Mazacoin was developed by the BTC Oyate Initiative, under the direction of Payu Harris, a Native American activist, web developer, and digital currency trader who has traced his ancestry to the Northern Cheyenne tribe. Harris hopes that the currency will cause the international community to "realize we’re serious about our sovereignty", as well as help alleviate poverty within the nation.
The digital currency is a type of cryptocurrency, and like the cryptocurrency bitcoin, MazaCoin can be bought or sold on international cryptocurrency exchanges, or it can be obtained through virtual "mining". The underlying software for MazaCoin is derived from that of another cryptocurrency, ZetaCoin, which in turn is based on bitcoin's SHA-256 proof of work system. It includes 50 million pre-mined Mazacoin, equally split by the Lakota Nation between a national reserve and a planned "Tribal Trust", which it is hoped will help "to prevent the wild speculation that has caused bitcoin such price volatility." One of its differences from bitcoin is that it is "inflationary" (in the Austrian economics sense—see inflation for the mainstream sense); while there is a maximum cap of 21 million bitcoins that will be produced, there is no similar cap for MazaCoin. The Lakota Nation anticipates that 2.4 billion MazaCoin will be produced within five years, and drop to 1 million MazaCoin per year thereafter. Another difference from bitcoin is that it is "simpler" in a way that makes it consume less power to run the cryptographic mining algorithm, making it more environmentally friendly.
The MazaCoin development received a Memorandum of Understanding between the Oglala Lakota Nation & the MazaCoin Development Team. On 25 March 2014, David Mills, Director Oglala Sioux Tribe, Office of Economic Development commented on the status of MazaCoin that the tribe is "for support of more research" and "if we are satisfied with the outcome we will develop a resolution to the Tribal E&BD Committee in support of this venture to be forwarded on the Tribal Council for final approval."
The MazaCoin development team officially endorsed a community-built and -driven website called MazaTalk.
"This coin has a block target of 120 seconds, and a block reward of 1000 MZC, halving now every 950,000 blocks. The initial block reward was 5000MZC, which was lowered to 1000MZC at block 100,000 when the difficulty retartgeting algorithm was changed in Mazacoin"
Historical Background
The Fort Laramie treaty of 1868 ended Red Cloud’s war and guaranteed the ownership of the Black Hills to the Oglala Lakota. MazaCoin was created as response to the seizure of the Black Hills. Their genesis blockchain serves as a ledger, which reads, "The Black Hills are not for sale. 1868 is the LAW!"