I do not know which one I like better, because they are both great! These logos are bold and make a statement that Decred is a currency of stability and not another fluke.
I'm hoping to find some more time and energy to contribute on the design area in coming future as well. Though following the stuff made so far has shown a sort of misunderstanding of what is design and what's fan art. http://austinknight.com/writing/design-is-not-art/ https://medium.com/entrepreneur-s-handbook/the-7-step-paul-rand-logo-test-5c7b546af17b#.q9eefophp
graphics have plenty more applications than strictly as logos, remember. There are videos to be made, web sites to be updated, banner ads to be placed etc., all of which can use innovative graphics. This is a type of visual brainstorming going on here, trying out different themes.
Well my point being about context - why are these logo alterations even being made? They have no appropriate context as a design, they have no function, they aren’t solving task. Someone made a logo for decred already, did all the thinking and drawing and rules to make it come together, so it could be functional for a whole bunch of applications. Nothing good comes out of it if on every application there’s a totally different verion of the logo. I don’t want to discourage learning graphical softwares, but this isn’t a good enough reason to break something that works. Messing with a logo isn’t a nice practice. In this instance its better to start with a simple question "why?" before getting carried away.