[ANN][PRA] Practice Coin - Learn by Doing

[tearodactyl]

So, I'm jealous.

Everyone seems to have an Altcoin these days, so I want one too.

But I don't know how to do one, and it seems like when somebody asks about it, they are told to "clone this or that" or given all kinds of random or obsolete advice, perhaps by folks who never done a coin themselves.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=225690.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1497539.0

Some say that Altcoins is a stupid idea https://themerkle.com/altcoins-dying-make-one-hour/
Or describe how to do it in X easy steps https://cointelegraph.com/news/10-tips-to-create-your-own-cryptocurrency
http://cryptorials.io/how-anyone-can-make-their-own-digital-currency/
There are some docs from Shakezulu floating around, from a few years back

Now, I know that there are people out there who'll do one for a fee, and I found a few:

Walletbuilders famously does something for 0.05 BTC

Cryptocoin Creator brags about doing 1300 coins of all kinds

Cryptonotestarter does some kinda Cryptonote http://practicecoin.com/index.php/2017/04/04/cryptonight-cryptonote-monero/

Build-c-Coin may even be free http://practicecoin.com/index.php/2017/04/04/free-cryptocoin-creator-build-coin/

CryptoLife does a bunch of stuff, starting at 0.3 BTC http://practicecoin.com/index.php/2017/04/13/cryptolife/

And there are scammers out there https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=829606.0

So, I'm going to go through all the steps of doing and launching an running a coin, from scratch and tell you all about it, in detail. And you'll help me along the way, I hope.

I know that I'll need a logo, and here's an early prototype:


Found a weird letter for it - LATIN P with hook https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C6%A4

Everyone has a colorful signature in their posts, with a link, so should figure out how to do one too.

Need a website, and have one now. http://practicecoin.com/

Will describe what I want out of an Altcoin in a future post.  And what my qualifications and limitations are.

Thanks,
  Tearo

[1715068144]

1715068144

[1715068144]

1715068144

[elelegzet]

 That's sweet, really. Good way to get kids into programming as you understand that you need real programming skills to make something of value.
 My first useful tip:
  I would recommend to use https://www.logoshi.com/ for logo creation  .
  
 It might be possible ti use the preview for educational purposes, I guess

[farsky]

nice logo  



But seriously, you have a very good idea.
I will be interested.

[Bawaler]

best logo ever. ever!
if you're serious i'll host a pool for you

[CjMapope]

Cool man, i dig your OP, TRUTH atleast haha
Some suggestions:

-Projects need funding, but come off scammy wanting PREfunding for most things (ICOs). find a way to self fund in an honest way!
-GPU algo if there's PoW! its the only chance at fair distro, unless you airdrop or use some funky system like byteball
-PoS! its "green" and encourages holding your own coins instead of leaving on exchanges, decentralization!

good luck, following!

[danny_love]

To be honest, that logo is awesome.
Nice concept. I'll follow every update for this coin

[tearodactyl]

best logo ever. ever!
if you're serious i'll host a pool for you

Thanks, Bawaler, for the kind word and the offer. I am serious to figure this out and get through a launch and running a bunch of nodes, at the minimum.
  Tearo

[Bawaler]

Can tell I've done similar coin just for fun and learning new and it's still alive and fun to keep services up around it.
Once I tried to support one kind of "learn-new-coin" at bitcointalk forums but the developer was not interested to do anything else than release a working, for purpose badly cloned source.
Your ethics make me want to support you.

[miramare]

well done!

People love in it!

Keep on moving.

[LieXurui]

youre not explain youre project and youre coin dev
wait about youre project and detail coin

[yescopyleftsounds]

Logo damn funny.

[tearodactyl]

That's sweet, really. Good way to get kids into programming as you understand that you need real programming skills to make something of value.
 My first useful tip:
  I would recommend to use https://www.logoshi.com/ for logo creation  .
  
 It might be possible ti use the preview for educational purposes, I guess

elelegzet, thanks for the suggestion of the logo site. Useful for a quick start.

Grabbed three domains using https://www.namesilo.com
http://practicecoin.com/
http://pracoin.org/
http://pracoin.net/

Could not decide between them, and at $9 / year for each, privacy included, took them all. Domain registration with GoDaddy, with privacy, would be closer to $25, if you only register for a year. Namesilo does take BTC, with a $50 minimum, and the usual confirmation time delay. So I felt impatient and put the purchase on a card instead.

All three domains point to the same site, and for the moment I'm using web hosting from another gig. The picture displayed was generated by "logoshi".

Will look for a cheap hosting or VPS provider that accepts BTC next. There is a long list http://cryto.net/~joepie91/bitcoinvps.html
VPS providers I've looked at so far are not super cheap, and I don't know the performance requirements yet. Say, a 2GB RAM / 2|4 core level per month:
$40 https://libertyvps.net/offshore-vps
$20 https://www.vpsserver.com/plans/
$28 https://bithost.io/prices/

Thanks for all the encouragement,
  Tearo

[tearodactyl]

youre not explain youre project and youre coin dev
wait about youre project and detail coin

I want to try out all the major steps for putting together and running a cryptocoin, including developer and bug bounties, a tiny ICO, strive for some kind of a plausible business model, pull together a community with some semblance of governance. Seems only right to get working both Windows and Linux versions of nodes, wallets, and GPU miners. Set up a mining pool and a block explorer, place the coin on exchanges and maybe even do some trading or market making. Should I even care about airdrops, faucets, dice, miner bounties?

I'm a software developer professionally, and so my first inclination was to fork a codebase and do some serious work. But for this project I want to stay away from the familiar and instead focus on things I've never done before. Learn from it, document the steps and experiences, maybe work out some tutorials. So, no original coding from me on this project, though I'll build from source and validate all the software pieces before releasing them.

As to the kind of coin I want, would rather not simply clone Bitcoin or Zcash, which I'm planning to do some work with for real. Also, skip coins that are established, but are kinda "one off" or "proprietary" in their approaches, like Monero or Dash or Pascal. Ethereum is totally interesting and is way too complicated for this effort.

Most of what I know about altcoins comes from listening to the Blockchain Dynamics podcast http://www.blockchaindynamics.net/
They have a forum on Cryptopia: https://www.cryptopia.co.nz/Forum/Thread/634
The hosts sneer at coins that are "another Scrypt coin or a Kryptonite clone" and chuckle at what comes out of "walletbuilder". And they praise some as "a good miner coin". Since I'm not sure what they actually mean by all that, I'll ask them.

I don't understand the whole PoS thing, unlike the Bitcoin or Ethereum PoW. And not sure I really want to learn the staking tricks at this point, even though the Ethereum crowd claims to wanna switch to PoS. What does that leave as possibilities?

Ever perplexed,
  Tearo

[elelegzet]

 I really think you should keep that original little coinhead mascot ). Maybe another representation
 

[tearodactyl]

Can tell I've done similar coin just for fun and learning new and it's still alive and fun to keep services up around it.
Once I tried to support one kind of "learn-new-coin" at bitcointalk forums but the developer was not interested to do anything else than release a working, for purpose badly cloned source.
Your ethics make me want to support you.

Bawaler, what type of a coin did you make, and would do same if you were doing it again, please?
And, the badly cloned one you describe, what type was that?
  Tearo

[CoinBreader]

feel free to post from your main account!

[tearodactyl]

feel free to post from your main account!

CoinBreader, I do not have any other accounts on this forum. But if it appears to you that this is another user, could you tell me who you have in mind, please?
  Tearo

[Ayers]

please if you want to follow this route and make your altcoin, do a decent alt with a fair launch a new algo or a algo that cna be mined with gpu and not asic or cpu bot net, also add nice features to make your coins better, like masternodes, or anonymous, you can also add an airdrop which is a nice trend nowadays, encourage more early adoption by newbie

[tearodactyl]

In an earlier post I made a mistake. In listening to the BD podcast, I thought that the host talked about a "Kryptonite" coin type. In further reading, I'm learning that he must have actually said CryptoNight or CryptoNote.
  Tearo

[tearodactyl]

please if you want to follow this route and make your altcoin, do a decent alt with a fair launch a new algo or a algo that cna be mined with gpu and not asic or cpu bot net, also add nice features to make your coins better, like masternodes, or anonymous, you can also add an airdrop which is a nice trend nowadays, encourage more early adoption by newbie

Ayers, thanks for your advice. Will be sure to read-up on airdrops, as I never took part in one myself. Any drops going on now, that I could try and learn from, please?
  Tearo