Primecoin
| Primecoin | |
|---|---|
 Primecoin logo | |
| Denominations | |
| Subunit | |
| 0.001 | mXPM (millicoin) |
| 0.000001 | μXPM (microcoin) |
| 0.00000001 | Smallest unit |
| Plural | Primecoin, primecoins |
| Symbol | Ψ |
| Nickname | XPM |
| Demographics | |
| Date of introduction | 7 July 2013[1] |
| User(s) | International |
| Issuance | |
| Central bank | None, the primecoin peer-to-peer network regulates and distributes through consensus in protocol. |
| Valuation | |
| Inflation | Limited release, production rate before this limit re-evaluated with the production of every block (at a rate of approximately 1 block per minute) based on the difficulty with which primecoins are produced. |
Primecoin (sign: Ψ; code: XPM) is a peer-to-peer open source cryptocurrency that implements a proof-of-work system that searches for chains of prime numbers[2][non-primary source needed] Primecoin was created by a person or group of people under the pseudonym Sunny King. This entity is also related with the cryptocurrency Peercoin.[3][unreliable source?][4][unreliable source?] The Primecoin source code is copyrighted by a person or group called “Primecoin Developers”, and distributed under a conditional MIT/X11 software license.[5][non-primary source needed]
Primecoin has been described[by whom?] as the main cause of spot shortages of dedicated servers because at the time it was only possible to mine the currency with CPUs.[1][6] For the same reason, Primecoin used to be the target of malware writers.[7][8][irrelevant citation] In April 2018 the creator of ZClassic, Rhett Creighton, proposed forking Primecoin with Bitcoin to create Bitcoin Prime.[9][non-primary source needed][10][non-primary source needed][11][non-primary source needed]
Comparison to other cryptocurrencies[edit]
When comparing Primecoin with today's most widely spread cryptocurrency called bitcoin some notable differences are:
- Scarcity is governed by the nature of prime number distribution
- Almost all cryptocurrencies in existence define their scarcity properties merely by a set of predefined values in source code, whereas scarcity of Primecoin is based purely on a relationship of a simple function and mathematical property of natural occurrence of prime chains in the set of whole numbers that are.
- No predefined ultimate number of coins
- Instead of having hard-set ultimate number of coins in its code like many other alternative cryptocurrencies, number of Primecoins released per block is always equal to 999 divided by the square of the difficulty.[12] There has been some attempts at approximating this number. The number of Primecoins that will be mined will be determined by the progress of its adaptation by the mining community, improvements that will be done to the mining algorithms and ultimately by Moore's law.
- Difficulty adjustment is more frequent
- Primecoin protocol adjusts its difficulty slightly after every block. The difficulty change that occurs each block is targeted at achieving target of one new block created once per minute.[12] As comparison the bitcoin protocol adjusts its difficulty every 2016 blocks, or approximately every two weeks.
- Faster transaction confirmations
- Since Primecoin blocks are generated 8 to 10 times as fast as bitcoin blocks on average, Primecoin transactions are confirmed approximately 8 to 10 times as fast.[12]
Proof-of-work system[edit]
Primecoin uses the finding of prime chains composed of Cunningham chains and bi-twin chains for proof-of-work, which can lead to useful byproducts.[2][non-primary source needed][12]
The system is designed so that the work is efficiently verifiable by all nodes on the Primecoin network.[2][non-primary source needed] To meet this requirement, the size of the prime numbers in the system cannot be too large.[2][non-primary source needed] The Primecoin proof-of-work system has the following characteristics:
- Primecoin's work takes the form of prime number chains.[12]
- Finding the prime number chains becomes exponentially harder as the chain length is increased.[2][non-primary source needed]
- Verification of the reasonably sized prime number chains can be performed efficiently by all network nodes.[2][non-primary source needed]
- Mersenne primes are precluded due to their extremely large size.[2][non-primary source needed]
- Three types of prime number chains are accepted as proof-of-work:[12]
- Cunningham chain of the first kind.
- Cunningham chain of the second kind.
- Bi-twin chain.
Other cryptocurrencies including bitcoin commonly use a Hashcash type of proof-of-work based on SHA-256 hash calculations, which are of no value beyond its own economy.[2][non-primary source needed][12]
List of largest known Cunningham chains of given length[13][irrelevant citation] includes several results generated by Primecoin miners.[14][non-primary source needed]
See also[edit]
- Anarcho-capitalism
- Anonymous Internet banking
- Alternative currency
- Crypto-anarchism
- Money supply
- Moore's law
- Prime number
- Cunningham chain
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Clark, Jack (2013-07-16). "Virtual currency speculators shut down cloud". The Register. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 King, Sunny (pseudonym) (2013-07-07). "Primecoin: Cryptocurrency with Prime Number Proof-of-Work" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
- ↑ Bradbury, Danny (2013-01-02). "Why are so many digital currency players anonymous?". CoinDesk. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
- ↑ Gilson, David (2013-07-10). "New currency Primecoin searches for prime numbers as proof of work". CoinDesk. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
- ↑ Primecoin Developers (2013-07-25). "Primecoin High Performance 0.1.1 BETA README" (Text file). Primecoin High Performance – Browse /0.1.1-hp8 at SourceForge.net. mikaelh2. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
- ↑ Miller, Rich (2013-12-17). "Currency Miners Cause Spot Shortages of Dedicated Servers". Data Center Knowledge. Retrieved 2013-12-18.
- ↑ Muncaster, Phil (2014-01-17). "Bitcoin's so over. We're mining Primeco... Oh SNAP, my box is a ZOMBIE!". The Register. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
- ↑ Goodin, Dan (2013-12-17). "What a successful exploit of a Linux server looks like". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
- ↑ "Bitcoin Prime on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
- ↑ "The Merkle on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
- ↑ "Rhett Creighton on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 Buterin, Vitalik (2013-07-08). "Primecoin: the cryptocurrency whose mining is actually useful". Bitcoin Magazine. Coin Publishing Ltd.
- ↑ Augustin, Dirk. "Cunningham Chain records". primerecords.dk.
- ↑ "Record Primes". primecoin.io.
External links[edit]
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Others articles of the Topic Cryptography : Public-key cryptography
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