Created from a hard fork of Litecoin, Monacoin is viewed as Japan's most accepted cryptocurrency. Like Dogecoin, the face of Monacoin features a meme animal: an anime cat.

Application	Decentralization	Inflation	Speed	Community
B	C	B-	C+	A-

Application: B

Originally I was thinking Monacoin deserved a C- in this category. It doesn't do anything other coins can't achieve. It's a basic payment coin used to buy things. However, because of it's wide acceptance in Japan, this coin is no longer speculative. It's being used to pay for goods and services right now. Land was famously purchased with it in 2014. There are many Monacoin ATMs. There are coffee shops, cafes, and electronic stores that all except Monacoin. I believe there is also an exchange in Japan that allows Yen to Monacoin direct fiat exchange.

...with thousands of Zaif ATM's...
The number of stores, websites, and service providers that accept MonaCoin increases every day, and there are many Japanese internet sites, message boards, and web wallets that streamline the shopping experience for MONA owners. Major Japanese electronics store Ark Akihabara accepts Monacoin, alongside Bitcoin.

Japan is at the forefront of cryptocurrency legislation. Monacoin and all other cryptocurrencies are considered legal tender for vendors that accept it. Japan often finds itself at the bleeding edge of technology and this is no different. Although there is nothing truly special about Monacoin's technology we see that it's acceptance is more important. This gives it a leg up on the vast majority of coins.

Decentralization: C

It's very hard to gauge the decentralization of a coin. You never know who controls which wallets and whatnot. Monacoin is especially hard to find information on. A lot of it is in Japanese. As of now, there's no reason for me to believe Monacoin is anything other than average in this category.

Inflation / Distribution: B-

Monacoin was not pre-mined.

To prevent ASIC mining, a switch was made from Litecoin's Scrypt mining algorithm to Lyra2REv2. This algorithm is also used on Vertcoin and they both have the advantage of readjusting mining difficulty after every block using Dark Gravity Wave v3.

Speed / Scalability: C+

Blocks take an average of 90 seconds. This is great when comparing it to Bitcoin or Litecoin but severely lacking when compared to Steem and EOS. They are also implementing the Lightning Network, so it's good to know the Monacoin team will be able to keep up to speed when incorporating new technologies.

Community: A-

The fact that the first country to adopt a cryptocurrency chose a decentralized one is very telling and a good sign for the future. Other countries will make their own coins and try to take full control of them. These centralized coins will be no different from fiat currency. I'm glad Japan is smarter than that.

The development team remains anonymous under the pseudonym Mr. Wantanabe. Clearly, this is a tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym creator of Bitcoin. I think it's very interesting and cool that they choose to remain in the shadows. Perhaps this dynamic will turn out to be an advantage in the future. Diversity is important. Not to worry, they may not reveal themselves, but their work speaks for itself. Japanese work ethic is notoriously unrivaled. The project is on Github with all the others.

The main reason for the high grade here, is that an entire country seems to accept it as a national cryptocurrency. I've spoken before about groups of people rallying behind a coin like their favorite sports team, but this is on a whole new level.

Final Thoughts

It would be remiss to ignore the prevailing theme of the research in regard to Monacoin. The primary claim for inventing this blockchain was the need for the Japanese to reinvent wheel in order to create a product that belongs to them.

The success of the altcoin may also be the result of Japan's desire to produce its own native version of everything, with information in its own language. For years, Japanese shunned Facebook to use the locally-developed social network Mixi.

Apple products and even smartphones in general took slightly longer to take off in Japan, as locals were happy with the Internet-connected handsets they already had.

This so-called 'Galapagos effect' in both technology and entertainment is almost inevitable when you're an island country with 125 million people and a proprietary language.

It might seem wasteful, but again, diversification is important. Also, blockchain technology is complicated, and trying to figure out a complicated technology from a foreign language is ridiculous.

I hope that Monacoin's strength doesn't also become it's weakness. If this coin doesn't make a breakout from Japan it may forever be a low runner on the market cap due to the small population using it. However, when you look at Japanese companies like Nintendo and Honda, Japan clearly knows how to sell itself. Hopefully the acceptance of Monacoin in Japan encourages acceptance in other countries as well. I know I want to buy a few. How cool would it be to visit Japan and fund your whole trip, in a foreign country, with a cryptocurrency you bought beforehand?

Application	Decentralization	Inflation	Speed	Community
B	C	B-	C+	A-

Total Grade: B-