[XPM] [ANN] Primecoin Prerelease Announcement - Introducing Prime Proof-of-Work

[mr_random]

Yes Windows and Linux builds will be available at release time, with Qt support, just like ppcoin v0.3.

Sweet. Bring on tomorrow night!

[XertroV]

Why not follow a release schedule like coblee did with Litecoin, where the client was released ahead of time to let people install & test it, and the release itself consisted of simply releasing a config value?

I'm not sure if that system would work nowadays. Some twat would make their own genesis block and start the chain prematurely. The genuine chain would then start causing all sorts of confusion.

There would still be an official chain. People will want to use the real one, and it's easy to recognize which is real and which is fake.

This is true. I am only guessing.

The genesis block hash is hardcoded into the client. You can't just make your own genesis block and have people accept it. They'd need to recompile.

The idea of releasing the client then the IP of a node with the valid genesis block should work just as well; that way everyone has the hash already and you just release the block, as such. Once one person has it in the entire altcoin network it will flood through and people will start mining.

One idea to help launch might be to have a network rule that block 1 has to have an output from the only tx in block 0 (the genesis block). Bitcoin can't do this because the coinbase tx of the genesis block can't be spent because of something weird in the way bitcoin-qt/d stores and processes transactions (I think..), but it's theoretically possible. This way, you ensure that the creator can start the mining process with a transaction, and not the genesis block. This means the genesis block can be produced early and allow everyone to get a good binary with the genesis block hash, and still provide a controlled launch.

Again, this issue only exists because the genesis block hash pretty much *must* be hardcoded. That is, after all, ultimately what identifies chains, as no two genesis blocks can be the same for completely unique chains.

[zackclark70]

Yes Windows and Linux builds will be available at release time, with Qt support, just like ppcoin v0.3.

please can you do a fair launch ( encrypt the whole file with 256 by encryption with a good password and give people a couple of days to download it before the coin is released   when its time to release the coin just post up the password to the file 

[XertroV]

Yes Windows and Linux builds will be available at release time, with Qt support, just like ppcoin v0.3.

please can you do a fair launch ( encrypt the whole file with 256 by encryption with a good password and give people a couple of days to download it before the coin is released   when its time to release the coin just post up the password to the file 

This isn't necessary, see my above post (now expanded). Apologies if it's a little ramble-y. Ideally you want everyone running the software, ready to go, then the genesis block (or the 'start' catalyst) is released, and away people go. Passwords and encryption seem like a long way to go when you could just run the client and have it work automagically.

[zackclark70]

thanks that will work also  please announce the coin on  altcointalk.co.uk

[jubalix]

this will all be on

https://github.com/primecoin/primecoin

today? [I'm on the 7th here already]

exciting times....I no I will mine and get 0

[3nrg]

Sunnyking seems to have excellent ideas, looking forward to tomorrow.

[mr_random]

this will all be on

https://github.com/primecoin/primecoin

today? [I'm on the 7th here already]

exciting times....I no I will mine and get 0

Hopefully Sunny releases the clients before updating that source code publicly 

[drawingthesun]

How many hours to go?

[Sunny King]

Update:

Design paper is now published at:
http://ppcoin.org/static/primecoin-paper.pdf

Release builds completed. Release is on schedule.

Release builds will be published at the exact proposed release time:

2013 July 07 18:00 UTC

[willphase]

Update:

Design paper is now published at:
http://ppcoin.org/static/primecoin-paper.pdf

by encouraging the use of a sieve instead of a nonce, doesn't this encourage miners to generate a block header once, and then mine on this single block header - meaning that they are disincentivised to accept new transactions once they have started work on their solution.

This will surely mean that transactions will take longer to confirm, as miners are more likely to solve a block by not accepting new transactions.

The corollary of this argument is that fees will have to be higher with primecoin to justify miners aborting their work to insert a new transaction.

Will

[Sunny King]

by encouraging the use of a sieve instead of a nonce, doesn't this encourage miners to generate a block header once, and then mine on this single block header - meaning that they are disincentivised to accept new transactions once they have started work on their solution.

This will surely mean that transactions will take longer to confirm, as miners are more likely to solve a block by not accepting new transactions.

Note block spacing target is 1 minute. Even if a miner would like to delay refreshing block candidate to improve sieve efficiency, it must refresh when a new block is announced on network. So the delay on transaction processing is not more than 1 minute.

[ripper234]

Well-written paper.

Hmm, I guess I kind of assumed that the scientific community would somehow be able to direct what kind of problems are solved (e.g. SETI@Home).

Primecoin is an important innovation, but less bombastic that what I imagined.

Time will tell how the market values it.

[fran2k]

Great work. I would like to see in this new strain of cryptocoins a way for people to donate money into the network. For example if the EFF want to pay the 50kusd prize for the new Prime found, they can buy PrimeCoins and donate the coins to the network that will be added as extra to the common block rewards. Or something like that...

[ivanlabrie]

Great work. I would like to see in this new strain of cryptocoins a way for people to donate money into the network. For example if the EFF want to pay the 50kusd prize for the new Prime found, they can buy PrimeCoins and donate the coins to the network that will be distributed added to the common block rewards. Or something like that...

That would be great!

I'm excited

[Buffer Overflow]

Just read white paper, looking on with interest.

I think the community should come to some agreed consensus that if a new alt-coin is released from now on without a white paper, we should all ignore it.

[willphase]

I think the community should come to some agreed consensus that if a new alt-coin is released from now on without a white paper, we should all ignore it.

Next alt coin to be released - toiletcoin!



but seriously - good job on the coin, looking forward to more details being released e.g. the full details on the block schedule - number of coins per block, block time, difficulty adjustment rate etc etc.

Will

[Boing7898]

How about a nice countdown? 

[heatgsm]

How about a nice countdown? 

Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw

[Boing7898]

How about a nice countdown? 

Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw

I asked for a countdown, not a final countdown