14-round Blake-256. Been stated elsewhere, but the miner is a fork of an older version of cgminer with a rewritten kernel. It has been built for both AMD and NVIDIA cards, but it is likely that an optimized miner for NVIDIA cards will take a little finesse and a fork of ccminer. Miner binaries and specifications are forthcoming with the release of a public testnet in the near future. A final reminder for airdrop participants to confirm the process will go out today - it's the eleventh hour now - and then the project transitions into the next phase, where the focus will be on testnet evaluation, getting miners comfortable, and working on community organisation. Assuming no issues, mainnet launches one week after the release of a public testnet.

Updated the OP text with an erratum section to explain the change in the original projected mainnet launch date. Hopefully that helps avoid some confusion and brings it up to date. Any other changes to that text will be reflected in the erratum section - do not believe there can be many in reality, but it is there for objective clarity and transparency.

Only the latest address a participant submits is stored, and that's where the coins go.

Yes. You can update your address there - just do not lose the seed to the verified address you used or you will not be able to import it into a wallet later on (which means no coins).

Last batch of invitation e-mails are firing! Please make sure you have @decred.org whitelisted in case it goes to spam. Next milestone is public testnet and welcoming Decred's miners with binaries and specifications!

Should clarify that Jan 18th signifies the close of airdrop sign up. The project will then have to process those remaining participants before public testnet and miner binaries are released. It's important to square away one process before another is entered so the overall trajectory can be as smooth as possible for everyone - that way everyone can enjoy proper support in the new phase we enter. Updates will be posted as soon as they happen, but the overall project delay will be in terms of weeks, not months (rest assured).

This has been stated earlier in the thread, but the miner is a fork of an older version of cgminer with a rewritten kernel. It has been built for both AMD and NVIDIA cards, but it is likely that an optimized miner for NVIDIA cards will take a little finesse and a fork of ccminer. Testnet and miner binaries, alongside miner specifications will be released one week prior to the launch of mainnet. This is done in an effort to not produce mining information in all kinds of different ways across different platforms and to keep the process as fair as possible for everyone. The same information will be released to everyone in the same way. The focus right now is to get through the airdrop process and get that sorted for all the participants. Once that is done, the focus will shift toward the aforementioned binaries for testing and mining - which will then receive priority attention.

Another batch went out at about 5:30 PM CST (01/15/16). Remember to check your spam if you haven't received an invite yet.

There is more information about consensus in the introduction to Decred (Technology) and the technical brief (Hybrid PoW/PoS Design) pages on the wiki.

You are likely in the second batch of participants and their e-mails will go out in the near future. You can PM _ingsoc on the project's forum and he can look at your application for you if you need to check up on its status.

Oh no, it wasn't an accusation of linking to anything. The name seemed to resemble Decred, so it had to be said that there is no association - worried about users getting confused, if it's not made clear. It's appreciated that you brought it up.

The project has had no contact from Litecred, so nobody has any knowledge of what that's about. Everyone is encouraged to look at every piece of information critically and judge it based on that. It would be irresponsible if that isn't said, and stressed, so please be aware and ask if you're unsure.

The 5k hard cap on participants stem from a few places: (1) include as many contributors to the project as possible so as to spread Decred's network as far and wide as possible from day 1, (2) have everyone receive more than 100 coins no matter how many people join the project (~168 at 5k participants), (3) keep the logistical challenge of reviewing each application individually under control, so the project can deliver what it has put forward in reasonable time with as few delays as possible. Point (1) can be viewed as a balance against the realities of the cost of developing Decred (since April, 2014) - you don't pay for the devs' effort, it's their cross to bear, which is why they are made to pay for any coins they get and you get them for free.


The process is first-come, first-served - assuming you are approved as an applicant. No approved applicant will be excluded at the expense of new participants. The only exception to this is if it's discovered an approved participant was fraudulent in their application. Every effort is made to circumvent this, which is also why each application receives individual attention.


This project is about openness and transparency. However, it also has a duty of care and responsibility toward those who have put faith in it by submitting an application to join this effort. Many people have applied and are interested in what's being proposed here, but cannot necessarily have public association with Decred - that is understood and will be upheld.

The only reason a number hasn't been made public yet is to be principled in communication about the airdrop participants. It sets a standard of privacy that the project will uphold about its participants. Having said that, it does not set a good standard to have information about the number of airdrop participants scattered all over different platforms at different points in time - this will lead to misinformation and misreporting in the future. There will be a single release of information once airdrop has concluded and once the information has been compiled properly. It will be in the form of general statistical information about the number of participants. What has been said, so it is repeated here, is that participants have come from over 100 different countries to date.


The number of airdrop participants relate to the number of participants in the network from mainnet launch, who may not necessarily contribute through PoW mining - it's an opportunity for anyone to have a voice and be part of the project regardless of their standing (so long as they are contributors). The more people involved in a constructive way, the easier it becomes to keep things in check. Please see this post for detailed information regarding c0/devs' role in the network under various scenarios (please also see the attached spreadsheet in that post for detailed subsidy projections).


If less than 5k people are approved and generate their addresses, less than 5k participants will join the network from the airdrop. All approved participants will be included so long as the cap isn't reached.


Individual participant information will never be made available. That is a complete violation of privacy. You have to judge the project by its actions. There are reasonable compromises that must be made. If the project asked for your money to be part of the airdrop, it would be reasonable for you to burn each person responsible for getting this off the ground at the stake. All that is asked of you is some time, a contributory and constructive (but critical) mindset, and an interest in building something together that the project and many that have joined feel can be improved on as a collective. Since the project will not violate individual privacy, it is a reasonable compromise to trust - if you are so inclined - that every reasonable effort is made to verify each applicant and include them accordingly if they are valid and contributory.

Testnet and miner binaries will be released a week prior to the launch of mainnet. This will be accompanied by miner specifications, so everyone can prepare adequately and get comfortable. Please do note that the current tentative date for launch is the 25th, but this may change on the basis of testing and development. The software will take precedence over dates, that's why they're tentative.

No, the airdrop is not exclusive to Bitcointalk accounts. They are valid forms of online presence if they are not obvious throwaway accounts and have some history of legitimate engagement. Any online presence is valid - there is no discrimination on the basis of platforms.


Edited because this question was missed in reference to the comment on Decred's international community. What this means is the project is seeing global participation. At present, participants have come from over 100 different countries.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding if you believe Decred is an attack on Bitcoin. The type of thinking where everything new is a threat is archaic and monolothic and needs to be shattered. If anything, this project attempts to show that a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship can exist between projects like Decred and Bitcoin. c0 has contributed to Bitcoin for years - just look at btcsuite, and that continues unhindered. There has been no claim that the proposed development ecosystem in Decred is perfect, but there are claims to it being progressive and it's based on a public track record of free and open-source software.

Whilst this rebuttal by no means aims to belittle your view, it does try and take a stand and argue against the notion that we must all blindly fall in line behind Bitcoin without question - why? The reason Decred exists is because of many years of experiences in the Bitcoin development environment. All the developers working on Decred respect Bitcoin and either currently or in the past have contributed to it. Exploration based on this experience is by definition progress, and it's not progress to the disadvantage of either - it pulls both Decred and Bitcoin forward simultaneously.

Having said that, it is urged you read a previous and detailed post on the figures you're citing. Keep in mind c0/devs did not get a single coin for free. Every coin given to them was purchased and/or worked for through development, and as such, they are the only ones carrying the risk for bringing and developing new technology. The community was not asked to carry any risk, which is why coins given to the community were given freely without any expectation or condition placed on them. It was the only reasonable balance between reality and the cost of creating new technology, whilst not pushing that onto users to carry. The project never asked for anyone's money, nor will it ever do that. Everyone here is here by their own free will and interest in building and hacking on technology together.

That's part of the goal. Bring back and unite people who are serious about getting involved in a project that wants to focus on and empower development. The hope is that a strong and sustainable development ecosystem will have spillover effects into other areas.


Yes, that will certainly be sufficient. Decred hopes to attract contributors, and if you're legitimately involved in cryptocurrencies and the issues around them, it's considered contributory.

This is a fair concern. There are a number of verification steps involved - hence the reason why the project had to push back the invitation e-mails being sent out. Every application receives individual attention. Most platforms today show an account creation date, and an application is more likely to be rejected if it's clear that the moniker that signed up cannot be linked to the URL submitted. This is why it is encouraged participants sign up with an online presence of some sort. There are also technical checks in place to avoid gaming the initiative. No system is going to be perfect, but reasonable steps can be taken to make it as inclusive and fair as possible.

That's all that is required. Essentially, it's just a very basic mechanism to avoid the initiative being abused, and to qualify the participation to include people who are contributors (can be anything from engagement with issues, developers, designers, people with ideas, and so on). If you're not a bot, you got a spot!

Airdrop confirmation e-mails will be going out today and continue being sent into early next week. The airdrop form confirms your entry when you submit. Didn't want to spam people's inboxes with mail given that there would be a confirmation e-mail with instructions on how to generate your address.