XPM, BTC, LTC

[c1010010]

OK, so forgive this noob question, but I'm not at all knowledgable about XPM.

BTC and LTC are two different algorithms, require different hardware to mine effectively, etc. 

So, is XPM a third?  Or is is based on XPM?

[Rannasha]

XPM again uses a different hashing algorithm.

Apart from the choice of hashing algorithm, the three coins are almost identical.

[OnkelPaul]

One difference of XPM against the others is that the total number of coins isn't fixed. The block reward is not adjusted based on the number of blocks, but based on current difficulty (higher difficulty means lower block reward).

Otherwise (blockchain mechanism, transaction signing etc.) they are all very similar (most alt coins are more or less modified clones of bitcoin anyway).

Onkel Paul

[porcupine87]

The algrithms you mean are the Work of Proof. In BTC you use a algorithm which is based only on the SHA-256. You just make a hash and look, if it fits a criteria. So you can heavily parallelize -> ASICs(because of that grafis cards were better than CPU). Litecoin use Scrypt as algorithm. I don't know much about it, but it requires memory, which is more difficulty to parallelize. Primecoin on the other hand uses a WOP, which requieres to look for chains of prime numbers with specific criterias. Only CPU so far. Primecoin has claim to give some use for crerating big prime numbers which is good for cryptography. Because miners want to make money they might develop more and more efficient ways to create this numbers.

On the other hand coins like PPC have POW and proof of stake. So some of the coins are created from people which have coins.This make a 51% attack more unlikely.

[c1010010]

Perfect.  That is exactly what I wanted to know... and it is similar to what I had pieced together with various sources.

Thanks.