Author Archives: pra
PRA Coin Parameters
The initial goal of this project is to make a straightforward Litecoin PoW clone with better parameters, to become the basis for further work. This one will be used to issue rewards and equity, trade on exchanges and attract hashing power. More experimental or special purpose coins will be able initially to perform merged mining with PRA, and then act as test cases for more advanced PoW, PoS, Difficulty adjustment, Lighting network, and similar enhancements. There has already been a strong interest in building upon Ethereum and Zcash. We could also decide to provide testbed support or rewards to researchers and promising projects. Litecoin codebase, transitioning to , once Litecoin does catch-up with Bitcoin (Linux and Windows wallets and nodes)…
Genesis Block
Every cryptocurrency derived from Bitcoin has a Genesis Block, the very first block in the blockchain, whose creation is hard-coded into the full node code. In order to prove that it's authentic, the usual rules about hashing the Merkle root and the Consensus information apply. So, one has to come up with some seriously magic numbers to put in the code. The established technique, documented in all the coin cloning guides, involves setting the values to zero for the very first run, getting an error message and using the values displayed in the log file to fill into the source code. However, the section in the Bitcoin code that computes the required hashes for debug printing has been removed from…
CryptoLife
The top shelf provider of custom Altcoin development is CryptoLife. They offer a whole bunch of options, and prices start at BTC. By the time you add on all the features that would make the coin super legit, it's closer to BTC, and you provide VPS hosting. For this amount you'd get your own PoS/PoW X11 2MB coin, source code with a designed logo and unique Genesis block, Merkel root, and Magic number. It would feature Premine, Alerts, and a Testnet. Also included in this price are Windows, Linux, and Mac wallets and a Paper wallet generator. Your VPS would be hosting a Mining pool, Block explorer, and a Faucet. Once the network is tested out and polished-up, and after one gets…
Difficulty Re-Targeting
Adjusting (re-targeting) difficulty for the PoW is a complex issue with Cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin adjustment every 2016 10 minute blocks (two weeks), is very coarse, and is not usable for smaller coins, in the age of ASIC and GPU farm mining, where hashing on a particular network can change very rapidly, sometimes automated or performed for malicious reasons. A range of algorithms and techniques are evolving and many have been implemented and deployed since. Kimoto Gravity Well (KGW) Nite's Gravity Well Dark Gravity Wave Digishield from Dogecoin had time-warp vulnerabilities but was fixed-up in other coins since. Slingshield also made improvements of some sort. Zcash settled on adjustment for every block, after an extended discussion. They implemented a modified Digishield v3. Despite prolonged discussions, Litecoin…
Walletbuilders
A well-known Walletbuilders service will automatically make a coin for you, a free one that only includes Linux and Windows node executables, or for BTC they will let you create a custom one, with your own signage, block parameters, Scrypt PoW and PoS that takes over, after so many blocks, etc. Pre-mine is an option. A seed service for your coin is included on their site, and perhaps a month of hosting a node. Additional hosting is BTC / month. They deliver with the paid coin product pre-compiled Windows and Linux executables for both a node (daemon) and a Qt GUI client. A unique pair of ports that they assign, is used to distinguish your network. Included source code does produce the two…
CryptoNight, CryptoNote, and Monero
In looking further, it turned out that CryptoNight is a hashing algorithm used for PoW of the CryptoNote protocol-based coins. The most famous of the bunch is Monero, but the list also includes Bytecoin, Dashcoin, and dozens more. One review points out that "Monero is a time proven and reliable crypto beloved by the Darknet." I'm going to leave it at that and move on to coin types that have more general appeal, with better-studied algorithms and widely tested implementations.
Free – Cryptocoin Creator and Build-a-Coin
site prizes itself on having created some 1300 coins. And it's possible, as it appears that they do stamp them out for free - if you don't ask for source code or the ability to run it on your own server. If you want those, as any reasonable Altcoin creator would, you are told to email for a quote for a Commercial License. The site itself went through a couple of attempts at a sale on Flippa a year ago - unsuccessfully. Its SSL certificate is expired, and that's why Chrome labels it as Not Secure. Overall, it does not appear recently maintained and does make silly statements, like the fact that it features Elliptic Curve signing, something that all Bitcoin…
Reader Suggestions
So far the readers on the Bitcointalk forum have suggested: Self-fund GPU mining a PoW algorithm that's, not easy for ASICs or CPU botnet PoS with the right set of parameters, algo New algo, like NIST5 HODL memory hard algo Airdrop Ethereum cloning guide bounty New Ethereum cloning guide. Faster clone GoChain.
Blockchain Dynamics
We learned a lot about Altcoins by listening to the Blockchain Dynamics podcast. They have a forum on Cryptopia. The hosts, Brandondoge and Jookly, often sneer at “another Scrypt coin or a Cryptonight clone” and chuckle at what comes out of the Walletbuilders service. And they praise some “good miner coins”. Not sure what they meant by all that, we asked them in the forum. So, the Blockchain Dynamics hosts took good five minutes to review the Practice Coin announcement, starting around 59-minute mark. They have expressed a number of doubts and concerns about the project, like its incremental value or longevity. Will have to dig in and address them all, going forward.
Images and Site
Used MS Paint to sketch out my boy Pragma. Used for the chalk font header. Domains Grabbed three domains using Could not decide between them, and at $9 / year for each, privacy included, took them all. Domain registration with GoDaddy, with privacy, would be closer to $25, if you only register for a year. Namesilo does take BTC, with a $50 minimum, and the usual confirmation time delay. So I felt impatient and put the purchase on a card instead. All three domains point to the same site, and for the moment I'm using web hosting from another gig. Hosting or VPS Will look for a cheap hosting or VPS provider that accepts BTC next. There is a…