What, your wife won't climb the stairs and break out the slide rule for you once you school her in the Linux command line and grep*? Some people...

The 4 blocks leading up to the change took 20m. The last 4 blocks since the change took 1h6m. Naturally there's small-sample variance here, and IANAL, but my medical opinion is that there appears to be a slowdown, yes.

*Speaking of which, that's how I'm checking this. I'm ready for Lesson Four... Querying the *coind to Find Things Out. Who wants to be my Khan Academy? Or should I just install abe and have at it from the safe confines of PostgreSQL? https://github.com/bitcoin-abe/bitcoin-abe

Apparently I was on the right track, just a little off on the increase and a few hours off in my timing: difficulty jumped 3.8x to 62.7K about half an hour ago, based on (if I'm reading this right) an average estimated hash rate for last 2016 blocks of 449GH/s! Not too shabby for a 5-day-old coin.

Does anyone know where I can see the hash rates for all the other alt coins that ATC will inevitably crush like bugs?

Rival posted around 02:30 GMT on the 2nd that ATC had just hit the 16,384 difficulty mark. It's 03:00 GMT on the 5th now, so that was 72.5hrs or 261,000s ago.

If the diff changes on ATC every 2016 blocks like Bitcoin, and the max jump is a quadrupling, then when Rival posted we'd just crossed block 14,112. We're now crunching block 15,952. So we've done 1840 blocks of 2016 for this diff.

This is where my calculator starts to melt a bit, so set me straight if I'm bent: the fact that we've done 1840 blocks in 261,000s means an average of 142s per block.

We're supposed to be at 512s per block based on the coin's settings, so the code will auto adjust and difficulty is going to go up by (512s/142s) = 3.61x in (2016-1840) = 176 blocks, or an estimated (176 * 142s) = 24,965s or 6.9 hours from now, if nothing else changes.

Am I even close as to how this is figured out?

I wish it had source, but it is what it is for now. Congrats on the profit, I wish I was mining on day one. Lesson One. But I am mining 'em now, so I've figured that out, Lesson Two. And I'll keep collecting them from anyone who wants out, it's cheap tuition.

Pankkake mentioned that I could learn this stuff on the Bitcoin testnet, but that's like playing poker for toothpicks. I've got to at least use quarters to put my brain in the right frame of mind, to have some skin in the game.

Next up: Lesson Three: difficulty calculations.

Congrats guys, thanks for posting the update. It's an hour later but I see 1 LTC is 0.02645 so 3 LTC is say 0.07935 BTC or 7,935,000 satoshi.

Divided by 100,000 ATC that's a valuation of 79 satoshi per ATC. (You must really have wanted LTC... Ladies and gentlemen, ATC is crashing! If anyone wants to panic sell, I'm here for you.

iGotSpots, are you still out there HODLING, or did MPOE-PR get to you first?

As long as I know I can trust you to remember to punch me in the throat as soon as I do/say something stupid, all is well.


Great XKCD link, btw... since that's your full time job, you really should tell MP it's time for a raise. The tide of newbies is rising, and I hear he had a good year last year. We're not all going to educate ourselves.

Speaking of which, TAT, should we be saying ALT or ATC or ALC? I think the home page says ATC. That seems to go well with BTC, just one step ahead, like HAL was to IBM.

Sir, I will cut you down where you stand, so help me Satoshi!

Dammit. The only rapier I have is my wit. Um... let's see... never bring a knife to a gunfight?

Yes, I got tired of waiting and it was a small buy. I'm halfway to that pizza, I can taste it already. Now who's The Greater Fool, people? Enh? Enh? Wait a minute... aw, never mind. I accept my fate.

I'll offer 300 satoshi per ATC for the rest of today (GMT), any takers?

I wonder, were we the first non-mining transaction on this chain? Embarrassed that I don't know how to tell without a Bootstrap-formatted web site to tell me. See, this is why I'm here, to get schooled.

Thanks Pankkake!

So... ThickAsThieves, is source code going to happen or was it too late to get it from the guy after the fact?

If not available, should we rev-eng or regen it? I can ante up for that if needed, let me know.

Oh that is classic, I remember that exchange. And thank you... I was sure you were going to rip into us for "wanting to be part of something" that "doesn't need us". I know it doesn't... I just want to enjoy the show, and maybe come up with one useful idea before I die. Even if that is just making crypto 1% approachable for people don't even deserve it, I'll count that as a win.

No argument on any of that. Doge and the other *alts act as a nice holding pen for noobs of varying experience / ability / insight who want to own a billion of something (however worthless) rather than 0.0123 of something (however valuable). We are all served by, and deserve, the tech we choose.

I choose BTC for real life, where I'd rather not learn by trial and error, and ATC as well, a school, a place where I can screw up and have a do-over. As someone well aware that he is absolutely not qualified to host yet another Bitcoin exchange or other high-value, high-risk site, ATC seems a fine lab environment to write code around a tiny blockchain, create wallets, sites, services that maybe no one will ever use... Or rather, tools that I may never even start, let alone finish.

I'll come out of it knowing more than I did before, and be that much closer to creating something useful down the line for Bitcoin users. Or not, who knows? That's entrepreneurship right there:

1) Try something, 2) See what happens, 3) Repeat.


Exactly! I want to buy a pizza with 10k ATC and regret it later. I'm even willing to throw away a fraction of a Bitcoin (and regret that later too) for the experience.

Thanks Rival, good luck to you too.

If you hear of any pools / exchanges / news, I guess this is the place we post 'em for those not on IRC.

Reminds me, TAT quoted me over on #bitcoin-assets...


I'm not sure if he was making fun of me or not -- I know he's not a fan of altcoins in general. I'm not sure I am either. But I think I can learn something from them.

The reason quoted above is just one aspect of my interest in ATC... I know it's not the only SHA-256 cryptocoin after BTC, and that thanks to coingen there will be plenty more. But I'm trying to figure out what happens to, say, 10PH/s of equipment currently pointed at Bitcoin when newer gear renders it obsolete. IIRC, Litecoin and the other scrypt alts were all born out of people trying to wring value from obsoleted graphics cards. That is going to happen with the first gen ASICs too, and then it is all going to be about branding in the SHA-256 alt space.

To be clear, because I took this as a given in previous posts: as far as I'm concerned, Bitcoin is the One True Cryptocurrency. It's the Honey Badger -- it don't care about any of the alts... it don't need to. I've never been interested in any alts until Altcoin popped on the radar. Sure, a big pool could wreck it as you would swat a bug.  But until then, it looks like a nice little lab, a safer playground to really explore the Bitcoin source and try out ideas:

"Hrm, let's see... It doesn't have a pool. How would someone even make a pool? If I was going to hire that financial programmer I know to make an altcoin exchange that didn't suck, where would I start? What does it take to make a block explorer site?"

Bitcoin is an investment and a tool and a teacher (mostly of regret, amirite?). I want Altcoin so I can experiment and have things blow up in my face without actual damage, without the stress of losing Real Money (Bitcoin). Playing with Altcoin would be a safer kiddie pool to learn to swim in.

It's like being around for the early days of Bitcoin, only:

• it's a Groundhog Day version where you've seen it all unfold before,
• you don't have to explain it to Unbelievers,
• pools, dice sites, and wallets have already been invented,
• you're hearing about it in the first week.

I see this as a do-over. What do you do differently this time? (Hint: figure out how to mine and Do It Already since no one is selling yet.)

Sure, I could head over to coingen and whip out Altcoin2. Anyone could. (Pro tip: pay up for the source code next time, for crying out loud. TAT: How's that coming, anyway?)

But I know from experience that some of the most solid services in Bitcoin have sprung from the mad whims of the crew of the good ship #bitcoin-assets, and even an alt they start as a joke will likely be the start of something more useful than any alt to date.

If "useful" one day turns into "valuable", then awesome, yay us. If it doesn't, the reset button is always within reach. But I intend to learn a lot from this sim before I press it.

After years of lurking on this forum and other corners of the Bitcoiniverse, I finally come out of the shadows to speak up because I want to spend some BTC and no one wants it?


Stay classy, Nthuser... you have like 3 offers above. You have a PM from me and who knows who else.

You know you can buy LTC with Bitcoin, right? Pick a number, you're holding up the Altcoin economy here. Extort already.

ThickAsThieves, regretting that decision not to premine yet?

Au contraire mon frère... this here is a novelty play, like that one with the canine theme. A wise man told me long ago that:


Okay, so it was only about a week ago and he was a young art student -- but wise beyond his years. Doge was the first coin to capture the imagination of people not in the core Bitcoin demographic, as is being discussed RFN under the title "Dogecoin WTF?" http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1wxmsn/dogecoin_wtf/ It has 750+ comments in four hours... jeebus! What are we still doing here on this thrice-hacked forum?

Altcoin caught my attention right away precisely for its lack of some new twist. It could be the next useful branded (yet unbranded, WTF?) cryptocoin experience. Getting to see it this early feels like the early days of Bitcoin right here, at least in the little fantasyland in my head. For the price of a few satoshis I can relive what I missed in the first year of Bitcoin: I could give my nieces and nephews a block of 512 ATC and get them into this scene in a few years.

Now would someone please take my money?

The name is the best part and really the point.

So let the games begin: I PM'd some folks but haven't heard anything back, and I read above that it's more above-board to bid publicly.

I'll buy ATC for 0.2 BTC per 100,000 ATC (200 satoshis per ATC) until end-of-day Feb 5th (GMT). PM or reply here...

Rival, how much you got? Ankle pins can't be cheap, man.

"I got a fever, and the only prescription, is more Altcoin!"
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_cowbell

Hey Corey, I'm no expert but check out the README files in the bfgminer source distribution, specifically:

https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer/blob/bfgminer/README
https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer/blob/bfgminer/README.ASIC

Some people above mentioned using...


...in the commandline before...


Maybe that'll get it to notice your devices.

One other thing I read somewhere was that if you're not running bfgminer as root, you need to change the rights on your USB device so the user account can see it. The example I saw (can't find a link now) was:


If that works for you, I'll buy some of what you mine!

Sorry to hear about your ankle, youch! Hope you're back up and at 'em soon.

Looks like the diff is still at 16.4k and blocks were discovered so far today as fast as 14 per hour and as slow as 5 per hour.

Not sure I'm reading all this correctly, mind you.

How often will the diff change? I mean, I know it will vary based on mining hash-power but is it every 2016 blocks like Bitcoin? Or was it somehow set to 512 on this one?

Also, where do I look to see what block number we're at?

I told myself I should find out more about altcoins and then I saw TAT give birth to this perfectly named one on #bitcoin-assets and figured it was the right place to start.

Since it's a SHA-256 coin, this is an interesting one to follow because the same equipment can mine it. It must have felt great to be CPU mining the other day, on Day 0!

Still nothing in the mail from HashFast, DeathAndTaxes? I see they tweeted a pretty picture but no further talk of shipping since New Year's Eve.

Does anyone here have (or can any of you point me at) updated projections for Jan or Q1 for overall ASIC shipments?

Or any news from Cointerra? Is there a new thread and I've just missed it?

I have got to check in on these forums more often!

Thanks Dooglus for seeing this through to the end. You represent the ideal of honesty we should all strive for in peer-to-peer finance. If Bitcoin truly breaks through to be used by the masses, it will be because of actions like yours.

I've sent a 10% tip your way and urge anyone else who has benefited from Dooglus' hard work here to do the same.

I will happily rate you on OTC... once I figure out how. Will message you separately.