A brief progress report.

Wrestling with the charting code, I noticed that qcustomplot had been upgraded earlier this year and had gained a couple of finance-oriented chart widgets: a Candlestick widget and an OHLC widget. After brief experimentation, I chose the OHLC widget:



and the horizontal slider bar reveals the Order Depth chart:



Updated code committed to vcoincore.features.prerelease repos

Cheers

Graham

Look further and you'll see I've made technical contributions to a number of altcoins incl. BeecoinV2, DeepCoin, Bitcredits, Spreadcoin and VCoin.

What's your point?


Cheers

Graham

I've seen this claim before but so far, it's never been substantiated and this is bitcointalk, so if you'll forgive me for being a bit of a wet hen, I'll pass on this one.


That's odd, I was part of the community when I posted that response. I don't recall being a scammer but then, what am I like?

You're right about it being an impossible task, just about any blockchain can be re-initialised and re-launched by anyone who fancies their chances. I'm tending towards tagging altcoins as “inactive” vs “active” based on blockchain activity.

Elsewhere I have an OWL ontology which is capable of representing the essential programmatic and economic “profile” of an alt in terms of pchMessageStart, genesis block hash, etc. in such a fashion that the bindings can be used to re-create the coin, if not identically, then at least in core substance.


Cheers

Graham

Edit: added slightly more substantive notes

The missus and I were fortunate, managed to scare up three qualifying Dogecoin addresses, got a dozen+ clams early on.

After about a year's staking, that dozen+ has grown to 97 and at Bleutrade prices: (0.00599994 * 243.7) * 97 = $141.831981666

Which is nice.

Cheers

Graham

Why 0.11? Primarily because 0.10 embraces P2SH addresses:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/v0.10.0/doc/release-notes.md#standard-script-rules-relaxed-for-p2sh-addresses

Another reason is the establishment of a consensus library:


And in 0.11, there's:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/0.11/doc/release-notes.md

And Tor is better integrated in 0.11:


And then there's additional stuff that catches the eye, such as dooglus’  :

“broadcast the resulting hex value using https://just-dice.com/pushtx”

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=623147.msg11648787#msg11648787

Pretty much all of which is new ground to be explored, I feel.

Cheers

Graham

A short progress report: - The upgrade to Core 0.11 available for testing on testnet.

The upgrade's pretty much done, testnet is now accessible to 0.11 nodes. Linux source code is downloadable and ready to roll.

After people have had a chance to kick the tyres, the next step will be to reach out to Bleutrade, see if there's anything they need from us.

VCoin 0.11 is the default branch in the vcoincore repos: https://github.com/gjhiggins/vcoincore.git


VCoin replicates the upstream distinction between stable release and in-development master approach.

Features are maintained in separate branches for reasons of sanity. This also effectively preserves a differentiation between the “vanilla” codebase, sans branches and a “prosumer” version that integrates all the features.

So ...

* 0.11 release vanilla = git checkout vcoin-0.11 (the default)
* 0.11 release prosumer = git checkout vcoin-0.11.prerelease
* development vanilla = git checkout master
* development prosumer = git checkout vcoin.feature.prerelease

Newly-launched 0.11+ nodes on mainnet will not recognise blocks submitted by 0.8 nodes but will recognise blocks submitted by other 0.11 nodes and so a blockchain fork will inevitably occur - the 0.8 clients mining one fork and the 0.11 clients mining another. And this is okay, it is expected, if not indefinitely sustainable because when the switchover occurs, the 0.8 blockchain at that point will become the new 0.11 blockchain, obliterating the previous “unofficial” one.

Just be clear: MINING THE TEMPORARY 0.11 MAINNET BLOCKCHAIN IS FEASIBLE BUT FUTILE.

Pragmatism rather dictates that the chain being used by Bleutrade (as the one and only exchange listing VCN) is probably going to have some influence on which chain is collectively perceived as the “right” one.

I don't expect folks to jump without looking, so feel free to thrash the testnet.

Recommended working practice:

Currently, the daemon, tx and cli binaries are compiled as “bitcoind”, “bitcoin-tx” and “bitcoin-cli”. For purity, they can just be renamed as vcoind, vcoin-tx and vcoin-cli.

I do recommend you try the prosumer version, adds information-related features at only a slight network cost (of occasional calls on Bleutrade's API).

Obligatory screengrab:




Cheers

Graham

The question has to be asked, ofc but we're clearly wasting our time, the OP has a fair handle on what the prey responds best to.

It's difficult to get particularly exercised over this coin when it's emitting so many strong signals that it's aimed very specifically at milking Bobslurpus-wannabes.

As for the “locked” add-ons, there's only one strategy available: the github source is 0.1 and will not contain the code for the add-ons, they will be distributed as closed-source binaries bundled into the 0.1a PC/Mac platform-specific binary distros.

“Neural bot network launch”. Lol, dream on. Can't be done unless the the primary power supply is routed through the secondary dilithium conversion matrix, as any fule no.

Cheers

Graham

I forgot to preface my post with “A short progress report”.

In the 0.9/10/11 series, nearly all of the network-related coin- and chain-specific parameters such as pchMessageStart, pszTimeStamp, rpcport, etc. have been migrated out of the codebase and into a separate file: “chainparams.cpp”. This approach was introduced late in the 0.8 series and one side-effect of this rationalisation is that it allows the coin to be (comparatively) cleanly migrated across upgrades. In VCoin's case, the elderly codebase of the OP meant that this marshalling task had to be done from scratch, hence the preliminary port to 0.9 as a means of establishing --- and, importantly, testing --- the VCoin-specific content of the chainparams file.

The net result of this is that the process of creating a parameter-variant clone of Bitcoin Core 0.11 is made vastly more controllable. As this is a p2p project, m’peers may appreciate a walk-through.

1. Clone the code: git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin
2. Create a “vcoin” branch and check it out as the working space
3. Change each implicated instance of the string “Bitcoin” to “VCoin”, observing both case and word boundary conditions and not changing every single instance of CBitcoinAddressString into, e.g. CCrapcoinAddressString throughout the codebase (okay, it technically won’t/shouldn’t affect the execution but even so, yuk).
4. Copy chainparams.cpp from VCoin 0.9, adjust to reflect the upstream re-factorisation that was done between 0.9 and 0.11.
5. Compile
6. Run tests, commit the re-branding and the re-parameterisation, job done.

It’s not quite as straightforward as that, there are a few scattered parameters/variables also to be changed but it’s a closely-defined task and hence relatively trivial to perform programmatically.

Now that I have all the required values, I shall repeat the walkthrough and replace the vcoincore repos with the cleaned-up version which tracks the upstream release schedule, i.e. offering a vcoincore-0.11 release as well as a vcoincore-master.

In this instance, a hardfork would manifest itself as the blockchain splitting into a vcoincore blockchain mined only by 0.11 nodes and a vcoin blockchain mined only by 0.8 nodes.

It is up to the community to prefer one codebase over another. It would be collegial to canvass Bleutrade’s perception and publish it here. I'm given to understand that certain recent developments in the Bitcoin codebase are quite significant in terms of developing new services.

In essence, the only notable differences between Bitcoin Core 0.11 and VCoin Core 0.11 are that VCoin offers 1bn coins vs Bitcoin’s 21m, a block reward of 50 VCN vs 1000 BTC and a block time of 30s vs Bitcoin’s 600s. That's about it, not even the halving schedule differs.

Keeping it this tight opens up the possibility of a later rebase to BitcoinX (assuming no significant regression involved).

There is just one small piece of legacy Zetacoin code to be integrated but I've yet to properly understand its role in the model.


Cheers

Graham

VCoin upgrade to Bitcoin Core 0.11

A bit of a first, the upgrade to 0.11 (master) is pretty much complete (with the exception of a transcription error or two here'n'there, soon to be resolved).

https://github.com/gjhiggins/vcoincore

w.r.t. branches: vcoin-core is basic vanilla (as near as makes no difference) and vcoin-core.features.prerelease is the bundle of vanilla + branch features for overall kicking-of-the-tyres).

See it run, click the buttons. As suggested, it's 99.99% rebranded Bitcoin Core 0.11 which, even if I say so myself, has been done with surgical precision in order to present the lowest possible impedance to merged upstream development.  

But clicking the buttons is all you can do atm, will not sync with anything other than another 0.11 vcoin-core node 'cos none of the 0.8/9 nodes can speak the new (improved blockheader) protocol.

I have successfully compiled it on both Ubuntu 14.04 and 13.10 with the following command-line sequence:


For running the node, my working practice atm is start VCoin 0.9 and wait till it syncs. Then shut it down and create a copy of the datadir to use with the 0.11 upgrade:


The 0.11 node will/should pick up the testnet and the Minkiz node will be showing up in the “Console->Peers” list plus a handful of other nodes. T'others will gradually get banned, leaving just the Minkiz node.

For extra thrills, omit the “-testnet” ... an 0.11 node will read a fresh mainnet blockchain (although it argues with the 0.8/9 clients over the indexing) and it’s safe enough if using a different datadir - obligatory promissory screenshot:



Minkiz' domain is (atm) hard-wired as a DNSSeed node (minkiz.co). If you have strenuous objections to this arrogant centralisation (I know I would/do) then I direct your attention to the fact that the crowdsourced campaign for a community-owned node has to date received the grand total of 0 USD. Contributions of additional IP addresses / hostnames of stable VCoin nodes as advertised DNSSeeds are welcome, especially so if they arrive as github PRs.


Cheers

Graham

Usually by providing a textbook example of how not to do it.

“CoinDesk sought to find out more about this unique user base by conducting a survey.”

That, plus the cover price of $99 is all the information I need.

Cheers

Graham

Not half as fascinating as trying to hallucinate a role for the node list in the first place. What's the point of it? What useful information does it offer the user?

Just sayin'

Cheers

Graham

Indeed so:

https://github.com/search?p=9&q=unsigned+char+pchMessageStart%5B4%5D+%3D+%7B+0x70%2C+0x35%2C+0x22%2C+0x05+%7D%3B&type=Code&utf8=%E2%9C%93

Cheers

Graham

That's a less attractive invitation than might first appear, especially if unaccompanied by the corresponding marketing and design briefs.

Cheers

Graham

An even shorter progress report ... feel free to play with VCoin 0.9.2.2 prerelease on testnet:

https://github.com/gjhiggins/vcoin09

It’s not exactly “done” in that it's not yet up to release candidate standard but at least it gives people something to play with in the interim. The migration from 0.9.x to 10.x is quite taxing and a successful upgrade to 0.9 will be a useful staging-post, I feel.

The default clone is set to the prerelease, this is FOR TESTNET ONLY. It's a soft fork, so it does sync to mainnet BUT it's not been tested, so NOT RECOMMENDED FOR MAINNET.



There are remaining issues, the most important of which is:

THE EXCHANGE TRADING TAB HAS NOT BEEN TESTED

In order to have reliable and reproducible tests, I'll need to create mock responses to calls on Bleutrade's API. The upgrade will only get released for general use when all the API tests pass.

There are several feature branches in which the individual features were developed and later merged into the prerelease version. The graphic shows what's different (apart from the enhancements accruing from just the upgrade from 0.8.x to 0.9.x.

The master branch is pretty much the basic upgrade to 0.9.2 with “just” the addition of the in-tab block explorer and a misconceived installation of an implementation of the IRC tab that actually opens a separate window instead, an infelicity which is addressed in the prerelease version.)

There are indeed two different in-wallet block explorer implementations, feel free to choose/vote for the most useful/attractive, whatever floats the boat.

The content of the “News” tab simply indicates “available functionality”. Basically, the tab gets web content from a hard-coded URL. Obviously this is a point of centralisation at the moment but it doesn't have to be that way for ever.

An opportunity for all to consider: what user-oriented advantages might accrue from the addition of a News tab? Please spend a little while thinking on or around this subject, perhaps from your own perspective as a coin user ... but do feel free to allow your imagination to venture further abroad if that suits.

Please feel free to create issues for any problems (https://github.com/gjhiggins/vcoin09/issues), the discussions that happen in an active repos form a valuable technical comms channel for any altcoin and VCoin is no exception.

I will try to maintain a consistent IRC presence for a while as a temporary measure of support. My laptop has a habit of rebooting at random intervals (an issue somewhere in the 8Gb of RAM I guess) and I'll have to remember to reconnect, so some patience may be required.

As ever, comments, observations, questions, critiques, are all welcome.

Cheers

Graham

That's the most honest statement of the week, I feel. It's an intriguing problem tho'.

Cheers

Graham

The recent commit regresses the version of LevelDB from 0.15 to 0.12, is that intentional?

Cheers

Graham

A short progress report.

I have successfully upgraded VCoin as a fork of ZetaCoin 0.9.2. This basically involved re-re-branding Zetacoin as VCoin and transcribing the relevant parameter setting and variable bindings.

VCoin 0.9.2 is an upgrade, just download and use.

Testnet has been enabled.

The UI has been augmented slightly via the adaptation of existing code; an in-wallet block & tx explorer, an IRC chat window and a mining page (needs work). In development is a couple of BittrexBleutrade-specific tabs, a trading page and a market stats presentation, both driven by Bleutrade's almost-JSON API.

When I'm done, I'll push the code up to github.


Cheers

Graham

Only slightly off-topic (there's a comment from the Maidsafe folk), rumblings about PM David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May's intentions to backdoor all UK-sourced cryptography:

“Escaping the May-trix: Snoopers’ Charter will force a mass exodus of tech firms from the UK”
http://www.thenational.scot/news/escaping-the-may-trix-snoopers-charter-will-force-a-mass-exodus-of-tech-firms-from-the-uk.3636


but the illustration is absolutely priceless:



Cheers

Graham

Bitcentavo is a bit of clumsy copy of Bitcoin 0.8.6. The Bitcentavo GetMinFee code is:

https://github.com/bitcentavo/bitcentavo/blob/master/src/main.cpp#L599

And this is the (exactly) corresponding Bitcoin 0.8.6 code:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/03a7d673876dc8fbae876290b455c02b0cac80bd/src/main.cpp#L599

They are identical.

Not a scam but you do appear to fallen foul of the Bitcoin reference client's atrocious UI.

It won't be any consolation to you but the very latest Bitcoin 0.10.2 reference client exposes the true horror of the complexity of Bitcoin transaction fees.



If I didn't know better, I'd say that the user is expected to know the kb size of the transaction in order to be able to calculate the fee. But that is just so ludicrous a presumption that I'm sure I've missed something somewhere.

I do so appreciate the irony of the intensity of focus of the current debate about the implications of block size and wide-scale adoption, I'm surprised the participants can hear each other over the massed trumpeting of the herd of elephants in the room.

Cheers

Graham
 

Yup ...

https://github.com/search?q=nMinFee+%3D+MAX_MONEY


You're more likely to get an answer if you post a link to the GetMinFee function in main.h code in your coin's github repos, e.g. https://github.com/nicksasa/Liquidcoin/blob/d1ce42b07e07b6a950b43b9ebbb0dd351be24e42/src/main.h#L533

Cheers

Graham