I'm trying to plan an altcoin that allows for small-scale mining without creating new blocks by incorporating certain nonces that may be mined up as transactions into an existing block. However, I'm not highly proficient in the implementation of bitcoin(the design is OK for me) so I'm just proposing it and hacking off bitcoinj quietly in the background.

1. Why create a new one? I'll just use Java.

2. Basically when I'm mining, I'm taking hashes of the block header and nonce. once in a while I'll find a hash with some 0s in front like 000000001f636a8c6a959086b074687 (that's not a real hash and not the right length). However many 0s are how "good" the hash is. In traditional bitcoin if you have a certain number of 0's in front (or more) you create a block. here, I'm also allowing obtaining coins from hashes with less leading 0's, as long as that hash is still above the easier difficulty.

Is the satellite designed on open hardware? Will the design and other specifics of that sort be public?

Yes, if humans had the ability to yell at 20 others at a time and perform SHA in their heads.

Thanks for the criticism, but who ever said c++ is the only language out there? What if I wished to create a totally new system in Java? Anyway I updated the title of the thread in light of your criticism. I'm also not necessarily seeking a financial gain in this (though I wouldn't reject it if it came my way).

I wouldn't word it that way. A block isn't really mined, it's created by someone that found a valid nonce(working parameter to hashing) by bruteforce. If their hash they found is a "really good match" they can create a block, relay transactions, and collect fees. If their hash is not that goo a match (fails the high standard but passes the low standard) they can get coins. They just don't get the chance to create a block and collect fees of transactions put into that block.

First of all, I'm most definitely not using C++ for this as my knowledge of it sucks. I'm likely forking bitcoinj for this, and using that as an official client. I know basic to moderate cryptography/cryptology and have studied the technical design of bitcoin, but I am self-taught so my terminology is likely crap.

This thread is extremely likely to change or die depending on my personal responsibilities and free time, as well as how coding goes. There is NO ETA. With that said, let's get started.

ShardCoin? Yes. A coin that can be created in shards. Perhaps an interesting idea, perhaps a stupid one. We'll see. In traditional bitcoin mining, every single coin created is created at the minting of a block into which transactions enter. The miner gets their 50 25 BTC and tx fees and is happy. But what about all these uber-small miners out there, trying to mine? Pools? An external solution to an internal concept problem.

ShardCoin is somewhat different, in that the network carries two difficulties depending on mining successes and the current hashrate. The first, high difficulty, is extremely similar to the bitcoin network. A working nonce reaching this difficulty will get their share of coins, as an input into the block's transactions paid to the miner. This is targeted to happen once every 2.5 minutes. Read on.

The second difficulty is much easier compared to the first. A nonce meeting this difficulty will NOT create a new block, as that would bloat the blockchain crazily. These will be targeted to be generated once every few seconds, network-wide. Nonces are tried with a different set of fields. However, if these nonces do not create blocks, what is their purpose? They would actually become transactions granting a certain number of coins to a given private key. The public key, the nonce, and details about the current block(serial number and perhaps its hash) are included in this hashing calculation. If this meets a difficulty as hashed, it is entered as a transaction into the blockchain, except with no inputs and the nonce/public key/block ID provided. The address provided now gets their share of spendable, transferable coins after 6 confirmations. A double-spend could likewise occur in this case without these confirmations.

This operation, however, carries a small fee, needed in order for mega-miners to accept the generation. This fee would need to be sufficient in order for a miner to value adding these transactions over manipulating the currency by deliberately denying them entry. That is a pitfall that must be addressed.

Difficulty calculations will act to keep the rate of creating blocks to once every 2.5 minutes, and creating mining transactions every 5 or so seconds on the network.

The hashing method may be scrypt, but it could also be expanded requiring lookups in random locations on the blockchain, forbidding mining on disk-less devices without appreciable losses of hashing power.

Economics and planned release:
I'm really going to need some feedback here. I plan to pre-mine 256 blocks of this coin in order to establish a chain. The coins from the first 256 blocks would be defined as unspendable in the code but would count toward difficulty calculations (especially important early on).

7.96 isn't going to do you much. I cautiously purchased .414 GHS and tried it, I got roughly 8 US cents so far having mined all day. Anyway, here's mu little bar they gave me:

I think some sort of archives of the image (torrent or some other distributed+decentralized system that can support large amounts of data) could help preserve this. If this could turn into a decentralized system overall(including image submission) it could be worthwhile for the same reasons why this site itself is.

I'd rewrite that to a VM or any computer without keys to an appreciable number of bitcoins. A bad program on an offline signing machine can cause loss of your cold storage wallet by deletion or corruption.

Invoking my right to bump up to once per day, relative to GMT-5.

Java need not mine directly, and hotspot optimization is better than you may think. If it wasn't for the GPU issues one's servlets would include DiabloMiner which has comparable hashrates to other, non-Java miners on the same GPU.

Why not ask admins to rename your account(assuming that's possible/allowed)? You might lose trust as any previous trust posts would be mentioning your old username but that would be about it.

For cryptographic purposes, what assumptions may we make about fiat currency serial numbers? Nonrepetitive? Unpredictable for a given denomination (above guessing chance)?

Confirmed: Everything ended up working. Thanks!

Hey, I'm trying to deposit a smallish amount (.03 BTC) to get started for now, and I have over 14 confritmations on the transaction. This makes those coins unspendable for me, either on bitcoin directly, or on cex.io.

The deposit page indicates that it was received but is pending with only 2 confirmations seen there.

Many others are reporting the same issue in chat. Could it be fixed or could we get a refund for the coins?

It will be your turn when BTC reaches $50000, naturally.

You must create some sort of wallet using a website or a program and import that private key. For example, as a temporary measure(don't rely on web wallets for large sums) create an account at blockchain.info/wallet, and on "Import/Export" paste the private key in. Do not choose to sweep funds, just import directly. You now have your coins.

I would suggest installing something like multibit or the official bitcoin wallet program, and sending your coins from blockchain.info to your new address stored on that program.

Doesn't matter. In a transaction with nearly everyone (myself included, obviously) there's risk of being scammed. The circumstances do appear to make it more likely in this case, at least from past experience.

Here's the thing with this. In order to have a usable address you need both the share and secret details from that site. The point is that the secret is needed to use or spend money sent to the share address (private and public keys, for technical users). If you closed the tab long ago, that makes the secret irrecoverable, making your coins lost, unfortunately.

In a way, it's like creating a locked drop box, throwing away the key, and having people put money in that locked dropbox. Except here, you can't pry it open with a crowbar in a reasonable amount of time.