All Things Alt: Quark's Shaq-cess, Blackcoin's PR Pivot and Dogecoin's Victory Lap

The past week has been big on the altcoin promotional front, as shown by several marquee projects that are moving ahead or just getting off the ground.

Let’s take a look at some of the more noteworthy projects and initiatives happening in the alt world today.

NASCAR driver Josh Wise’s dogecoin-sponsored journey resulted in a 20th place finish at Talladega this past Sunday. The race was a great one for Wise, who edged his way into the top five during the latter half of the race before slipping back in the standings.

The event served as an unorthodox introduction to digital currencies for some spectators, as many at Talledega hadn’t heard of the meme-themed dogecoin. But from Wise’s perspective, it was a one-of-a-kind experience.

He told Fox News:

Wise also remarked that he wasn’t sure if the partnership between dogecoin, reddit and his NASCAR team would continue.

He said that the group was always looking for sponsorship but did not rule out further participation by the dogecoin community. The project to sponsor Wise cost $55,000.

The blackcoin community has hired a public relations firm to help it brand the altcoin and expand its potential market share.

Max Borges Agency, based out of Miami, Florida, will conduct a 90-day multi-platform marketing campaign. The firm specializes in public relations for technology startups and initiatives.

According to a draft marketing plan, the campaign will focus on targeting mainstream media sources, leveraging social media and promoting the coin as an investment opportunity.

The campaign will reportedly cost $32,500, an amount that was fully crowdfunded in both digital and fiat currencies. According to blackcoin community leader Soepkip, the funding was raised over a 72-hour period.

The marketing effort will focus on how blackcoin and other altcoins represent a new era of digital currencies, and make note of its eco-friendly status (owing to its non-mineable proof-of-stake protocol) and potential attraction to stock market participants.

A new video game featuring the likeness of NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal will include quark as a payment option. Additionally, a special in-game item will be included that can only be obtained by using quark.

Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn

, is being developed by Big Deez Productions. It is a reboot of a 1994 game made for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo platforms that features a fictional O'Neal battling monsters from another dimension.

The team behind the new Shaq-Fu raised nearly $500,000 on Indiegogo at the end of the fundraising period this week.

The quark community helped raise funds for the project, which included several social media-fueled “thunderclap” campaigns, according to Vic McPherson, chief editor for Quark Press and member of the Quark Foundation.

The partnership between the quark community and Big Deez Productions, along with Shaq, is expected to continue with expanded social media campaigns ahead of the game’s launch.

Conceptually, the project is founded on the idea of an economy restricted by trade barriers. The result is that transaction times and actual coin creation are purposefully slowed down.

For this, embargocoin has earned this week’s Strange Alt of the Week award.

According to the developer, miners must overcome “embargos” in order to process transactions and receive mining awards. This is the premise behind the 20 minute-long block times.

The coin launched on 9th May with purposefully high initial difficulty, and at press time the mining difficulty had exceeded 6,000,000.

Another aspect of the design, which the developer calls “trade sanctions”, restrict early block rewards. After the first 251 blocks, the reward rises from 50 embargocoins until peaking at 500 embargocoins one month after launch.

Have a tip about a notable happening in the altcoin world? Email CoinDesk atstan@coindesk.com.

Images via BlackCoin.co, Facebook and Bitcoin Talk forum