PPCoin Proof of Stake Minting Setup Guide

[xk5]

PPCoin Proof of Stake Minting Setup Guide

One of the unique features of PPCoin is the concept of "Proof of Stake" which allows stakeholders (essentially anyone with PPC in their wallet) to generate "interest" on their reserves.  Since I could not find an easy to read guide I have written one myself so that you can start collecting "Proof of Stake" on your PPCoin balance as well!

Step One:

As with all Crypto Coins is to encrypt your wallet... so run the PPCoin-Qt go to the options menu and encrypt your wallet with a strong password.  DO NOT LOSE THE PASSWORD OR YOU LOSE ALL YOUR COINS... FOREVER!!!!  Sorry to be melodramatic but it's important!

Step Two:

Go to your %appdata% folder (usually something like C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\PPCoin) and create a PPCoin.conf text file as follows.

Code:

#ppcoin.conf
# JSON-RPC options (for controlling a running ppcoind process)

#Server mode allows Qt to accept JSON-RPC commands
server=1

# You must set rpcuser and rpcpassword to secure the JSON-RPC api
rpcuser=<A username>
rpcpassword=<A random password>

#The reserve balance field is the minimum amount of coins you want to have available and NOT put up as stake.  
#The reason for this is that if you are generating proof of stake you cannot spend those coins for 520 blocks.
#reservebalance=10000

Note that the username and password can be anything it doesn't matter (it is NOT your wallet password and you should not make it your wallet password for security reasons) so make it something long and obnoxious.

For more info on reservebalance check the FAQ -> https://github.com/ppcoin/ppcoin/wiki/FAQ

Step Three

Now run the PPCoin-Qt program and open your wallet.  Go to wherever PPCoin is installed:  Usually it's C:\Program Files (x86)\PPCoin\, in that folder you will see PPCoin-Qt.exe along with a daemon folder.  Within the "daemon" folder create a batch file called "mint.bat".

Code:

@echo off
@echo Enter PPC password...
SET /P variable=Password : 
ppcoind walletpassphrase %variable% 9999999 true

This batch file will ask you for your wallet password and will unlock your wallet for minting purposes only, any transfers will still require your password to be initiated.  This must be run each time the client is restarted.  

If you did everything correctly you can hover over the lock icon in the lower right corner and it will say "Wallet is encrypted and currently unlocked for block minting only".  In theory you could just have a shortcut or batch file with the password entered but then you'd have a shortcut that has your wallet password sitting in plaintext on your computer which is a terrible idea!

Step Four

Sit back and relax.  

Once you have the client running and you are getting the "unlocked for block minting only" message over the lock you just sit back (for a long time) and let the interest accrue.  

It will be approximately 1% per year on your PPC balance.  Note that it takes a while for freshly minted coins to mature so you will not see interest generated right away.

Extra Information:
The current release of the client will send coins without a password while in minting mode (this may be changed in a future update).

Proof of Stake Important Concepts
Coin-Age:  I receive 10 coins from Person X and hold them for 30 days, those particular coins have a combined coin age of 300 coin-days.
Generating A Coinstake:  Once minting is unlocked you can generate a coinstake which consumes your coin age in exchange for generating a block with profit.  The greater the coin age the higher probability that the proof of stake will be generated, if you are offline for a couple years for example when you reconnect you will probably generate a proof of stake almost immediately however you may have missed opportunities for compounding earlier.
Transferring coins to another person: Destroys all coin-age attached... only static coins gain age.

For detailed info please review the ppcoin whitepaper -> http://www.ppcoin.org/static/ppcoin-paper.pdf


Questions / Comments
If you have any questions post here and I'll try and update this guide with any needed information!

If you found this guide helpful my Tip addresses are:
PPC: PXWSoRA2c6qbiy6o4pS4tt68S6jtssEGQU BTC: 1HujuRGYtFgj7Em1pnhX22KAYnY9sxGAR6 LTC: LPiK3W3F7uqDHsBumArby7akVf7zW9UrhG

[vindimy]

Good guide! So far I've followed instructions exactly, but when I run mint.bat, ppcoind just exists without any error message. What gives?

EDIT: Okay, I see, my PPCoin-Qt UI now says "Wallet is encrypted and currently unlocked for block minting purposes only". So I guess that mint.bat ppcoind command should not stay running in the background. Now, how do I know that block minting is actually occurring?

EDIT2: See this helpful Youtube tutoral for walkthrough!

[xk5]

Good guide! So far I've followed instructions exactly, but when I run mint.bat, ppcoind just exists without any error message. What gives?

Thanks!  Yep, that's correct behavior... did you see if you got the correct message in the QT client?  When you hover over the lock it should say "Wallet is encrypted and currently unlocked for block minting only."

[vindimy]

Thanks, I've updated my post above saying that indeed the PPCoin-Qt's status message changed

Now, ppcoind says generate=false when I do "getmininginfo", does it mean it's not mining?

Code:

C:\Users\dv\Downloads\PPCoin-0.3.0\daemon>ppcoind.exe getmininginfo
{
    "blocks" : 44845,
    "currentblocksize" : 1000,
    "currentblocktx" : 0,
    "difficulty" : 348773.05554859,
    "errors" : "",
    "generate" : false,
    "genproclimit" : -1,
    "hashespersec" : 0,
    "pooledtx" : 0,
    "testnet" : false
}

Also, if you know about how stake rewards work, could you elaborate on:

If you find a stake the reward is 1 cent per coin-year consumed (can be roughly understood as 1% interest annually)

I'm really fuzzy on what is the difficulty of finding stakes is. Assuming I did find one, though, I guess 1% means I'll be getting 1 PPCoin per 100 PPCoins in wallet?

[Sunny King]

Good guide thanks! One more thing, in the minting-only unlock mode, you cannot send coins in gui I think in the current release. In order to send coins you should lock wallet first and then send as usual.

ppcoind walletlock

[xk5]

Thanks, I've updated my post above saying that indeed the PPCoin-Qt's status message changed

Great!  

Also, if you know about how stake rewards work, could you elaborate on:

I'm really fuzzy on what is the difficulty of finding stakes is. Assuming I did find one, though, I guess 1% means I'll be getting 1 PPCoin per 100 PPCoins in wallet?

You are now passively generating "Proof of Stake", the unique feature of PPCoin, essentially a small amount of interest just from holding the currency.  

So as long as your wallet is unlocked as shown in the main post you will average about 1 PPC per 100 PPC each year.  Any coins you have need to mature for a while so you won't see the "interest" for a while.

Now, ppcoind says generate=false when I do "getmininginfo", does it mean it's not mining?

Yes, it's not mining in the traditional sense which is generally applied to "Proof of Work" blocks... for that you should use a separate program such as Reaper or CGMiner, just like with Bitcoin or Litecoin.  You can find more info on that here -> http://cryptocur.com/ppcoin-ppc-mining-guide-gpu/.  You can have both going at the same time, "Proof of Work" is actively mining more PPC blocks (normal mining) while your "Proof of Stake" (your PPC balance in your wallet) is passively accumulating interest over time.

[Sunny King]

Typo here: should be 'lock'

Extra Information:
According to SunnyKing, at current release in the minting-only unlock mode, you cannot send coins... to unlock your wallet you will need to go to your PPCoin/daemon directory and run:

Code:

ppcoind walletlock

[xk5]

Typo here: should be 'lock'

Thanks, corrected now!

[FreeBit]

Question:

If I mint with 100PPC, how high is the probability to receive - let's say - 0.1 ppc after 30 days?

How is the minting rate and amount calculated?

HowMuchCoinsPerDay(n: Coins, x: CoinAge)

[xk5]

Question:

If I mint with 100PPC, how high is the probability to receive - let's say - 0.1 ppc after 30 days?

How is the minting rate and amount calculated?

HowMuchCoinsPerDay(n: Coins, x: CoinAge)

Added some info to the first post...  

Proof of Stake Important Concepts
Coin-Age:  I receive 10 coins from Person X and hold them for 30 days, those particular coins have a combined coin age of 300 coin-days.
Generating A Coinstake:  Once minting is unlocked you can generate a coinstake which consumes your coin age in exchange for generating a block with profit.  The greater the coin age the higher probability that the proof of stake will be generated, if you are offline for a couple years for example when you reconnect you will probably generate a proof of stake almost immediately however you may have missed opportunities for compounding earlier.
Transferring coins to another person: Destroys all coin-age attached... only static coins gain age.

For detailed info please review the ppcoin whitepaper -> http://www.ppcoin.org/static/ppcoin-paper.pdf

The actual probability of it generating does adjust based on network factors.

[jjiimm_64]

Good guide thanks! One more thing, in the minting-only unlock mode, you cannot send coins in gui I think in the current release. In order to send coins you should lock wallet first and then send as usual.

ppcoind walletlock

I followed the guide .. created the bat file. when I execute the bat file I get this:

Code:

c:\Program Files (x86)\PPCoin\daemon>mint
Enter PPC password...
Password : xxxxxxxxxxx
error: {"code":-17,"message":"Error: Wallet is already unlocked, use walletlock
first if need to change unlock settings."}

c:\Program Files (x86)\PPCoin\daemon>

but the gui still says  Minting suspended due to a locked wallet.


edit:  after a while the gui is right and now the client is unlocked for block minting purpose... Thank you for the guide....

[Sunny King]

I followed the guide .. created the bat file. when I execute the bat file I get this:

Code:

c:\Program Files (x86)\PPCoin\daemon>mint
Enter PPC password...
Password : xxxxxxxxxxx
error: {"code":-17,"message":"Error: Wallet is already unlocked, use walletlock
first if need to change unlock settings."}

c:\Program Files (x86)\PPCoin\daemon>

but the gui still says  Minting suspended due to a locked wallet.

edit:  after a while the gui is right and now the client is unlocked for block minting purpose... Thank you for the guide....

Yeah the gui has a little delay to update so if you ran the script twice it would report that error on the 2nd time.

[Shevek]

I'm interested in projects like this, against the stupid hashrate race that contributes nothing to bitcoin (indeed it promotes recentralization through pools). In fact I have my own ideas about the topic, not to be discussed here, of course.

I'm not sure if I understood well the concept of "proof of stake" (PoS).

1) If I  try a block and I have no success... is my stake wasted?
2) Are the difficulties of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake different?
3) Doesn't this PoS promote hoarding?
4) I don't see how PoS can secure the network, because there is no special incentive for a node to keep in. I can gain my coins, disconnect the node, and after some weeks return to get my reward.

TIA for your answers/comments

[FreeBit]

Question:

When I have 100 CoinYears accumulated, do I have to wait around one year to get one Coin or it is more probably to get 1/365 Coins per day?

What is the minimal amount of Coins generated by minting?


As you can see, I don't get. Maybe I am too stupid or the ones who get it are way above the average. I didn't found anything online that explained the minting mechanismin way, that I understood it. FAQ on ppcoin.org have to explain this way much better ....


With 100 CoinYears do I have to wait one year or will I get 0.00000x Coins every hour?
What are the concrete probabilities? Examples? How is difficulty influencing this?

I simply do not find this information (and I am pissed off because of this and the way how this is treated)!

[Guido]

need a simple option on wallet to have locked for sending coins but to allow minting, without going into files and playing with code
risky and confusing
needs a patch for this imo

Sunny?

thanks

[Sunny King]

I'm interested in projects like this, against the stupid hashrate race that contributes nothing to bitcoin (indeed it promotes recentralization through pools). In fact I have my own ideas about the topic, not to be discussed here, of course.

I'm not sure if I understood well the concept of "proof of stake" (PoS).

1) If I  try a block and I have no success... is my stake wasted?
2) Are the difficulties of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake different?
3) Doesn't this PoS promote hoarding?
4) I don't see how PoS can secure the network, because there is no special incentive for a node to keep in. I can gain my coins, disconnect the node, and after some weeks return to get my reward.

TIA for your answers/comments

1) Stake comes from successfully generating a block, there is no separate operation to declare your stake. So only when you find a block part of your balance is converted into stake, for the next 520 blocks.
2) Yes the difficulties are separate.
3) hoarding also has another name called 'saving'.
4) keeping the wallet open for more time would allow minter more chance to find blocks and split your large coins to better size so to reduce your wastage of coin age when you spend. But yes there is very little pressure to keep wallet running 24x7 as ppcoin intends to be energy efficient so you can just run it when you use your computer.

[Sunny King]

Question:

When I have 100 CoinYears accumulated, do I have to wait around one year to get one Coin or it is more probably to get 1/365 Coins per day?

What is the minimal amount of Coins generated by minting?

As you can see, I don't get. Maybe I am too stupid or the ones who get it are way above the average. I didn't found anything online that explained the minting mechanismin way, that I understood it. FAQ on ppcoin.org have to explain this way much better ....

With 100 CoinYears do I have to wait one year or will I get 0.00000x Coins every hour?
What are the concrete probabilities? Examples? How is difficulty influencing this?

I simply do not find this information (and I am pissed off because of this and the way how this is treated)!

It's a random process, basically the more coins you have and more often you keep wallet running the better chance you will generate blocks.

No, you don't get interest every hour, you only get paid if you find blocks. If you do there will be a 'mint-by-stake' transaction in your wallet.

[Sunny King]

need a simple option on wallet to have locked for sending coins but to allow minting, without going into files and playing with code
risky and confusing
needs a patch for this imo

Sunny?

thanks

Yes I already noted that the current procedure to enable minting for gui+encryption is not user friendly. It will be made easier for qt.

[Yurizhai]

need a simple option on wallet to have locked for sending coins but to allow minting, without going into files and playing with code
risky and confusing
needs a patch for this imo

Sunny?

thanks

Yes I already noted that the current procedure to enable minting for gui+encryption is not user friendly. It will be made easier for qt.

Great to hear that Sunny. Another thing I keep hearing about is people complaining about the design/user friendliness of the official PPCoin site. Any word on that?

[Sunny King]

Great to hear that Sunny. Another thing I keep hearing about is people complaining about the design/user friendliness of the official PPCoin site. Any word on that?

I hear that a lot too. Although that would take a low priority right now. The site is meant to be a portal for people to find stuff easier. The github wiki actually can be updated by any user I think, if you have some good ideas and writings you don't need to ask my permission to add stuff to it.