Been working through the process of how to post progress that was made so far, into Github repos with progressive commits demonstrating relevant steps. For the time being using my own account, until I figure out the right way and clone into the "practicecoin" Github account.
The overall project plan is as follows:
1) Straight clone of Litecoin 0.13.2.1
A commit showing the Genesis block generation with current dates.
- Change ports, address prefix
- Build Qt wallet and the server on Ubuntu
- Verify regtest, tesnet, mainnet operation
- Deploy on two nodes - AWS and local
- Use .litecoin directory, but carefully, so as not to mix up the chains
- Mining
-- RPC commands
-- "cpuminer"
- Skip checkpointing, DNS or IP 'seeder', Mining pool, Block explorer
- Verify Windows build: needs doing, but a tedious process ;(
-- Traditional Ubuntu build inside a VM
--- Litecoin 0.13.2.1 instructions are sparse
-- Bitcoin 0.14 use of Windows 10-based Ubuntu, but the process fails with Litecoin 0.13.2.1 (been debugging)
-- Native Windows cross-compile
--- Not supported "officially", but numerous guides on the net
--- Inside Visual Studio (has been done in the past, but is it worth the effort)
[Question] Version numbers compiled into the code
- Bitcoin code special cases versions and block numbers, dealing with several old hard forks
- Litecoin code has same
-- Genesis block is traditionally version 1, and versions run up to 4 or 6, before being supplanted by BIP9 masks (true?)
-- What block version(s) do various miners or mining pools generate? (internal, cpuminer, GPU)
- Best method to force "activate" for CSV and SegWit right away (or after a certain early block)
2. Clone 1. to use 'practicecoin' and 'PRA' names throughout, including the names of binaries and Qt signage
- Different ports, Genesis block
- Validate 3 nets, Windows build
3. Improvements:
- Difficulty adjustment
- Block rates
- Reward schedule
-- Premine
4. Checkpoint
- Blocks
- Transactions
- Work
5. Online tools:
- Seeder
- Mining pool
- Block explorer
6. Scrypt GPU miner: test and benchmark
- AMD
- Nvidia
- ASIC?
7. Wallets:
- MAC
- Paper
- Android
- iOS
- Appearance and security
8. Algorithm support:
- X11+
- NIST5
- Scrypt variants
9. Code reviews, security audits, stress testing
10. Document everything, with a FAQ, quick HOWTOs, illustrated tutorials, videos, curriculum
OUCH, sounds like a seriously major project for a bunch of people. Urgently soliciting suggestions, recipes, contributions, bounties. You can assume that I will RTFM and Google more obvious stuff myself.
NOTE: We are working with the latest Bitcoin/Litecoin codebase, not one of the 2 or 3-year-old ones, that vast majority of Altcoins have been based upon. Guides and suggestions for those have been reviewed already and found lacking, which led to the formation of this initiative in the first place.
Generic statements that "this is easy" or "has been done already" will results in "name that tune" responses.
Several serious members already went through a number of these tasks, in their own repos. I can attempt to review and merge the changes, but would really welcome merges, pull requests, anything. Also, Litecoin is moving towards 0.14 Bitcoin compatibility and Bitcoin is at 0.14.1. So the codebase will always be a moving target.
So far I have intentionally avoided creating a Slack channel or Telegram or whatever chat environment is in vogue on a given day. Plenty of dead channels around already, at least a dozen that I've signed up for. If three people commit to check and post on some channel once a day, I'll publish one.
Presently I steer more dedicated folks to sign-up and post on the practicecoin.com Forum
http://practicecoin.com/index.php/forum/practice-coin-forum/Already have been chatting directly with a couple of contributors via Skype.
Tearo
