What is happening with Grantcoin?

What is Grantcoin

Basically Grantcoin is a cryptocurrency which is distributed free, to anyone who applied, four times a year. The idea is to create a Universal Basic Income. It calls itself Money by the people, for the people.

I am not very convinced. While I understand that the people behind it mean well, the level of technical knowledge and sophistication needed to sign up is such that the only people who will apply for it are those who really don't need it anyway. Moreover, at present (and I accept it is early days) it is very hard to trade. Volumes are so low, and Bittrex and SouthXchange are the only places you can trade it.

What is happening?

The last distribution should have occurred on December 30th, 2016. That didn't happen. There has been no update to Grantcoin website since December 9th. The Twitter account is silent.

It is clear that the volunteers behind Grantcoin cannot keep up with the project. The founder has requested payment for his work (which is fair enough). In response to a query on Reddit (not from me), the following was disclosed:

Hello cyjambo and bibaculus, Just saw your posts. I'm not a reddit regular. I created an account so I can give you an update. >I'm not a dev, but have been talking extensively with them recently. GrantCoin has initiated a new, automated sign-up >process and is working with Ekata, a social website to handle distributions. Ekata is in the beta stage, but anyone already >signed up for GrantCoin should sign up for Ekata for the future of GrantCoin. Anyone new to GrantCoin must sign up through >Ekata. Ekata's web site url is: https://ekata.social/ When you sign up and are asked for a referral code, you can use mine: >0t72ljni5a I don't believe the implementation went as smooth or a quickly as intended; and I believe this is why no one had >heard anything for a while. Also, Eric became ill and had to take some time off. Additionally, the founder, Eric, has put out an >update here: http://www.grantcoin.org/2016/12/09/grantcoin-launches-automated-signup-process-on-ekata-social->platform/ Because of these issues, the disbursement which was scheduled for December 30 has been delayed until the end >of January to allow time for the large amount of people who have been trying to sign up during the chaos to become verified >and not miss out on the disbursement.

bibaculus, I also struggled with the credibility of the project as I was one who was stuck in the middle of the sign-up process >when all this happened. However, after working with Eric, Brandon and the Ekata team as close as I have these past few >weeks, I can attest to the fact their hearts are in the right place. As far as viability, well, the quicker we can all get the word >out and get people interested in the project, the more viable the project will be. Demand is what will keep GrantCoin on the >map - just the same as bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency: demand. We need to create a demand for it and support efforts >to get it usable as a currency (i.e., debit cards, online stores, etc). I have a small, one-person online shop, >www.moondancerscreations.com, which as soon as I can figure out how to accept cryptocurrencies on it, GrantCoin will be >one I will accept. I'm not a programmer, so I have to research and learn through trial and error. :-P I hope this information >helps. Again, I am not a reddit regular, so if you have any questions, please message me on the Ekata social site. I'm >moondancer762 there as well. I'm not a dev, but will be doing some work for them (administrative, not programming stuff), >and may be able to help answer some questions. Cheers
[ https://www.reddit.com/r/Grantcoin/comments/5llaho/what_is_happening_it_is_awefully_quite/ ]

So there, in brief, you have it.