This GPT’s answer.

Decred (short for Decentralized Credit) is a cryptocurrency and blockchain platform launched in 2016, designed to improve on the limitations of Bitcoin—particularly around governance, sustainability, and decision-making.

Key Features of Decred:

1. Hybrid Consensus Mechanism:

• Decred uses a hybrid Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system.

• PoW miners create blocks, while PoS stakeholders vote on whether those blocks should be added to the blockchain.

• This reduces the risk of PoW miners having too much control, as is sometimes criticized in Bitcoin.

2. On-Chain Governance:

• Decred holders can vote on changes to the protocol and how treasury funds are spent.

• This is done through a system called Politeia, a public proposal platform that supports transparent discussions and voting.

3. Self-Funding Treasury:

• A portion of each block reward (10%) goes to a decentralized treasury controlled by stakeholders.

• This funds development and community initiatives, ensuring the project doesn’t rely on external funding.

4. Autonomy and Resistance to Takeover:

• Decred was built with a focus on community governance and resistance to corporate or state control.

• It avoids the centralized development pitfalls that have affected other cryptocurrencies.

5. Privacy Features:

• Decred has integrated CoinShuffle++, a privacy-preserving protocol that allows for mixing coins to obscure transaction history.

Goals of Decred:

• Solve Bitcoin’s governance stalemate (e.g., the block size debate).

• Build a truly decentralized and community-driven ecosystem.

• Sustain itself through internal funding and structured decision-making.

In short, Decred is a governance-focused, community-driven cryptocurrency that aims to create a sustainable and adaptable blockchain network by integrating stakeholder input into every layer of the protocol.

If I’m not mistaken, some DCR code has made its way into BTC