Bitcoin Forum

Introduction
This is a prerelease thread for parabolas.   This cryptocurrency will launch with a pool, website, faucet, block explorer, and hopefully a store and exchange so that there are multiple services on launch.  When the coin has a use, it will be more valuable than just a coin to be day traded.
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Development Team
Project Director:
x^2

Lead Developer:
ZirconiumX

Developers:
smeagol
...add your name here!
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Marketing:
LaudaM
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Service Directors:
Exchange - Joerii (Cryptsy), LaudaM (Cryptsy), and Kumala (Vircurex)
Pool - feleep
Web Developer -
Game Site -
Webstore -
Faucet -
Block Crawler/Explorer -
...your name here!
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Stats
Proposed Algos:
MARS, RC6, Rijndael (AES), Serpent, Square and Twofish
Proposed Monetary Distribution:
Semi-scarce
Currency Symbol:
X^2
Block rewards:
95% goes to miners (every 94th block is a x6 block, with miners getting the regular reward and devs getting the rest)
Why is there a dev fund?
This coin will have NO premine, so the devs will not be able to make a quick profit.  Instead, we will get a gradual payoff as the coin matures.
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Want to start?
If you want to contribute, just shoot me a PM!
Remember that if you contribute, you will be given a share of the dev fund!

Reserve

How about a bit more on the specs?

when will it be published?

reserved

http://toolshed.down.net/video/parabola/parabola37.jpg

interesting...

Semi-scarce, block reward will probably be a random amount between 2 and 6, but there will be a bonus "square" block.  (Parabolas). e.g. Instead of 2 you would get 4, instead of 6, 36, etc.

We will try to implement a primecoin-like proof of work scheme (hashing parabolas with complex solutions, etc), or it will just be a sha256 or scrypt coin.

If you have something to bring to the table just PM!

Launch date is not yet set in stone but you can expect it at least in the next month or so.  This thread will get updated so stay tuned!

Posting to Watch...

That sounds like it would be difficult to put into a coin.

Reserved :)

I for one, support our new parabolic overlords!

.4btc and you have your source and windows qts in about an hour or two. Pos, pow whatever you want.

Go for a CPU coin, not sha or scrypt.
Also fix your english.

I have an hour, who want parabolas now?

CPU only?  I think it can easily be done with some tweaks to the quark code or something.

Also what about Mac binaries?  I only work on linux.

Someone will do them. PM me when you have a solid base to work off.

I have proposed to x² that we use Twofish, Rijndael and Serpent in a Quark-like style (Quark seems to have used SHA-3 candidates) to at least be different.

Matthew:out

Sounds good! But dont abandon the coin when you determine it is a hard job!  ;D

Go for CPU only and ask for help as you will need it.

Reserved

Thanks!  Matthew has proposed the new algos, will they be CPU only?

Also, I would like to make it sort of devcoins-like, where the developers get a certain percentage (like 1%), rather than premine, for extra services after launch.  (E.g. Is it possible for every 99th block to have double the amount of coins, but 1/2 goes to the devs for bounties and 1/2 goes to the miner)

Once more, I would like to thank everyone for their support!

I cannot guarantee that. If scrypt, which is very memory intensive (GPUs are rubbish at that sort of thing), can be ported to the GPU, then it's most likely only a matter of time.
 

I can try for you, but no guarantees. Heck, I've never really looked at the source code before...


I have personally purchased a VPS to be used as a node. $4.05, paid in BTC. Over half the amount of BTC that I have mined.  :-\

Matthew:out

No algo is CPUonly, someone will definetly build gpuminer if the coin gets any enough flow. Quark allready has one, it just havent been released.

How has this worked out for Primecoin?
'nuff said.

Yet, atleast anything released. Its totally possible that someone has made one allready.
And what advantage you see in VPS clusters hashing this coin (Do you just happen to have idle/low usage clusters ar hand?)

Quick update for everybody: I'm currently working on a small benchmark so you can see roughly how fast your machines will be when they start hashing parabola coins. It isn't much, but it's better than nothing.

Matthew:out

reserved

As always.
Keep up the good work.

Crypto++ is a b---- to use.

Can anyone recommend an alternative that has the algorithms MARS, RC6, Rijndael (AES), Serpent, Square and Twofish?

Matthew:out

Thank you!  Hopefully the coin will compensate you and get back your BTC! (open source devs never get paid, maybe this could be like DVC)

As for coding, would it be good to create a github repo and have forum members submit pull requests?

As I am new to the forum, one question:
Why are other people reserving?  (Not just OP and Matthew)

Thanks!

Not sure but it happens on all the new coin announcements, first two pages get a bunch of reserved posts. I think it is so they can come back later to edit the post and have what they want to say on the front page

Well, it expires on September the 25th, so we'd better be quick.

VPS donation address (not owned by me, but by the VPS company): 16F3yJyqfEZFAFwct97qcB71Cxn2QwCMJu Every BTC0.03531258 is another month on the VPS.


You mean like this (https://github.com/ZirconiumX/parabola)?

Matthew:out

May I be a contributor?  My username is Smeagol-Gollum on github.

Edit:  I submitted a couple of pull requests, you should see me now!

Reserved

Merged.

Matthew:out

Seriously, forum? I post three times in a row and it still doesn't accept the post  >:(

I will download the repo and do a find and replace from bitcoin to parabola

Shoot me a PM when you think Parabolas are ready for an exchange. I can pull some strings ;)

Hmm.  I tried to submit a pull request to merge but instead I just forked it onto my account.  (here: https://github.com/Smeagol-Gollum/parabola)
All the names are changed.  If you can, please download the .zip and add it to your repository!  I don't know how to merge them.

Thanks!  Will do.

watch

reserved :)

Merge conflict.

Given the blatant find and replace, I did it manually. This does throw all of your commits off track of the master, so the best thing to do would be revert them, then do a fresh pull on master.

Matthew:out

I'm bumping for services and devs.  Remember, if you contribute you will be given a share of the 5% dev fund.

One thing I've realised. All of the AES candidates are based around encryption from a key. If we go for a quark-style hash system, then if we are being secure, we need 14 different keys.

Something for donators to suggest?

Matthew:out

Are we doing the random hashing algos too? (like first sha, then whirlpool, then md5, then random, then random again)

Should I start a donation fund?

If you want to. I'm not forcing you to.


As far as I can work out, each pass of Quark's "random hashing" simply checks whether the least significant 3 bits in the second most significant 32-bit word are zero. If they are, then it runs one hashing algo, else, it runs a different one. It screws PGO massively.

I like your idea, but I think we can make a different scheme which makes optimisation even more awkward.

Some pseudocode:


That ought to make GPU mining difficult. With up to 24 rounds of pseudorandom hashing algos, and a rotate in there for good measure, it may well make CPU mining difficult, too.

Matthew:out

Just make sure that a GPU miner can't be made easily. *Points at XPM*

Nice, this is turning out quite well!  Thank you to all for your support!

I was just wondering if there was a way to implement the "parabola" part!

https://github.com/ZirconiumX/parabola/blob/master/client/src/hash.cpp

Looking around the code, maybe this will help?

op updated

Have you considered adding proof of stake to help further secure the network?
Also why not add in parabolic difficulty adjustments done on a per block basis coupled with a parabolic reward to stifle instant mining.

My family has an expression: "First get something that works, then get something that works well."

We have currently got nothing more than a bitcoin clone at the moment. We haven't even worked out how to change the block magic number yet.

When we get a testnet up and running, then we'll think about things like PoS.

Matthew:out

This helped me a lot!
https://andarazoroflove.org/how-to-create-alt-coin-scrypt-clones-for-fun-and-profit-bitcoin-litecoin-secrets-exposed/

Why would you fork it from bitcoin if you are considering using multiple hashing algorithms to help secure the coin? Might as well fork from Quark or Secure Coin.

Because we'd rather be a fork, than a fork of a fork of a fork.

That's the *actual* reason.

Bitcoin's codebase is more modern, anyway.

Matthew:out

We've got an exchange and pool committee, anyone up for a faucet or store?

Also we might get coinpayments to accept us.

We could look at Freicoin.  Apparently the demmurage goes back to the foundation (which, in this case, would be us)

Shall we contact igotspots to open a parabolas spots franchise?

Sorry for being inactive, I have been very busy; is there any new news on development?

Thank you to all involved!

Well I can help with Pool for sure (as long as i can build the daemon on linux..) and maybe a block explorer it nobody else hosts it.
 ;D

The source is found here (https://github.com/ZirconiumX/parabola/tree/master/src), right? In that case we would need to write the hash functions.

However, I see that MARS, RC6, Rijndael (AES), Serpent, Square and Twofish are ciphers. This means that we would need keys. Could someone suggest some keys? Also, what is this Square cipher? (don't tell me you take output=input^2?)

My proposal:

SHA-512 (or 256) -> 16 rounds of ciphering -> SHA-256

That is the correct source.  It think square means that the block reward is squared.  My experience in cryptography is limited but I will ask around!

I can't believe people are still making scam coins. Yes, setting up the coin to pay off the developers is a scam, it doesn't matter if it's done in a "nice" way.

How can you justify skimming off the top? "The developers deserve to get rewarded for their work!!!!" No. If the developer wants to get paid, he can mine the coin just like everyone else.

If you are actually interested in cryptocoins, you won't be doing search+replace on some other coin, you'll add features that no other coin has. If you were actually putting any work in this at all, you wouldn't be skimming or premining because you'd want the coin to succeed.

If you actually want to help the community, you will be releasing a coin without any scams. What you are proposing for this shitcoin is a scam.

parabola still not there yet?

?
What if the developer doesn't have a mining rig?
The dev fund is just like mining, except it doesn't waste electricity.

He doesn't need a fund. Can you tell me how many of the coins released in the last 7 months have actually had a "developer" do any development?

If the dev doesn't have a rig, what is the fairest way to pay him or her?

There are only a few ways to let developers get coins without mining - premine, taking a cut of every block, taking a cut of some blocks and relying on donations.

The first is extremely frowned upon in the crypto community and would probably harm adoption (unless it is really small, in which case your revenue is almost worthless). The second is what a few other coins are doing, but if we want to do that you could take something like 0.5% instead of the crazy amounts the others are taking. The third is our proposal and is practically identical to the second. The fourth is problematic - in this mining world, margins are everything, so you are not likely to get much donations.

Also, aa: you should go support some other coin with your hashpower if you disagree with a coin's philosophy.