[ANN] official NovaCoin thread - the original PoS+scrypt coin.

[Balthazar]

Which do you think would be most beneficial to the coin?

I think that it's all about balance.   Traders and miners are parts of self-regulated system.

I think it is safe to say that there are currently scrypt FPGAs in the wild or at least a dump truck full of new GPUs mining scrypt from profits of the past months.  As these FPGAs start to ship out, the NVC difficulty will more than likely increase which will make the block reward smaller.  Anyone else think we will see < 1 NVC PoW block reward in 2014?  Talk about a rare coin!

For the reward lower than 1.00 we need a difficulty higher than 240000000. I doubt that it's possible in 2014.

Code:

Difficulty Reward

500 8.872989
1000 7.904935
2000 7.042496
3000 6.582306
4000 6.274151
5000 6.045097
6000 5.864168
7000 5.715426
8000 5.589633
9000 5.480975
10000 5.385569
20000 4.797996
30000 4.484473
40000 4.274529
50000 4.118476
60000 3.995211
70000 3.893874
80000 3.808172
90000 3.734145
100000 3.669145
100000 3.669145
200000 3.268837
300000 3.055235
400000 2.912202
500000 2.805885
600000 2.721905
700000 2.652865
800000 2.594477
900000 2.544043
1000000 2.499759
2000000 2.227032
3000000 2.081508
4000000 1.984060
5000000 1.911627
6000000 1.854412
7000000 1.807376
8000000 1.767597
9000000 1.733236
10000000 1.703066
20000000 1.517259
30000000 1.418114
40000000 1.351724
50000000 1.302376
60000000 1.263396
70000000 1.231351
80000000 1.204249
90000000 1.180840
100000000 1.160285

Anyway, we can change PoW reward function to make a reward drop slower or faster, if this would be requested by majority of users... But this would require a voting like it happened with PoS reward function before.

[Balthazar]

Experimental builds are updated again.  [AMD64  | i686 | src]

Changes list:

• Core: New proof-of-stake miner implementation. Performance issues resolved, almost 100x faster with massive inputs amount;
• Qt: Coinbase/coinstake transaction records appearance unification;
• Lib: update to Berkeley DB 6.0.20.

Stress test in the TestNet

http://s006.radikal.ru/i213/1401/21/22b9e8099046.png

Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake mining using more than 1 million coins and almost 20k transactions. Stake miner eats one CPU core but there is absolutely no performance issues.  

It actually doesn't matter, but we'll try to decrease CPU usage in the future.

[boinc]

http://s006.radikal.ru/i213/1401/21/22b9e8099046.png

Wow such balance many input 

[Balthazar]

how fast so crypto

// I've just thought about selling nootropic medicines for some NVC... I have 1kg of Piracetam and I think that it's really too much  

[Balthazar]

Experimental builds are updated again.  [AMD64  | i686 | src]

Changes list:

• Core: New proof-of-stake miner implementation. Performance issues resolved, almost 100x faster with massive inputs amount;
• Qt: Coinbase/coinstake transaction records appearance unification;
• Lib: update to Berkeley DB 6.0.20.

And again...

• Core: Proof-of-Stake miner optimizations and cleanup;
• Core: Remove BDB support;
• Core: Automatically remove old transactions index database if that's necessary, no runaway exceptions anymore.

P.S. Mac OS X build was replaced too.

[glendall]

how fast so crypto

// I've just thought about selling nootropic medicines for some NVC... I have 1kg of Piracetam and I think that it's really too much  

Hahah where does a person get a spare kilogram of piracetam from ? Haha     No need to answer that, actually. But that's funny.

[Balthazar]

Testing branch has been updated.

https://github.com/CryptoManiac/novacoin/tree/novacoin-next

screenshot

Switch to unspent coins approach

This commit replaces old transactions index with unspent coins database
which contains a basic metadata like heights, amounts, coinstake/coinbase 
flags and timestamps.

We still need access to blockchain for proof-of-stake blocks validation. 
Currently CheckProofOfStake() uses the coin database to find the block height, 
and then scans that block to find the dependency of coinstake kernel.

Batch block connection during initial block download

This reduces the load on the database engine, as subsequent blocks often
update an earlier block's transaction already.

As a result we've got a significantly smaller (~30% drop of size) and faster database.

Windows binaries will be published soon.

[Balthazar]

Hahah where does a person get a spare kilogram of piracetam from ? Haha     No need to answer that, actually. But that's funny.

[Balthazar]

Testing branch has been updated.

https://github.com/CryptoManiac/novacoin/tree/novacoin-next

screenshot

Switch to unspent coins approach

This commit replaces old transactions index with unspent coins database
which contains a basic metadata like heights, amounts, coinstake/coinbase 
flags and timestamps.

We still need access to blockchain for proof-of-stake blocks validation. 
Currently CheckProofOfStake() uses the coin database to find the block height, 
and then scans that block to find the dependency of coinstake kernel.

Batch block connection during initial block download

This reduces the load on the database engine, as subsequent blocks often
update an earlier block's transaction already.

As a result we've got a significantly smaller (~30% drop of size) and faster database.

Windows binaries will be published soon.

[AMD64  | i686 | src]

Please note that this feature is extremely experimental ATM, some parts of functionality weren't tested very well.

Update: binaries were rebuilt from latest snapshot. No broadcasting attempts of orphaned coinstake txns anymore.

[Balthazar]

Testing branch has been updated.

https://github.com/CryptoManiac/novacoin/tree/novacoin-next

screenshot

Switch to unspent coins approach

This commit replaces old transactions index with unspent coins database
which contains a basic metadata like heights, amounts, coinstake/coinbase 
flags and timestamps.

We still need access to blockchain for proof-of-stake blocks validation. 
Currently CheckProofOfStake() uses the coin database to find the block height, 
and then scans that block to find the dependency of coinstake kernel.

Batch block connection during initial block download

This reduces the load on the database engine, as subsequent blocks often
update an earlier block's transaction already.

As a result we've got a significantly smaller (~30% drop of size) and faster database.

Windows binaries will be published soon.

[AMD64  | i686 | src]

Please note that this feature is extremely experimental ATM, some parts of functionality weren't tested very well.

Update: binaries were rebuilt from latest snapshot. No broadcasting attempts of orphaned coinstake txns anymore.

Updated again.

• Don't process PoS block coinbase in the ConnectBlock()/DisconnectBlock(), ~3-4mb smaller database size;
• Known issues with reorganize and PoS miner has been fixed.

Update: issue suspected with validation of coinstake signature in block #69484, we can't reproduce it but "-next" builds were removed for now.

[Balthazar]

Update: issue suspected with validation of coinstake signature in block #69484, we can't reproduce it but "-next" builds were removed for now.

Fixed, new builds will be published later.

[glon]

I am completely new to NVC... downloaded the latest win client v0.4.4.6 and getting the following error on launch:



Any ideas? Thanks!

[Balthazar]

I am completely new to NVC... downloaded the latest win client v0.4.4.6 and getting the following error on launch:



Any ideas? Thanks!

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=143221.msg4310529#msg4310529

Q: Why I'm getting runaway exception while trying to start 0.4.4.6 client?

A: That's normal, it's happened because 0.4.4.6 update makes blockindex code incompatible with previous versions. You need to remove old blockchain files and resyncronize with a rest of the network.

Q: How to remove the old blockchain database files?

A: You need to remove everything except wallet.dat from your client data directory. Data directory is located at

Windows Vista/7/8/2008 Server: C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\NovaCoin
Windows 2000/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\NovaCoin
Linux/*BSD: ~/.novacoin

[glon]

I am completely new to NVC... downloaded the latest win client v0.4.4.6 and getting the following error on launch:



Any ideas? Thanks!

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=143221.msg4310529#msg4310529

Q: Why I'm getting runaway exception while trying to start 0.4.4.6 client?

A: That's normal, it's happened because 0.4.4.6 update makes blockindex code incompatible with previous versions. You need to remove old blockchain files and resyncronize with a rest of the network.

Q: How to remove the old blockchain database files?

A: You need to remove everything except wallet.dat from your client data directory. Data directory is located at

Windows Vista/7/8/2008 Server: C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\NovaCoin
Windows 2000/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\NovaCoin
Linux/*BSD: ~/.novacoin

I am running the "portable" nosetup version though...

[Balthazar]

I am running the "portable" nosetup version though...

It doesn't matter if you haven't specified data directory path manually. It tries to load transactions database from %UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\NovaCoin folder.

[Balthazar]

Testing builds were updated.

Changes list:

• Refactoring of Proof-of-Stake checkings code;
• Remove some redundant messages from debug.log output;
• Make stake related DoS checkings harder;
• Database code is updated, direct CCoins links approach is implemented to decrease count of worthless flush and copy events;
• Initial block download optimization, transaction hashes are cached now to make blocks validation faster;
• Multiple CChainDB instantiations were replaced with a single CBlockTreeDB instance;
• CCoinsDB and CBlockTreeDB are updated to use LevelDB storage;
• gettxout and gettxoutsetinfo RPC calls added;
• getblock and getblockbynumber RPC calls are now providing generator public key for proof-of-stake blocks.

Download [AMD64  | i686 | src]

Additional notes:

• This builds should be considered as pre-release, i.e. it could be used for a new release if there will be no new critical issues;
• If you see zero balance after updating then execute repairwallet command using RPC console and restart your client.

------

getblock 2f942cad0019a69cc83e9cfbdb65dcad7f8ed81eca2b027b2fa490f71f75e7af
{
    "hash" : "2f942cad0019a69cc83e9cfbdb65dcad7f8ed81eca2b027b2fa490f71f75e7af",
    "confirmations" : 60393,
    "size" : 1146,
    "height" : 10022,
    "version" : 2,
    "merkleroot" : "6950c20fca1f4b3091cc274ba4c0cc37e86927431814e9a927cca81ab50e5441",
    "mint" : 0.25000000,
    "time" : 1363070975,
    "nonce" : 0,
    "bits" : "1e0fffff",
    "difficulty" : 0.00024414,
    "blocktrust" : "100001",
    "chaintrust" : "102727",
    "previousblockhash" : "0000000000e5885d4087ab52b37d81baf28b4b58231402cfd9fe6d4946edacf8",
    "nextblockhash" : "00000000072940ff4f46eabace834d681fd20488034517acdc13c8ec7b2771d3",
    "flags" : "proof-of-stake stake-modifier",
    "proofhash" : "000018d0aa7d744d1c92e2ed0d3b9b2ea313e4a6e72fc7013b6bbebbd414eaf9",
    "entropybit" : 1,
    "modifier" : "a736cfbe4e9a6031",
    "modifierchecksum" : "fede5a20",
    "tx" : [
        "7473c894134d83bf4a0a5207310520c12edb9bf69411e27b672d77a847d553a0",
        "01c4dea3d857183a43c126cf34f232bfd2453d3f8f78195b211d9e7a3544a31d",
        "578f2a5464c6f4beade6ea0627c4dc4f3f486d52affe3b24e3f3db349b1d7582",
        "41de352ef0b8f1c3cd2dcf3837c4429a43aaebb8cda12a608f8b3dbd896dc76b",
        "fb725604b226f8e59aeb07ec21c775f2bd8e3d2033ed46f4562e71b43427cfbf"
    ],
    "generator" : "02afed4a3e2473670ea7a93d61e9fcc883e308812769ff9135a6819b1bccc6486d",
    "signature" : "304402207f5985ec8b0e2f034d0ace6a0105d371a0acdf82ea64fca8f0e4bd58a6dcd5a902201e1 0950ef5816402822a7e0ffd078cf3bfd985e015fc032e23febd899110b294"
}

gettxoutsetinfo
{
    "bestblock" : "6cdbb76beb4ccf8a3c1a5dc5f1bcd3728c80cd1b98fa72b6926e2243acdd18f1",
    "transactions" : 56978,
    "txouts" : 90709,
    "bytes_serialized" : 4375823
}

gettxout 01c4dea3d857183a43c126cf34f232bfd2453d3f8f78195b211d9e7a3544a31d 0
{
    "bestblock" : "6cdbb76beb4ccf8a3c1a5dc5f1bcd3728c80cd1b98fa72b6926e2243acdd18f1",
    "confirmations" : 60394,
    "amount" : 0,
    "scriptPubKey" : {
        "asm" : "",
        "hex" : ""
    },
    "version" : 1,
    "coinbase" : false,
    "coinstake" : true
}

[Balthazar]

Download [AMD64  | i686 | src]

Additional notes:

• This builds should be considered as pre-release, i.e. it could be used for a new release if there will be no new critical issues;
• If you see zero balance after updating then execute repairwallet command using RPC console and restart your client.

Rebuilt and uploaded.

Changes list is pretty small:

• Changes done by repairwallet RPC command now applied on the fly, so it's not required to restart client after integrity checkings;
• Block and transaction timestamps were added to gettxout RPC command output.

Download [AMD64  | i686 | src]

-----

gettxout 01c4dea3d857183a43c126cf34f232bfd2453d3f8f78195b211d9e7a3544a31d 0
{
    "bestblock" : "6cdbb76beb4ccf8a3c1a5dc5f1bcd3728c80cd1b98fa72b6926e2243acdd18f1",
    "confirmations" : 60394,
    "amount" : 0,
    "scriptPubKey" : {
        "asm" : "",
        "hex" : ""
    },
    "version" : 1,
    "coinbase" : false,
    "coinstake" : true,
   "time" : 1363070975,
    "blocktime" : 1363070975
}

[Balthazar]

Deterministic wallets status.

WD wallets support is already implemented in the novacoin-hdkeys testing branch and works pretty well. So it's planned for integration into upcoming 0.4.4.8 release, but with one little change

According to testing results we shouldn't abandon the keypool approach. Instead of this we have to implement a separate and deterministic key pools for required purposes (receive, mining and change addresses).

As a result we've got this:

[Balthazar]

Download [AMD64  | i686 | src]

Additional notes:

• This builds should be considered as pre-release, i.e. it could be used for a new release if there will be no new critical issues;
• If you see zero balance after updating then execute repairwallet command using RPC console and restart your client.

Rebuilt again.

[AMD64  | i686 | src]

• Winsock related compiler warnings are fixed;
• You don't need repairwallet after upgrading anymore, wallet consistency being restored automatically during initial download process.

I guess that it's a last testing build and v0.4.4.7 will be released at monday.

[frontier204]

Is the p2pool software incompatible with the current version of novacoin or something?

Running the p2pool gives me this:

Code:

Cme@mycomputer:~/p2pool-11.4.3$ python run_p2pool.py
fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
2014-01-26 09:52:46.939552 p2pool (version 11.4.3)
2014-01-26 09:52:46.939911
2014-01-26 09:52:46.940105 Testing bitcoind RPC connection to 'http://127.0.0.1:8344/' with username 'bitcoinrpc'...
2014-01-26 09:52:46.965543     ...success!
2014-01-26 09:52:46.965719     Current block hash: ed546b552e694ef3b192325acb663258611bc00c7b7c48fafbe11c6fc3e01381
2014-01-26 09:52:46.965787     Current block height: 70799
2014-01-26 09:52:46.965832
2014-01-26 09:52:46.965911 Testing bitcoind P2P connection to '127.0.0.1:7777'..

(and it stalls here)

I'm running p2pool 11.4.3 and novacoind 0.4.4.6, both compiled from github / running on Ubuntu 13.04