Darkcoin is closed source[0] and the creators[1] of Darkcoin show no history of working with cryptography, peer-to-peer, or any form of anonymity/security in general. One of the two founders does however have an interest in "financial markets and economics" and nearly all tweets on the official Darkcoin Twitter account[2] are about the market price. This reeks of scamcoin.
Plus it was instamined: 43% of all the coins issued so far were mined in the first 24hrs.
Block #4242 [1] is about 24hrs after Block #1 [2], outstanding 1,864,104; the latest block right now is #75345, outstanding 4,330,405.
In other words; there are plenty of good intentions to make it available as open source; but the hard and painful peer review process for which open source is a prerequisite has not yet actually happened.
Road to hell and all of that.
Lesson here: don't rely on this for your gun-running, money-laundering or tax-evading needs. It's probably run by the NSA anyway...
I've been following darkcoin since the day after it was released, have talked to Evan (creator), and I really do not agree.
[0] is only temporarily true as pointed out already.
[1] doesn't support what you said, the about us NOT saying they have experience with X, Y and Z does not mean the same thing as it saying they do not have experience with X, Y, and Z.
[2] I've always disliked that, however price changes are what get people excited, I would potentially say even more so than innovative features.
So I really don't think scamcoin is the right term, however I personally would not be investing at the current price. I sold all my darkcoins a while ago for a very nice profit and cannot see the price rising a whole lot higher (in the short to mid term) than it currently is, unless a large DNM starts accepting it or similar. Then again I also said I can't see the price rising a whole lot higher when it was at .01 DRK/BTC, so what do I know?
This is relevant to an argument two friends were having last night. Their opposing viewpoints:
a) bitcoin is a great investment
b) bitcoin is worthless
You're both wrong!
Even the possibility that darkcoin supplants bitcoin as the "premiere" cryptocurrency means that putting significant money in bitcoin is extremely risky. But as more alt coins gain traction, it adds more evidence that cryptocurrencies are here to stay, whoever ends up being the the winner(s).
Darkcoin has all of the priors of just another altcoin speculative bubble (some of which are outright scams, some of which just lose faith and attention).
What is different is that it hints at a future, near, profound technological shift. If Darkcoin doesn't successfully implement an anonymous sending functionality, another ecurrency or bitcoin itself will.
Today was an issue related to the new Masternodes in the Darkcoin protocol. It was tested for a month on testnet and nothing of the sort happened. Real conditions were different and caused forks. The developer issued a quick fix and everything is back on track for the moment. You can't always get it right the first time that's for sure.
[0] http://wiki.darkcoin.eu/wiki/FAQ#Is_DarkSend_open_source.3F
[1] https://www.darkcoin.io/meetteam.html
[2] https://twitter.com/DarkcoinCrypto