[stop merge mining]

Full story: Me and my friend were working on merged mining but we haven't released this code because community is against it. By friend (Amphibian) decided to release another coin with MM support by himself and he started to debug it on a real network. Both BCN and BMR wallets aren't able to parse generating transactions with merged mining tags inside. This is not a problem for any of these networks: networks are up and running (node software doesn't check this field) and all money (except Amphibian's block rewards) are safe. But some of users aren't able to parse a blockchain.

Both BMR and BCN coin owners are to update their simplewallet software:

- BitMonero has been fixed an hour ago
- Bytecoin wasn't fixed but their fresh version also works fine.



Dear friends,

please update you BitMonero simplewallet software from git. Bug is fixed no futher problem is expected from this.

Hello!

Amphibian created a block with a bit messy generating tx format. In order to handle it wallets are to be updated. An update is released.
Sorry for this.

Note: the same problem can happen in Bytecoin.

Dear Amphibian: please stop merge mining ASAP! This issue requires better investigation.

[UPD:]

UPD: Please explain your opinion in comments

Hello!

Here is another proposal about BitMonero change influenced by a group of miners. In case community will decide we need to change this we will do this. I'm ok with any of these curves in case miners agree to send excess coins to donations. The bigger change will be adopted the more excess coins needs to be sent.

Emission curve variants



Changing procedure

First of all we need to decide here what kind of curve is best and how many coins we agree to send to donations in case change will happen. This is the purpose of this voting post.

In case most of people here will choose not to change - we will stay with current curve.
In case most of people will choose to change - we will implement curve switch to the most wanted one.

A necessary condition to actually do a curve switch is to collect excess coins from miners (see below).

Curve switch will happen gradually during 1-2 weeks and will be started as soon as 75% daemons will be updated. This is the place where miners can say "yes" or "no" to emission curve change.

Excess coins

In case of switch there will be a number "excess" of coins emitted that we have to send back to community: for donations, promotions and other activities that helps BitMonero to become better. Sending "excess" coins to community is voluntary: each miner decides himself how many coins he agrees to send. Table below provides average number of "excess" coins we have to collect. In case we fail to collect them - emission curve change will be unfair.

Here are rougth calculations of "excess" coins amount on height 20K (now we are on 12K):

Switch to curve 21: 172K coins
Switch to curve 22: 260K coins
Switch to curve 23: 324K coins

Please say in comments to this post how many coins do you (personally) agree to send back to community. This will help to calculate if we are able to do chain switch fairly.

I'm against of forced discount of already emitted coins because this destroys trust to development team. Voluntary donations is the only fair way to do this.

Comkort voting

Don't forget to vote for BitMonero on comkort exchange: https://comkort.com/vote

[MM saves energy]

Hello!

BitMonero is a new CryptoNote-based currency we have started a week ago. In this post I'll explain what is a merged mining and why I consider it as a good feature.

Merged mining is the way to use hashpower from one blockchain in several other blockchain. MM happens between two blockchains:

- a "donor" blockchain knows nothing about MM
- a "merge mining" blockchain is able to accept PoW from "donor" blockchain. Several "merge mining" blockchain can use work from "donor" blockchain at the same time (on same mining machine).

Main facts about merged mining

1. From the network's point of view MM saves energy because we use same work for several blockchains.

2. From miner's point of view MM gives additional coins to miners.

3. MM increase hashpower of all chains involved because some miners will switch from one-chain mining to MM.

Merged mining algorithm

Let's suppose we have a "donor" blockchain AAA and two "merged mining" blockchains XXX and ZZZ. As it is stated above AAA doesn't know anything about merged mining. XXX and ZZZ have to support it explicitely. Non-merged miner will mine each chain separately. Merged miners will do following actions:

1. Create block templates for XXX and ZZZ: blkXXX and blkZZZ
2. Create block template for AAA that includes references to blkXXX and blkZZZ. References are stored in coinbases because there is no suitable location in block header.
3. Mine block blkAAA:
3.1 Calculate hash for blkAAA (we don't need to calculate hash directly for "merged mining" chains as soon as they can accept PoW from "donor")
3.2 Compare hash with difficulty for AAA, XXX and ZZZ.
3.3 Submit block to corresponding network if difficulty is sufficient
3.4 Go to 3.1

Miners are free to choose any "donor" blockchain and any set of "merged mining" chains they want to support. A number of mining configurations is possible:

1. One chain mining

2. One "donor" + one "merged mining"

3. One "donor" + several "merged mining"

4. Fake "donor" + several "merged mining"

The number of "merged mining" chains miner can support at the same time isn't limited directly. As soon as at least one difficilty target is met miner can send a block to corresponing network. But there is always only one "donor" chain at the same time: each miner has to choose his own "donor" chain or use fake "donor" for mining. Fake donor means that you really don't mine any "donor" chain but only mine several "merged mining" chains together. Configuration with two donor chains isn't possible.

"Donor" chain can have more or less hashpower than "merged mining". Relative hashrate isn't important for merged mining: "donor" chain can have less hashrate that "merged mining" one. "Merged mining" network accumulates hashrate from both "donor" chain and from all other "merged mining" chains with same PoW. "Donor" chain can't use PoW from other networks directly.

Bytecoin and BitMonero merged mining

In out case BCN is a "donor" blockchain. No code changes will be implemented in BCN.

BMR can be a "merged mining" chain. In case it will accept PoW from BCN or from any other "donor" or "merged mining" blockchain with CryptoNight PoW.

In case of merged mining available each miner can choose

- to use or not to use "donor" chain
- the specfific "donor" chain to use
- the number or "merged mining" chains to support

This way nobody will loose from merged mining with such an implementation.

Action plan

Merged mining needs a hardfork: all users are to update their damons. We can't do such changes ourselves. We are asking miners to state their opinions. How to express your opinion:

- if you don't want "merged mining" in BitMonero you don't have to do anything
- if you want "merged mining" in Bitmonero you have to update yout mining daemon now. New mining daemon will issue blocks with an incremented minor_version field. In case > 75% of blocks mined will have an incremented minor_version we will accept "merged minng" and new code will be published on git.

Calculations will be perfromed on 29 April. 750 blocks with incremented minor_version from last 1000 are required to switch for merged mining.

Here is a "voting for merged mining" daemon for Windows:
https://mega.co.nz/#!ogxTXIBJ!GeAuLXWLM-YAF41ylfn2w14ZTUovRehicrevIIAph9Q

For Linux you need to build it yourself.

Hello!

BitMonero hashrate grown a lot today. Looks like an optimized miner.



You can still vote for BitMonero on Comkort: https://comkort.com/vote

Hello!

I have to write this post in order to make a clear statement about the future of Bitmonero and about plans we have because there is a lot of discussions that are very missleading for stakeholders (node owners and coin owners).


1. No protocol changes will be introduced in Bitmonero without explicit consent from miners. Why?

  - because miners are the main force that builds network security. No miners - no netwrok.

  - changes made without miners' consent are not possible technically.


2. There are two proposed protocol changes:

  - merge mining option

  - emission curve change option

In both cases we will ask miners to state their opinion explicitely. The same voting procedure is used in Bitcoin.


3. No existsing coins will be discounted. There is a proposal to discount existsing coins but we don't accept it and no voting will happen about this. Why?

Because discounting existing coins destroy trust to developers. All people having BMR coins now have stated their agreement with Bitmonero parameters so far. We have no right to make parameters worse for them.

In case emission curve will be changed this will happen only with future block rewards. Not past.


4. No name changes will be introduced without voting process.


All changes and voting needs time to be implemented. We have almost finished implementation of merged mining. As soon as it will be 100% complete I'll post about it.

While we are working on code improvement you can help us by voting for Bitmonero to be included into Comkort exchange: https://comkort.com/vote

[two weeks]

Hi!

Thank you for all supporting Bitmonero, new CryptoNote-based currency. 4 days since start everything looks to be all right and difficulty is growing (at height 6380 difficulty is 256671).

Let's create a logo.

Logo contest duration is two weeks. The best logo will be choosen by community via voting on forum. Author of the best logo has to provide proper logo sources suitable to create icons and images for web site.

Logo bounty is 300 BMR.
In case you want to add some coins to this bounty, please let us know by posting to this thread.
You can add coins to bounty anonymously by sending them to one of following addresses:

BMR: 44ygVMGfS9aUdw616f6mmTLMrjqrA89TK8NWURxmHyDZ5QNKSQsrWRR17YUJVeobP5V5EBQbsNxGhNK 6efN8dF25LuKmA9y
BCN: 29fpJpWgLaqd1kCh4mXCnkF4piQs1AYYVNQRTsoa92TTJTgwg51mxehPPiPB9MHpgkXGhgvwCVYV6Bn M7pU2PuCpQ4CFtL8
BTC: 1P6u6bxZk2riGkR5XRXvE4qymG6MqcWPx5

All logo candidates are welcome on this topic.

Original Bitmonero post is here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=563821

[Launch date - 18 April, 10:50 GMT 17 April, 22:00 GMT]

Launch date - 18 April, 10:50 GMT 17 April, 22:00 GMT

Website:

http://bitmonero.org

BMR rep is the freshest one. You may check it there: https://github.com/bitmonero-project/bitmonero

Latest update of binaries are available at www.bitmonero.org
Links:
Win 32
Win 64
Unix
Mac

I'm working on another good feature now, so stay tuned.

Freenode: #bitmonero

[Logo contest - till 28 April - bounty 300 BMR]: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=580155



Important: this is not a Bytecoin relaunch or not a Bytecoin replacement but a Bytecoin fork. Bytecoin has its own long history, community and stakeholders we don't know much about. I respect them and their decisions even if I don't understand them now. An intention to relaunch coin is always harmfull for everybody involved. Fork is a right way to contribute to community in case you don't agree with decisions already made.

- Why did I make fork?

- Because there is a number of technical and marketing issues I wanted to do differently. And also because I like ideas and technology and I want it to succeed.

I did an announcement ASAP while a lot of details aren't still defined because the earlier it is announced the more people will be able to join. Details will appear as soon as they will be defined and decided.

Here are details that are already defined and I don't plan to change this:

1. New coin will use Bytecoin(BCN)/CryptoNote code base.

2. New coin is started from scratch (i.e. from genesis block).

3. Emission schedule has a flatter curve (close to Bitcoin's original curve).

4. Bitmonero - BMR (monero /esperanto/ = coin)
    Name. Actually there are several good candidates. I have to buy corresponding domains before announcing name

5. Block target = 60 seconds

6. Penalty-free block size were increased.

CryptoNote doesn't have hard limits: all parameters are adaptive. Max block size is adaptive also. It is recalculated the same way difficulty is. In case miner creates block bigger than 1*CURRENT_MAX_BLOCK_SIZE the penalty is applied to block reward (i.e. block reward is decreased). In case miner creates block bigger than 2*CURRENT_MAX_BLOCK_SIZE such block will not be accepted by network.

For blocks below penalty-free block size this logic isn't applied. I.e. even in the blockchain with all blocks empty you can create a block of this size with full block reward. In reference code this penalty-free block size is 10Kb - this is good for 2-3 anonymous transactions (anonymous means mixin factor is 5 or more). It's better to have a bit more.

7. Decimal point were moved. There are less coins in total but initial block reward will be less than 100 coins. This is much easier for practical use. This is an UI issue only - technically there will be 2^64 - 1 atomic units.



Action plan

- I want to start mining and I don't want to wait a week. What can I don just now?

1. CryptoNote is very different from Bitcoin-based currencies and it has no GUI now. I recommed you to try Bytecoin (BCN) now to understand how to use it. The new currency will be very similar while starting.

2. If you are an Ubuntu user it is much better to update you mining machine to Ubuntu 13.10 because there are all required packages already in repo.

3. CryptoNote now works only on 64bit OSes. Actually I don't know the way to build it for 32bit OS. In order to participate you need 64bit OS.

- I want to help with development / design / marketing ...

Please PM me

- I want to integrate new currency in my sevices (pools, block explorers, exchanges etc)

Please check API pages: https://wiki.bytecoin.org/wiki/Main_Page
API is far from being complete. Please PM me for comments or ask on CryptoNote forum: https://forum.cryptonote.org/

- I want to give you money for this project

Here is a donation address in BCN: 27swAkuqXB2M2YNhxjP9qngei9iRdTsH6b2PX7K4ffpugpf3hqiuRUUQvKLxny2iE1hbUANgF81CXL2 v3AiB45v7SmRaPGd

Translations:

[Portuguese] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=563927.0

References:

[1] CryptoNote technology page: https://cryptonote.org/inside.php
[2] CryptoNote forum: https://forum.cryptonote.org/
[3] Bytecoin (BCN) site: https://bytecoin.org/
[4] Bytecoin (BCN) wiki: https://wiki.bytecoin.org/
[5] Bytecoin (BCN) main thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=512747
[6] Bytecoin (BCN) mining guide: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=544715
[7] Bytecoin (BCN) white paper: https://bytecoin.org/whitepaper.pdf