[PRE-ANN] [TESTNET] Infocoin | Uncensorable Data in the Blockchain

[eule]

Infocoin aims to provide an uncensorable space for storage of information directly on the blockchain, a space to safely store messages, files, forums, anything.

For this purpose I cloned Cryptonote, increased TX_EXTRA_PADDING_MAX_COUNT from 255 to 102399, set the initial block size to 150KB and adjusted the blocksize growth to 20% per year. That means you can store up to 100KB per transaction, ofcourse you must pay a fee for which the optimal values will have to be found. Also the block reward is a thousandth of most Cryptonote coins (~700 initially). If these are sane values will have to be tested for sure, I'd also like to hear your input on these. Should feedback be positive I'll do an embarassing test release.

I am a noob when it comes to coding and forking coins, so I followed https://cryptonotestarter.org/inner.html for the most part, who have done outstanding work. Not sure if my changes will have the desired effect or break anything, so there will be a test release, to find out if the idea is even achievable.

Why did I go with Cryptonote? Well, because it's the only coin I was able to successfully fork so far. A Bitcoin clone might be way more suitable for this idea because of OP_RETURN seeing plenty of use already, so there are many ways to insert data into and retrieve data from the Blockchain already. TX_EXTRA doesn't see much use in Cryptonote coins so far and thus there is not much info to be found about it. I don't know how to insert data into the TX_EXTRA field in transactions, it is possible however (one likely needs a modified wallet to do this): http://monero.stackexchange.com/questions/1381/how-are-the-various-tx-extra-types-formats-used

If you are an experienced dev and like the idea, feel free to help or even take over. I just want to make the idea popular because the implications are pretty huge. It could be possible to e.g. make a forum that is impossible to censor, upload files, directly reward good posts. Astroturfing would be expensive as well, the fee should provide quality and security. So this is basically just a thread to see if the community likes the idea.

Also, yes, there have been a few Infocoins already, all seem dead and they didn't come close to the name anyways.

TO DO before release:
Find a way to insert data into transactions (tx_extra)
Explore other options besides Cryptonote
Seed node
Windows Wallet
GUI Wallet
Testing, testing, more testing

edit: TEST RELEASE in fifth post! https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1835332.msg18269690#msg18269690

edit 21st July: Network for testing is up and running.

PS: Why has noone tried this idea yet?  

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[eule]

Added a poll to learn more about the forum's opinion.

I'll clean up the code, change initial blocksize to 200kb and do a test release I guess.

I would really like to know your opinion on if I should go with a Cryptonote clone (data in TX_EXTRA) or a Bitcoin/Litecoin clone (data in OP_RETURN). I attempted to clone HODLcoin 1.0 (and a few others) but got stuck, documentation is really sparse when it comes to cloning Bitcoin Core based coins and I don't want to go with a four year old litecoin codebase. Will attempt it again if I am told that inserting data into TX_EXTRA on Cryptonote is a pain in the ass.  

Another big advantage of a Cryptonote clone would be the anonymity features.

I want to go with CPU-mining to provide some botnet hashing power btw. Since those are unlikely to disappear, they make the blockchain more secure even when "normal" miners have left, validating the stored information.

[DRPD]

hi

i like the general idea a lot

as for anonymity features i'm not sure if this can be a solution for you and Infocoin but maybe u want to check out ZEROCOIN PROTOCOL.

how about a PoS coin/token only and/or cpu mining for distribution and early days, secure network and later switch to PoS only?

sorry i can't help you with Bitcoin/Cryptonote Code and stuff.
maybe i will help later if i can @ a later phase with this project (tech stuff and such).

atm i'm realy busy with other projects and realife. but i will watch this thread and project closly.

Good luck and keep it on

[eule]

Zerocoin indeed looks interesting, it is possible to insert data into transactions aswell via OP_RETURN (max. 25 bytes). I will have a deeper look at it, the Lyra2 algo might be just the right choice to attract miners.

As for POS,  I never got the huge appeal, as I tend to not horde my coins. Properly implementing it would go way over my head currently anyways.

Thanks for the feedback, glad you like the idea.

[eule]

EXPERIMENTAL TEST RELEASE! MINED COINS ARE WORTHLESS! BLOCKCHAIN WILL BE RESET BEFORE LAUNCH!

Alright, I changed a few things (mined coins can be spent after three blocks, initial 150kb blocksize with 20% annual increase), sourcecode is here:
https://github.com/euleausberlin/infocoin

Compiling on *nix:

Code:

apt-get install build-essential git cmake libboost-all-dev
git clone https://github.com/euleausberlin/infocoin
cd infocoin
make  // make -j 1 on machines with low RAM

The resulting executables will land in /build/release/src and can be started with ./infocoind and ./simplewalletd .

Since there are no seednodes yet, you can either try to connect to my node:

Code:

./infocoind --add-peer 178.200.249.149:5588

(IP will change, not sure if reachable from outside, just a VM behind an ipv6 address, damn DSLite)[/s]

or you'll have to provide your own nodes or use the --testnet and --data-dir switch. More commands for the programs can be found here: http://forknote.net/documentation/daemon/

I will provide a seednode later if interest becomes apparent. Note that I wasn't able to test simplewallet functionality outside of testnet yet, always get an HTTP error 2 when trying. In Testnet it works fine, I guess simplewallet will work when the daemon is connected to a different daemon. Not sure about that though.

Two seednodes online, one in Germany, one in the US. Mining works fine!

Compiling on Windows is difficult and will be done later.

Note: I am a noob and things might be broken!  

Still need to find a way to add data. Trying to add data during the transfer via -p results in an error message about it wanting an encoded 64 char key, maybe that restriction can be changed or a similar function added.

Sorry for double posting.  

edit: Found https://getmonero.org/knowledge-base/developer-guides/wallet-rpc#transfer, this could totally work  

[eule]

Talked to moneromooo on irc and this could pretty much work already. It would be cleaner if I'd make a new "tag" for the extra data but since tx_extra isn't used anyways it's the logical (aka easy) choice.

To insert data into it I "just" need to modify the wallet to send the proper RPC command. It should already be possible to construct a transaction with simplewallet in RPC mode using PARAMS="{\"extra\":\"hello world\"}" , which will be the next thing I test.

My seednode will be ready tomorrow. Any feedback, testing and help is hugely appreciated!

Sorry for triple-posting, it's not my fault that nobody recognizes the most revolutionary thing in the cryptoworld since Bitcoin.  

[ICOcountdown.com]

I am interested in adding this to http://icocountdown.com

It doesn't matter if it will be a crowdfund or not or a mining period.

Please get in contact with me team.

Email: alex@icocountdown.com

Skype: icocountdown

Telegram: @Alexanderico

[eule]

Thanks for the interest.  

By an optimistic estimate launch is two days away. I only want to launch this when there's a way to store the data that everyone can easily use. At least messages must work at launch, the other possibilities can be developed later.

Without a seednode or even other computer testing is very cumbersome, which is why I'll do the bulk of the work tomorrow when the server is ready.

[MargonCreatives]

check pls PM

[briton]

Any bounty campaign dev???
Reserve indonesian translation sir
thank you

[hamburger]

Is this coin not what you want to achieve here?

Datacoin

A decentralized data storage cryptocurrency

http://datacoininfo.org/

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=348561.0

[eule]

From what I understand, the data in your example is not stored in the blockchain but on several miner's hard disks. This means it is not close to being as secure and uncensorable as when being stored directly in the blockchain.

While it is obvious that a lot of thought was put into this solution, it feels cumbersome and not as "elegant" as simply allowing big amounts of data in every transaction.

[lucky80]

carry on ... im watching this curiously..

[eule]

Still waiting for my server, should be ready soon. Then I will insert it as a seednode and do a second test release, that hopefully more people will try. Currently working on compiling a Windows version, I hate compiling on WIndows.

[bugreporterr]

You are reinventing Datacoin

https://github.com/foo1inge/datacoin

Maybe you can take over the code? The chain is alive so you have users and miners already

[eule]

Got around to get a server and fix some compiler errors (New GCC version won't compile things that worked on old version, crazy behavior imo. See https://github.com/cryptonotefoundation/cryptonote/pull/42 ). Having trouble getting the seednode up and running though, any experienced coin dev want to lend me a hand? The seednode won't recieve blocks I mined with a different node:

Code:

23:39:54.997810 INFO [109.90.203.246:55350 INC] Sync data returned unknown top block: 0 -> 10 [10 blocks (0 days) behind]
23:39:54.997810 INFO SYNCHRONIZATION started
23:39:55.344800 WARNING [165.227.143.230:57839 INC] Exception in connectionHandler: TcpConnection::read
23:39:57.346993 WARNING [165.227.143.230:47989 INC] Exception in connectionHandler: TcpConnection::read
23:39:59.349113 WARNING [165.227.143.230:46313 INC] Exception in connectionHandler: TcpConnection::read
23:40:01.350931 WARNING [165.227.143.230:39943 INC] Exception in connectionHandler: TcpConnection::read
23:40:03.352708 WARNING [165.227.143.230:45965 INC] Exception in connectionHandler: TcpConnection::read
23:40:05.356370 WARNING [165.227.143.230:54493 INC] Exception in connectionHandler: TcpConnection::read
23:40:07.048595 INFO [109.90.203.246:55352 INC] Sync data returned unknown top block: 0 -> 10 [10 blocks (0 days) behind]
23:40:07.048595 INFO SYNCHRONIZATION started
23:40:07.358215 WARNING [165.227.143.230:40525 INC] Exception in connectionHandler: TcpConnection::read
23:40:09.360263 WARNING [165.227.143.230:35869 INC] Exception in connectionHandler: TcpConnection::read

My first guess is iptables, will check that (edit: It's not iptables). Anyone having a clue?

Blockchain and genesis block will be reset, so don't mine for profit.  

[eule]

Turns out that one needs two seednodes. 
Network is up and running, feel free to experiment. If you want some coins to test something, PM me and I will send you some tomorrow. As said, the blockchain and genesis block will be reset before release, all mined coins are worthless.

Next steps:
Insert large amounts of data into transactions
Windows wallet

[jwsu1113]

Intereting
Looking promising project near to me. will keep my eyes on it.looking forwards. Interested to join the bounty. when the accepted participate list will be available ?

[eule]

There will be no premine or initial bounties. This is supposed to be a community effort.

Maybe bounties for some services are possible, like the first forum or imageboard that gets it's data from the blockchain.  

[Islapdonkey]

Your thread made a happy drop from my face. We rarely get honest thread post anymore and no premine.