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

[tearodactyl]

A crude looking site is up http://practicecoin.com/

Still took almost a whole day in total, and I've done this a dozen times before:
Find and register domains and setup custom nameservers - 1h
Setup hosting of domains, emails, redirects, roll a WordPress distribution - 1h
Setup Site - 4h
  Wordpress plugins for security hardening and management
    Jetpack
    Akismet
    WP Super Cache
    Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights
    Yoast SEO
    Wordfence Security
    SEO Redirection
    BackWPup
  Config MesoColumn theme, menus, pages
  Quickie images gen, crop, and .ico via http://icoconvert.com/
  Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools setup
Setup Forum basics - 1h
  Made a mistake, had to re-do

Ready for some fun content, I suppose
  Tearo
 

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[Belligerent Fool]

Even if you did show it I beg to differ that any would understand, I have given advice and tried to help but it just goes over some peoples heads...

There is video tutorials out there, coins with the guide in the commits (1 by 1) how to make them and yet people still can't grasp it.

You say Linux & they go oooh but erm um isn't windows easier....

You can do the majority of it on github itself or even windows but linux is way easier to create gui wallets to get things started, cross compiling is a different story for each coin and deps if you want a windows Qt wallet so it can't really be a one guide for all type thing

I say this is a very good thing ^^^ as then we won't have noob coders "cloners" flooding the scene....   420 is about to rip havok

P.S the reason why people say the things they say for creating an altcoin is due to the very reason I am explaining, TBH it is all there but broken up (For good reason) and people who can understand code can obviously work out what is required.

Good intentions, bad outcome

[tearodactyl]

Even if you did show it I beg to differ that any would understand, I have given advice and tried to help but it just goes over some peoples heads...

There is video tutorials out there, coins with the guide in the commits (1 by 1) how to make them and yet people still can't grasp it.

You say Linux & they go oooh but erm um isn't windows easier....

You can do the majority of it on github itself or even windows but linux is way easier to create gui wallets to get things started, cross compiling is a different story for each coin and deps if you want a windows Qt wallet so it can't really be a one guide for all type thing

I say this is a very good thing ^^^ as then we won't have noob coders "cloners" flooding the scene....   420 is about to rip havok

P.S the reason why people say the things they say for creating an altcoin is due to the very reason I am explaining, TBH it is all there but broken up (For good reason) and people who can understand code can obviously work out what is required.

Good intentions, bad outcome

Dear BF, thank you for taking the time to respond. My intention is not to make 'cloning' tired old coins trivial, in order to support noob scammers. Nor am I trying to make money with this particular project, but will be actually spending some, to force myself to learn the coin launch details, and to prove that I've learned them by running the services and documenting the choices, costs, effort, gotchas.

I program Linux kernel, drivers, and networking for a living, in embedded environments, and have been coding to POSIX standards for decades. In the Bitcoin arena, I've built on Ubuntu, from the Github code and been running on and off various versions of nodes for Core, Classic, Unlimited, Zcash, ZClassic, Zero. Experimenting with implementation changes to the Zcash Equihash algorithm, reviewing on-chain identity solutions, IPFS, etc.

But I don't want to bury myself in the morass of hacked-over Bitcoin code, that's being stretched in every direction by developers who are at odds with each other, and never come out. So, I will try to go through the outlined steps for coin development and promotion, with minimal original software development effort. This time around...

As to detailed suggestions you would make, I will take the time to follow them up.
  Tearo

[tearodactyl]

Wonderful folks at the Blockchain Dynamics podcast took good five minutes to review the Practice Coin announcement https://soundcloud.com/errorbytrial/blockchain-dynamics-57-422017

They have expressed a number of doubts and concerns about the project, like its incremental value or longevity. Will have to dig in and address them all, going forward.
 
Thanks!
  Tearo

[tekyboy]

Code:

Here you go.

......snip ...........

-- 
TekyBoy

lots of things have been changed over a time but this guide really helped me alot in beginning have fun

[Bambalam]

I love that you have shared this venture with the community. I too was/am interested in new coin developement so i will also be following this project. I have found that Nist5 is a very nice algo that is asic resistant. It Is friendly to both AMD and Nvidia cards so anyone with even a decent gpu can mine it. Some of the best launches include starting at a low diff with a larger payout as a way to reward early miners and encourage adoption. Perhaps half the rewards at block 1000 depending on your block time.

I will be following and supporting you through the whole venture!

[Golftech]

i dont have any idea as well but  want to learn from this thread so i will follow the progress coming from those who really understand how
alts work and how will you succeed from this venture its about learning and understanding those concept and materialized from each learning
good luck OP.

[tearodactyl]

lots of things have been changed over a time but this guide really helped me alot in beginning have fun

Tekyboy, thanks. A lot of stuff there for sure. As I go through it, will report further.
  Tearo

[tearodactyl]

I love that you have shared this venture with the community. I too was/am interested in new coin developement so i will also be following this project. I have found that Nist5 is a very nice algo that is asic resistant. It Is friendly to both AMD and Nvidia cards so anyone with even a decent gpu can mine it. Some of the best launches include starting at a low diff with a larger payout as a way to reward early miners and encourage adoption. Perhaps half the rewards at block 1000 depending on your block time.
I will be following and supporting you through the whole venture!

Bambalam, thanks for mentioning NIST5 algo, which I have not heard about as yet. Looks like it started coming up in 2014, around the same time as X15, Groestl, Keccak? Don't know enough details to judge their relative merits.

Zcash integrated an algorithm called Equihash that is supposed to be RAM hard, which should level the field between CPUs and GPUs, and perhaps make ASICs pointless. Unfortunately, the Equihash parameters that Zcash picked turned out not hard enough, and CPUs are still swamped out. Even a Zcash clone named Zero, that upped the parameters a bit, is not turning out hard enough. I'm OK with GPUs having some advantage, perhaps 2-5X over a modern i7-7700, but not 20X.
  Tearo

[dfd1]

I think you should try to clone ethereum, it's easy coin to clone and people who not familiar with tech love it very much.
I never cloned it myself, but it's looks like all you need is to generate new genesis_block.json.
There is some instructions for ethereum on genesis generation.
https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/07/27/final-steps/
Probably I'm wrong and some other important steps required for cloning ethereum, it would be fine if some dev shows up and help with it.
You can start little crowdfunding too, I will pay $100 in btc personally to first guy who will make a long youtube video with complete step-by-step guide for people not familiar with programming and crypto on cloning ethereum and running it as a new coin*.
*hardcoded checkpoints creation should be mentioned, since mysterious '51 Crew' usually bother to attack all new ethereum clones

[Bambalam]

I love that you have shared this venture with the community. I too was/am interested in new coin developement so i will also be following this project. I have found that Nist5 is a very nice algo that is asic resistant. It Is friendly to both AMD and Nvidia cards so anyone with even a decent gpu can mine it. Some of the best launches include starting at a low diff with a larger payout as a way to reward early miners and encourage adoption. Perhaps half the rewards at block 1000 depending on your block time.
I will be following and supporting you through the whole venture!

Bambalam, thanks for mentioning NIST5 algo, which I have not heard about as yet. Looks like it started coming up in 2014, around the same time as X15, Groestl, Keccak? Don't know enough details to judge their relative merits.

Zcash integrated an algorithm called Equihash that is supposed to be RAM hard, which should level the field between CPUs and GPUs, and perhaps make ASICs pointless. Unfortunately, the Equihash parameters that Zcash picked turned out not hard enough, and CPUs are still swamped out. Even a Zcash clone named Zero, that upped the parameters a bit, is not turning out hard enough. I'm OK with GPUs having some advantage, perhaps 2-5X over a modern i7-7700, but not 20X.
  Tearo

Nist5 Is very CPU friendly, but you also have to remember- those of us with gpu's have spent alot of money to be where we are at. I mean- i started with one nvidia card, mined early coins that were "pumped" and "dumped" for awesome profits that allowed me to purchase more cards. Here is the hashrate i get from my I5-6600k

http://prntscr.com/es7ldo

For a cpu, thats an awesome hashrate! Why i love nist5 so much.

[Belligerent Fool]

What is best is Algorithms that give older GPU cards the benefit over the newer ones, bang for buck for instance.

Look how Equihash turned out at the start for the 270/x, 280/x, 290/x folks

A lot and I mean a lot of miners have abandoned their older GPU rigs in favour of other brands/newer cards.

Algorithms can be limited, look at HodlCoin for instance, that Algorithm "IS" Memory Hard to 1 GB only and great for CPU mining.

[tearodactyl]

I think you should try to clone ethereum, it's easy coin to clone and people who not familiar with tech love it very much.
I never cloned it myself, but it's looks like all you need is to generate new genesis_block.json.
There is some instructions for ethereum on genesis generation.
https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/07/27/final-steps/
Probably I'm wrong and some other important steps required for cloning ethereum, it would be fine if some dev shows up and help with it.
You can start little crowdfunding too, I will pay $100 in btc personally to first guy who will make a long youtube video with complete step-by-step guide for people not familiar with programming and crypto on cloning ethereum and running it as a new coin*.
*hardcoded checkpoints creation should be mentioned, since mysterious '51 Crew' usually bother to attack all new ethereum clones

dfd1, I may not be your guy, to make the video, but as much as I've avoided Ethereum so far, it is THE Altcoin, and all the cool kids are all over it 
More than happy to cover half of that 0.01 BTC bounty you are suggesting, for the Ethereum cloning guide.
Made a list of suggestions from the readers so far http://practicecoin.com/index.php/2017/04/04/reader-suggestions/
  Tearo

[tearodactyl]

Dang, that's a 0.1 BTC bounty. Gotta get some rest...

[tearodactyl]

Review of free coin minting services - Cryptocoin Creator and Build-a-Coin
http://practicecoin.com/index.php/2017/04/04/free-cryptocoin-creator-build-coin/
Free does not get you much 
  Tearo

[dfd1]

Nice, looks like we have first bounties.

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?

There was huge PoS drama some years ago, and at the end of the day no coin age or even fixed percentage turned out to be good ideas, too many ways to trick the network like staking for an hour once in a year appeared.
Altcoin developers today usually implement blackcoin pos 3.0 in their projects,  I think it's most mature and secure way to run PoS. Shadowcash switched to it, for example.
https://www.reddit.com/r/blackcoin/comments/3qoerc/pos_30_whitepaper/
https://www.reddit.com/r/blackcoin/comments/3cfvaa/static_pos_reward_is_coming/
So, if no other options, i think there is no need to reinvent the wheel and blackcoin pos can be used in Practice Coin.
With PoS network can run without constant risk of 51 attack, users incentivised to have full nodes, network became more decentralized (PoW coins tend to centralize around pools), no need to pay extra mlllions for electricity, coin holders in full control of updates.
Also, I think some small reward for block is better than huge inflation, staking with big reward actually kill PoS coins since people don't want to feel behind all the top whales who mint like 90% of new coins.

[tearodactyl]

Review of free coin minting services - Cryptocoin Creator and Build-a-Coin
http://practicecoin.com/index.php/2017/04/04/free-cryptocoin-creator-build-coin/

The site is more filled out now.
A note on CryptoNight, CryptoNote, and Monero - skip
http://practicecoin.com/index.php/2017/04/04/cryptonight-cryptonote-monero/
  Tearo

[tearodactyl]

I see two ways to proceed - order and study a Walletbuilders product or make a Litecoin on a different address, deploy and then mod.

Personally, I want to evaluate what Walletbuilders actually delivers and have the community inspect the code and fitness as well. One of the options they do offer is to have it switch to PoS after some block. 0.05 BTC a pop.

Litecoin's latest distribution is probably a great Altcoin starting point, and they've activated SegWit already. And all the supporting components, like miners and wallets and block explorers are already optimized and available on Github. Also, all the Scrypt altcoins started from various (perhaps rather dated) releases of Litecoin, and we can pick-up their mods, like a different PoW algorithm and more. And such well-defined changes we can bounty for. Would be fun and educational to change the algorithm on a running chain and do a hard fork.

Of course, I can see doing both...
  Tearo

[BTC_wolf]

I see two ways to proceed - order and study a Walletbuilders product or make a Litecoin on a different address, deploy and then mod.

Personally, I want to evaluate what Walletbuilders actually delivers and have the community inspect the code and fitness as well. One of the options they do offer is to have it switch to PoS after some block. 0.05 BTC a pop.

Litecoin's latest distribution is probably a great Altcoin starting point, and they've activated SegWit already. And all the supporting components, like miners and wallets and block explorers are already optimized and available on Github. Also, all the Scrypt altcoins started from various (perhaps rather dated) releases of Litecoin, and we can pick-up their mods, like a different PoW algorithm and more. And such well-defined changes we can bounty for. Would be fun and educational to change the algorithm on a running chain and do a hard fork.

Of course, I can see doing both...
  Tearo

Any update?🤓

[Herbet Fry]

Very cool. Would love to learn. What can we do so far to help ? Will you give people coins to learn by making transactions. It would be nice for beginners. Its a great idea.