[ANNOUNCE] Tenebrix, a CPU-friendly, GPU-hostile cryptocurrency

[Lolcust]

We heard you like mining, so we put a miner on your miner, so you can mine while you mine.

Note: try changing -s in the miner batch to 3, 5, or 7. Experiment which is best for you.

Official Website: http://www.tenebrix.org

Hello everybody!

Allow me to introduce you Tenebrix, a cryptocurrency we (mostly ArtForz, but I contributed the name, some minor tweaks and the logo, as well as windows portability suite and cool genesis motto ) have created to provide the community with a cryptocurrency with solid GPU resistance.

It implements a proof-of-work scheme based on scrypt, a cryptographic construct specifically designed to resist creation of efficient GPU, FPGA and even ASIC implementations. You can find more about scrypt and how it can improve your stamina, masculine appeal and performance here

Tenebrix is intended not only to become the first and the best of CPU-specific cryptocurrencies, but remain so in the future (that's exactly where the Tenebrix Protection Fund will go... That, usability/gui bounties, fixes and my dream of starting up a massive coin laundering "Historical Cryptocurrency Collector" Service )

So, now I guess it's the FAQ time.

Q: Why would we care about that? (c) bitcoin2cash

A: Well, for starters, Tenebrix offers you opportunity to mine some coins that will be eventually exchangeable with spare cpu cycles of your awesome 4-card mining box that it doesn't use anyhow:)

Second, it makes for a more diverse adoption base since there is no "you must have a fairly loud and specific bit of narrow-purpose hardware at least THIS cool to even try mining" effect (pools will still be kings though)

Q:  What are the basic parameters, blocktimes and stuff, you know ?

A: 1 block per 5 minutes, retargets every week, no upper bound on mining and 25 coins per block.

Q: Oh noes inflation!

A: No, Tenebrix, just like Geist Geld, is actually deflationary in a way, and in fact allows for "coin regeneration" to happen, but I believe it would be best to contain discussion of "no upper bound mining" and "Coin regeneration" to Geist Geld thread

Q: Why the name ?

A:  Initial idea was Tenebris, because it is a cryptocurrency that thrives in the shade of any major GPU-mining operation, peacefully enjoying   the spare cpu cycles of miner rigs (of which they have a lot)

However, it was determined that plain Tenebris is kinda meh and lacks bite, and thus Tenebrix, the cryptocurrency with solid stance in favor of the CPU and against GPU, was born

And yes, I abhor the %insert_word%coin naming scheme.

Q: What if in The Future Nvidia will make GPUs based on genetically engineered rat neuron cultures that will crunch Scrypt like so much stale cheese ?

A: Efforts shall be taken not only keep up, but peek ahead of the curve and ensure that tenebrix remains CPU friendly and GPU hostile, no matter what kind of GPUs future science will throw at us. Being  FPGA and ASIC hostile is harder, given their flexibility, though frankly, if someone, at some point in time, will be willing to throw that kind of money and engineering skillz at mining Tenebix, that already makes Tenebrix a success  

Largest Tenebrix bounties will be for  finding ways to implement Tenebrix mining on GPU hardware in a manner that outcompetes a CPU of equal price range by a certain margin (under discussion, suggestions welcome), and ready to apply fixes that return Tenebrix its status of a CPU-friendly, GPU-hostile cryptocurrency.
Hopefully, Tenebrix will bring together talented people with interest in designing systems resistant to creation of efficient GPU (as well as FPGA and ASIC) implementations a-la scrypt.

And, of course all results of Tenebrix project, produced via bounties or otherwise, will be free and open-source  !

Q: What about botnets ? CPU mining is a haven for them, and they are eeeeeevil!

A: Well, actually, that's an interesting topic to discuss.

First and foremost, if it is possible to make a CPUsclusive cryptocurrency (and it seems that Tenebrix makes quite a solid practical argument in favor of possibility of such a feat), then it will be made eventually. So not making Tenebrix would have achieved nothing.

Second, I am firmly convinced that botnets, by virtue of need to remain somewhat covert, will not abuse their host machines too heavily with TBX minning, taking spare cycles here and there without encumbering the user too much (otherwise the malware will get noticed and exterminated), and assuming mining is lucrative, will avoid using infected machines for things that are likely to get a FBI clown car visit the formal owner of the infected box (such as transfer of highly illegal materials and attacks against legitimate infrastructure).
Thus, Tenebrix, should it succeed and achieve popularity, will lead to overall calmer, milder internet for all

Q: I heard you may have taxes...

A: NO ! Never ! Except for standard transaction fees, Tenebrix is a sworn tax heaven !

Q: I heard you premined, you bad bad person...

A: Well yes, I premined 7 million coins. Why so many - well, to be completely blunt and honest, I got a bit tired of a discussion of how much should one premine that I had going on and used the premine value from GeistGeld. Perhaps not the wisest decision, but worry not though - I will use 2 millions do fuel verry slow (no more than 4 TBX per user, may get less if their price rises) faucets with strong user ID (Google Acc + captchas), and about 1.5 mils are set aside to help recruit developers and sustain support for no less than 6 years (you gotta agree that it is a looong road and a lot of money-gulping things can happen)

I will use the rest to start a unique transaction-anonymization service, using them as a buffer of sorts (old TBX + fee enters, crispy TBX from reserve exit in a certain randomized manner. In the end, I keep only the "fees" and the "old TBX" that entered the service are retained to form a new buffer as old one shrinks. Thus, the amount of TBX destined for buffer remains static forever, and never ever enters circulation, sequestered as a "transaction mixing service buffer" forever. I think we can all agree that stronger transaction mixing is a good thing and a benefit to community )

Q: Will you pay people these new coins for posting about the great awesomeness of Tenebrix and its solid stance against GPUs on Twitter and deadnotebook livejournal ?

A:  I dunno. Haven't made up my mind.

Q:  What do you call a coin with this thing ?

A: Whatever you like! I personally like "brix" due to association with obscure local computer jargon for a CPU and general appeal of solid, reliable building materials.

Q: Will you give away brix like you did with Geists ?

A: Yup, about 3825 brix are up for grabs, and will be equally divided among first five people to post their Tenebrix addresses

Q: WHY DID YOU GUYS DO THIS WHY WHY WHY?!

A: If a technological feat is possible, man will do it. Almost as if it's wired into the core of our being.


Q: Where are the windows binaries ? (text emvastened by popular demand)

A: Here, with neato QT GUI and wrapped in a portability suite so that you don't have to set anything up and have easier time backing stuff up.
The multithread miner is included with a startup script (START_MINING) that is interactive, gives hints, and has pre-set work-out-of-the-box download-and-mine defaults !



Q: Where are the sources ?

A: Here, on github https://github.com/Lolcust/Tenebrix

Q: What about multi-threaded miners ?

A: Glad you've asked ! A mod of Jgarzik's reference CPU miner is included with the portable Tenebrix bundle (minerd, a launch .bat pre-configured for 2 threads, default login/pass and localhost is included. Bear in mind that if launched without command line options the miner crashes, which is known to confuse and disturb users )
Miner sauce here https://github.com/Lolcust/Tenebrix-miner

Q: Pools ?

A: Several weeks after first Geist pool launch (pssssst, you heard nuthin ! )

[xzion]

tPKbCkqgio92KVJj4cQAXqs7Ng4dfbhFxR reporting in.

trying to get mining working on windows, struggling.

EDIT: got it sorted. found 5 or so blocks.

[CosicMiner]

Trying this out!

Send money here:    
tUK2EQTMF6cN6vuNEfJtVf1BMqarvEZJBL

[iopq]

gieb brix: t9ArZXPEa4hiPY22WXDyLu8LW34b13zVMB

[Bobnova]

What about the fact that botnets are already mining bitcoins?

[cyberlync]

Hi there

Testing out on Windows

tVEFkyC8VkXyMfpCyeM78k2nBC6nYUHKS4

Not sure if I did it right.

Started Daemon_Launch_portable.bat in \daemon
then ran LOCALHOST_TBX_MINE_2_THREADS.bat
and finally I went to \Data\tenebrix.conf and changed the port and portsend to 9777, the default setting was causing problems, and ran TenebrixPortable.exe to get the wallet info.

The miner window has shown Proof of work result: True (yay!!!) but I don't see anything in the wallet.

edit: noticed there was 2 wallet.dat, copied the one from the \deamon folder into the tenebrix folder, seems to work.

[NghtRppr]

cryptocurrency with solid GPU resistance

Why would we care about that?

[Bobnova]

Code:

:~/Tenebrix$ ./bitcoin-qt
bitcoin server starting
Segmentation fault
bobnova@bobnova-P67A-UD4-B3:~/Tenebrix$ <unknown>: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.


************************
EXCEPTION: N5boost12interprocess14lock_exceptionE       
boost::interprocess::lock_exception       
bitcoin in ThreadMessageHandler()       



************************
EXCEPTION: N5boost12interprocess14lock_exceptionE       
boost::interprocess::lock_exception       
bitcoin in ThreadSocketHandler()       

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'terminate called recursively
boost::interprocess::lock_exception'

[terrytibbs]

tFCq32aZFqa13wrab6m55Nv3R53tk4zkL8

[johnj]

hey this one actually works for me

[ahitman]

tM55bx9FpTYdnv2APidgdJWmWep28sEyax

[johnj]

tJBSZgipVFjm2adLxXiz4oExHe2GBd7UUk

[Bobnova]

In case you're feeling extra generous....  tSkGi2EeJAkgQnwxVtuG2BC5uERh5Rh8iT


To be fair, the linux client segfaults so I had to download the windows one and that used too much time.

[Peter Lambert]

Ok, I have to ask, since you didn't say anyhting about it in the OP, can you give more detail about this currency?

Block size, block frequency, total number, simmilarities/differences to bitcoin, etc, etc, etc?

[ineededausername]

In case you're extra generous:
tJHShamLiNTU9XhJrEio389bARfJKCrJeo

[ineededausername]

Now mining with 2600k.  I can already imagine the "My 2600k shits brix" tshirts 

[Lolcust]

Okay, linux users havign segfaults should try changing daemon=1 to daemon=0 in config.

Interestingly, doing that on windows increases the likelihood of GUI becoming unresponsive and makes trying to "make it live again" by rightclicks on tray icon less likely to succeed.

Oddly lin and win are at counterpoints here.

Investigating

cryptocurrency with solid GPU resistance

Why would we care about that?

Your question is so awesome I'll add it to the FAQ.

Well, for starters, Tenebrix offers you opportunity to mine some coins that will be eventually exchangeable with spare cpu cycles of your awesome 4-card mining box that it doesn't use anyhow:)

Second, it makes for a more diverse adoption base since there is no "you must have a fairly loud and specific bit of narrow-purpose hardware at least THIS cool to even try mining" effect (pools will still be kings though)

P.S.:
Coin dispensing will begin soon, in order of address posting, no less than 5 addresses will be processed

[Spacy]

foreach (month in year) { next-lolcust-currency.release(); } 

[Lolcust]

Well, you're flattering me by calling it a Lolcust currency. It verily much a joint / community effort, even at the conceptual level (Geist is mostly my brainchild in terms of concept, this one evolved organically from all the "how do we design a GPU-hostile PoW" discussion flowing around )

[dust]

Mining on an i7-870

tRdPgGM7fnsnEMEeYqqiHhKNEUnwt1Yz8e