Dogecoin Forks to Avoid Multipool Exploit, Mandatory Update!
by Tom Boice
Yes, you can still teach an old Doge new tricks.
Only three months after the release of Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency based on a meme has cleared its third major hurdle. After discovering that certain mining groups were exploiting a weakness in the protocol to game the system, the doge-devs are ready to release version 1.6 of the Dogecoin wallet client.
This update is mandatory.
At block 145,000, Dogecoin will automatically fork so that no Dogecoin is at risk of being lost.
The update will change block-rewards, which had been random, to a flat 250,000 DOGE.
Also included in the update is the DigiShield difficulty algorithm, which will allow the mining difficulty to adjust near-instantly. This was developed by the team at DigiByte, who allowed Dogecoin to use it in a gracious show of community-spirit. In a rapidly expanding market, such team spirit is rare.
Additionally, mined Dogecoin now takes four hours to mature before being spent. This allows any potential forks in the future to be dealt with in a more efficient manner.
“Fork you, Multi-pool.”
Multipools are mining groups that use their hashing power to mine whichever coin is most profitable at a given moment. Miners participating in multipools configure their rigs in an all-purpose manner and the multipool server then calculates the exchange rates of eligible cryptocurrencies, directing the massive mining power to net the miners the greatest profit.
The mercenary nature of multipools is the result of free-market competition, and in many ways is necessary for assuring that there will be hash-rate available to any coin that has demand.
However, a problem arises when a multipool causes a sudden surge of hash-rate, resulting in increased difficulty of mining. Once the difficulty rises and the coin is less profitable, the multipool moves on, leaving smaller miners struggling through difficult calculations until the next difficulty-adjustment.
Using DigiShield, difficulty adjustment is nearly instantaneous, eliminating the problem of large pools surging in when the difficulty is low and abandoning once it adjusts. This is a big deal, because this addition sets Dogecoin apart from the cryptocurrency it was cloned from, Litecoin.
The major reason for the sudden Dogecoin 1.6 fork is that the “random” block-rewards had been essentially cracked by multipools.
The multipools were able to figure out the reward sizes of blocks ahead of time and cherry-pick those with large rewards, leaving the scraps to smaller miners. With the removal of random block rewards, this problem no longer exists.
State of the Coin
Attention paid to Dogecoin, along with its exchange rate, has been neglected since the Olympics ended, and Bitcoin has had the spotlight with scandal after scandal.
Many feel that the multipool gaming of block rewards was the cause of much of the downward price trend, though, as it is common for alt-coin miners to sell their rewards for Bitcoin/fiat immediately.
Shibe-charity is alive and well with the Doge4Water initiative to raise awareness for clear drinking water.
Additionally, as a “Thank you” for the help DigiBytes gave to the Dogecoin development team by lending the use of DigiShield as well as helping to test the new wallet, many shibes are organizing to vote for DigiBytes to be the next Cryptsy market.
Amid this rallying to put DigiBytes on Cryptsy, shibes are flocking en-masse to Kraken, a U.S. based exchange that recently opened trade to the often silly cryptocurrency. Many shibes feel Cryptsy can’t handle the large volume of Dogecoin trade, as it often halts service during peak hours.
Source:
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2014/03/13/dogecoin-forks-again-to-avoid-multipool-exploit/
