Please note that this is a possible malicious clone of a legitimate project.

See www.PoWx.org/oBTC It reads:

***Please note oBTC is the ONLY blockchain we have ever published. Others using heavyhash are not affiliated with PoWx and are very possibly malicious. Any piece of software you get anywhere outside the PoWx GitHub may be malicious.***

oBTC bitcointalk thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5368280.0

This thread has migrated to mainnet announcement: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5368280.0

What is Optical Bitcoin (oBTC)?


Optical Bitcoin [oBTC] is a Bitcoin fork using oPoW, a proof of work algorithm for optical computers developed by PoWx (www.powx.org).

We originally published an experimental net in March https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5324899.0

The network has proved stable after the initial adjustment to the genesis block difficulty. We're excited to announce that going forward, oBTC is running as the mainnet, not an experimental net.

More about Optical Bitcoin:

What has been changed in the Bitcoin codebase?

The Proof of Work has been swapped for oPoW and the halving period has been doubled.

What is oPoW?

Optical Proof of Work, a hashcash derivative that is compatible with existing optical computers developed for AI.

Who is Behind PoWx?

The founders of PoWx are Michael Dubrovsky and Bogdan Penkovsky, however, there are many contributors. More details are available on Github: https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-core/blob/master/README.md

Technology

See https://powx.org/opow

oBTC Codebase

https://www.powx.org/obtc

https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-core/releases


Individual Github links:
https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-core/
https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-pool
https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-miner
https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-bluewallet (Also available on Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.bluewallet.obtcwallet)
https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-esplora
https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-electrs


Current State of the Blockchain


The chain was fair-launched on bitcointalk as a live experimental net with an empty genesis block and has been running for some time now with miners all over the world contributing hashpower. The current block height is 30111.

Explorer:

https://explorer.powx.org/

Website:

Www.opticalbitcoin.org

Project Goals


We outlined the value proposition of oPoW in our paper, blog posts, etc. over the last several years. The long-term goal is to shift the PoW ecosystem to low-energy computing, making the hashrate more resilient and enabling a much broader geographic distribution of mining. Please see www.PoWx.org

Disclaimer


This is a completely decentralized network, which comes with it's risks and advantages.

Mine oBTC on the official pool:

http://pool.obtc.me/

Happy Mining!

Includes NVIDIA windows miner and CPU miner

oBTC NVIDIA Miner: https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-GPU-miner/releases



Community-run websites, forums, exchanges and other links (these were all created by miners/pool owners/enthusiasts and are not run by PoWx, we cannot guarantee anything about these links):

opticalbitcoin.com

https://discord.gg/Re69prZK

https://coinpaprika.com/coin/obtc-optical-bitcoin/

https://miningpoolstats.stream/opticalbitcoin

https://www.exbitron.com/trading/obtcusdt

Explorer: https://obtc.txrat.com/

Mining Software :

SRBminer MULTI 0.7.8 : https://github.com/doktor83/SRBMiner-Multi/releases/tag/0.7.8 ⛏️
(CPU,AMD GPU)

Suprminer 2.3.1 : https://github.com/ocminer/suprminer-releases ⛏️
(NVIDIA GPU)

We submitted a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal:

https://twitter.com/MikeDubrovsky/status/1392936017729101837?s=20

BIP itself can be found here: https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc/wiki/BIP

Official pool (beta):

http://pool.obtc.me/

Includes NVIDIA windows miner and cpu miner

4.5% fee to support dev team

Note that this mining farm issue is one of the reasons oPoW has the potential to democratize mining. Home miners with expensive energy costs that currently cannot compete with low power costs in China and other mining farm regions will be profitable with optical machines.

OK! Thanks for your patience and interest. The relaunch is happening. We mined a higher diff genesis block and updated the code with a new port and the new gen-block.

Changes on Github:

1. Updated oBTC Core
2. A new QT-wallet exe file

See oBTC downloads: https://www.powx.org/obtc


If you have the old QT wallet, to get onto the new chain:

1. Please download the new QT wallet
2. After installing it you reset your QT wallet as follows

Settings-> Options-> Reset Options -> OK

After this reset, your wallet will be stored in a new directory and ready to use on the new chain.



If you don't do this your wallet may not sync to the new chain.


The explorer is temporarily at https://explorer.powx.org:8888/ we'll set it back to the standard URL shortly.

Dear miners, your enthusiasm is appreciated. Please note this chain is still experimental and it may be restarted if >1 min blocks are not maintained. Don't be greedy.

Quick update:

We are fixing a few cosmetic things as well as working on relaunch with higher diff. It may be done earlier but we are targeting end of the month to relaunch. We will post here once we launch and in the discord.

Please stop mining unless you just want to help us do testing. We will post here when we relaunch. We will make sure the diff is high enough right away at relaunch. If you're frustrated with us experimenting, please read the disclaimer in the original post... Thanks for all the interest again, we really didn't expect it!

As I was saying in Discord (the one that Matusik484 posted https://discord.gg/JvPep78Ysa), it looks like we set the difficulty too low. We didn't expect so many people to start mining. (thanks for the interest!). Of course, we can't go to prod with the chain running 1-second blocks so we will have to reset with a higher diff genesis block after we do some more testing. We launched with 1 min blocks and thought it would adjust to ten over time .

We're figuring out where to get the hashpower to mine a high diff genesis and will post here when we are ready to relaunch.

What is oBTC?

Optical Bitcoin [oBTC] is an experimental Bitcoin fork using oPoW, proof of work algorithm for optical computers developed by PoWx (www.powx.org).

What has been changed in the Bitcoin codebase?

The Proof of Work has been swapped for oPoW and the halving period has been doubled.

What is oPoW?

Optical Proof of Work, a hashcash derivative that is compatible with existing optical computers developed for AI.

Who is Behind PoWx?

The founders of PoWx are Michael Dubrovsky and Bogdan Penkovsky, however, there are many contributors. More details are available on Github: https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-core/blob/master/README.md

Technology

See https://powx.org/opow

oBTC Codebase

https://www.powx.org/obtc

Individual Github links:
https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-core/
https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-pool
https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-miner
https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-bluewallet (Also available on Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.bluewallet.obtcwallet)
https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-esplora
https://github.com/PoWx-Org/obtc-electrs

Current State of the Blockchain

As we are publishing this, the chain is at block height ~10 and is in the process of adjusting to the correct 10-min block time. The genesis block was empty (i.e. there was no pre-mine and the BTC transaction history was not preserved).

Project Goals

We outlined the value proposition of oPoW in our paper, blog posts, etc. over the last several years. The long-term goal is to shift the PoW ecosystem to low-energy computing, making the hashrate more resilient and enabling a much broader geographic distribution of mining. Please see www.PoWx.org

Disclaimer

This is an experimental network. We’re hoping that it’s usable and stable as is based on our testing, however, if you mine it, note that you are doing so at your own risk. We may have to relaunch the network in the future and coin balances may be lost. We will be posting updates on the state of development and critical upcoming milestones.

Update (May 2021): Although we did end up having to reset the network once shorty after publishing due to low initial difficulty, it has been stable for some months and will not be reset again without conserving balances.

Contact us

Please fill out the contact form on https://www.powx.org/

Contribute

https://www.powx.org/join-us

Donate to the project

BTC donations address: bc1qw2ktw8j2h5zat83fsx2mwjee6red8wl358ytnf6srg4lm65t98eqcdpzxk

oBTC donations address: bc1qgwsxekczx5qjua3guunp8d2ep0p3thas46ktvc

Questions?

We are all volunteers, so have limited time to field questions but here is a form you can fill out:

https://forms.gle/mbqxUjFaSypjenez7

We will check on this from time to time and do our best to answer. In the meantime, there are a lot of great resources on our website to review.

Mine oBTC on the official (beta):

http://pool.obtc.me/

Includes NVIDIA windows miner and cpu miner

4.5% fee to support dev team

https://assets.pubpub.org/xi9h9rps/01581688887859.pdf

More complete paper published recently, and related talk:

https://youtu.be/-URzxEjeBu4