. So it seemed that the burning of the premine would forever be a pipe dream.
That was until five days ago where on November 27 a huge, intentional, burn was initiated by a 3rd party. In total, 1.5m NPT was burned. Nearly two times the total premine amount! This burn resets and relevels the playing field beyond what a burn of the premine amount would have achieved. It gives everyone a 2nd chance to enter Neptune with many of the early bags now gone.
I’m sure there are still people out would still criticize the existence of a premine, and somehow argue that the playing field is only completely leveled if the team and not a 3rd party had done the burn. Or that the issuance of Neptune coins should be either faster or slower than it is now. But in my perspective Neptune now has a considerably more egalitarian launch than I ever thought possible, and that makes me happy. In my eyes, Neptune can now boast of considerable technical innovation, extremely fair launch, and immutable supply rules.
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