[ANN] CivicNet (CIVIC) | Hybrid PoW+PoS Live 9 Aug , ASIC-Resistant | CPU Mining

[CivicLight]

Something is very wrong here after hardfork.
The seed node alone is able to mine and grabs all blocks and other nodes cannot sync.
Along with 3.15M premine, dev keeps hogging all 

Code:

ERROR: AcceptBlockHeader: Consensus::ContextualCheckBlockHeader: 
3d15db567c33bebfdd52b6e03baa05047b3a94e9e961c4a22a3fa72ecd081b9a,
 bad-diffbits, incorrect proof of work

Found it, thank you for reporting this precisely.

This is a real bug, not premine hoarding — after the fork, an emergency difficulty-reset fix (needed because inherited difficulty would've stalled the network for weeks) was deployed to our own node but never pushed to the public repo. Nodes built from the previously released source reject the fork transition block as bad-diffbits because they were running different consensus rules than our node.

Fix is now pushed to master: https://github.com/CivicLight/CivicNet/commit/4e182e80d

If you're running your own node, please pull and rebuild. Genuinely sorry for the disruption — this should have gone out with the original fork release. New binary release coming shortly.

[13y85t]

1. Open File Explorer, type this in the address bar: %APPDATA%\CivicNet
2. Create a file there called civicnet.conf (if it doesn't already exist)
3. Open it in Notepad and add this line:

Code:

addnode=103.180.165.99

4. Save, close, and restart civicnet-qt.exe

it doesn't sync, even with this peer

Thanks for the report. Before troubleshooting further — could you confirm you're running the latest QT wallet build (post civiclight v2 fork, activated July 23)?

If you're still on a pre-fork version, that would explain the sync failure: the old client validates blocks under the old algorithm and will reject/fail to process anything mined after the fork, regardless of how many peers or addnodes you configure. This isn't a networking issue in that case — it's a version mismatch.

Latest wallet: https://github.com/CivicLight/CivicNet/releases/tag/v2.0.0

If you've already confirmed you're on the latest version and it's still not syncing, let us know and we'll dig into the networking side (addnode config, port 9333 reachability, etc.).

yes v2, downloaded this morning.
connected to 103.180.165.99 but 2 weeks behind and nothing move

Code:

2026-07-25T00:11:03Z New outbound peer connected: version: 70017, blocks=6192, peer=0 (full-relay)
2026-07-25T00:11:04Z ERROR: AcceptBlockHeader: Consensus::ContextualCheckBlockHeader: 3d15db567c33bebfdd52b6e03baa05047b3a94e9e961c4a22a3fa72ecd081b9a, bad-diffbits, incorrect proof of work
2026-07-25T00:11:04Z Warning: not punishing manually connected peer 0!
2026-07-25T00:11:13Z Loading addresses from DNS seed 103.180.165.99
2026-07-25T00:11:13Z 0 addresses found from DNS seeds
2026-07-25T00:11:13Z dnsseed thread exit
2026-07-25T00:11:18Z ERROR: AcceptBlockHeader: Consensus::ContextualCheckBlockHeader: 3d15db567c33bebfdd52b6e03baa05047b3a94e9e961c4a22a3fa72ecd081b9a, bad-diffbits, incorrect proof of work
2026-07-25T00:11:58Z ERROR: AcceptBlockHeader: Consensus::ContextualCheckBlockHeader: 3d15db567c33bebfdd52b6e03baa05047b3a94e9e961c4a22a3fa72ecd081b9a, bad-diffbits, incorrect proof of work

[CivicLight]

1. Open File Explorer, type this in the address bar: %APPDATA%\CivicNet
2. Create a file there called civicnet.conf (if it doesn't already exist)
3. Open it in Notepad and add this line:

Code:

addnode=103.180.165.99

4. Save, close, and restart civicnet-qt.exe

it doesn't sync, even with this peer

Thanks for the report. Before troubleshooting further — could you confirm you're running the latest QT wallet build (post civiclight v2 fork, activated July 23)?

If you're still on a pre-fork version, that would explain the sync failure: the old client validates blocks under the old algorithm and will reject/fail to process anything mined after the fork, regardless of how many peers or addnodes you configure. This isn't a networking issue in that case — it's a version mismatch.

Latest wallet: https://github.com/CivicLight/CivicNet/releases/tag/v2.0.0

If you've already confirmed you're on the latest version and it's still not syncing, let us know and we'll dig into the networking side (addnode config, port 9333 reachability, etc.).

yes v2, downloaded this morning.
connected to 103.180.165.99 but 2 weeks behind and nothing move

Code:

2026-07-25T00:11:03Z New outbound peer connected: version: 70017, blocks=6192, peer=0 (full-relay)
2026-07-25T00:11:04Z ERROR: AcceptBlockHeader: Consensus::ContextualCheckBlockHeader: 3d15db567c33bebfdd52b6e03baa05047b3a94e9e961c4a22a3fa72ecd081b9a, bad-diffbits, incorrect proof of work
2026-07-25T00:11:04Z Warning: not punishing manually connected peer 0!
2026-07-25T00:11:13Z Loading addresses from DNS seed 103.180.165.99
2026-07-25T00:11:13Z 0 addresses found from DNS seeds
2026-07-25T00:11:13Z dnsseed thread exit
2026-07-25T00:11:18Z ERROR: AcceptBlockHeader: Consensus::ContextualCheckBlockHeader: 3d15db567c33bebfdd52b6e03baa05047b3a94e9e961c4a22a3fa72ecd081b9a, bad-diffbits, incorrect proof of work
2026-07-25T00:11:58Z ERROR: AcceptBlockHeader: Consensus::ContextualCheckBlockHeader: 3d15db567c33bebfdd52b6e03baa05047b3a94e9e961c4a22a3fa72ecd081b9a, bad-diffbits, incorrect proof of work

Same root cause as the node sync issue reported earlier — the Windows QT wallet build was also compiled before the emergency difficulty fix, so it rejects the fork-transition block for the same reason (bad-diffbits mismatch).

Fixed binary is now up on the same release page: https://github.com/CivicLight/CivicNet/releases/tag/v2.0.0 (v2.0.0, civicnet-qt.exe re-uploaded with the fix).

Please re-download and replace your wallet.exe — no need to resync from scratch, your existing chain data and wallet.dat are unaffected, just the binary itself needed the fix. Let me know if it still doesn't sync after updating.

[13y85t]

it's ok with fixed version. thanks

[caijh369]

The servers of the official website and the blockchain browser are too slow. The loading speed is extremely slow.

[zcboss]

Why is no one mining this coin anymore? Has the project been discontinued?

[CivicLight]

Not discontinued — very much active. Development shifted focus for a bit to some fork-related fixes and infrastructure (EasyMiner, Android miner app), which may have quieted things down externally, but the project is moving forward.

Right now the main focus is building out Hybrid PoW+PoS — this is a significant undertaking (consensus-level changes take real time to get right and test properly), so it's not something that ships overnight. PoW mining stays fully active and central to the network throughout — PoS is being added as a complementary layer, not a replacement.

Appreciate you checking in — happy to share more details on the PoS design if you're interested.

[CivicLight]

CivicNet Core Update — Hybrid PoW+PoS Consensus

Staking Activates: 2026-08-04 09:00:00 UTC

We've just released an update introducing Hybrid Proof-of-Work + Proof-of-Stake consensus to the network — the most significant protocol change since the civiclight ASIC-resistance hardfork.

Overview

Consensus is now shared between two block-production mechanisms on the same chain:

• Proof-of-Work: CPU mining via civiclight, unchanged
• Proof-of-Stake: block production by holding CIVIC in an unlocked wallet

Design priorities were fairness and simplicity:

• No minimum balance to stake
• No lock-up period — funds stay liquid
• No masternode tier or privileged class
• Anti-whale weighting: staking probability scales with the square root of a wallet's balance, not linearly
• Anti-clustering rule: consecutive PoS blocks can't chain without intervening PoW blocks
• Dynamic PoW/PoS ratio that self-adjusts while keeping PoW dominant

Activation

Gated by a hard-coded timestamp (shown above). Below that time, PoS validation is disabled at the consensus level regardless of what a block claims — any premature PoS-flagged block is evaluated as an ordinary PoW block and rejected unless it also satisfies real proof-of-work, which a staked block won't. This means the update is safe to run before activation with zero risk of staking going live early. Verified in an isolated test environment and via mocktime-based testing before deploying.

Upgrading an Existing Node

This update adds new persistent fields to the on-disk block index. If you're upgrading an already-synced node, start it with -reindex on first launch:

Code:

./civicnet-node -daemon -reindex

One-time operation, rebuilds your local index from blocks you already have — no resync from peers needed. Takes a few minutes depending on chain size. Not needed on later restarts, and not needed for fresh installs syncing from genesis.

Wallet Users

Two new features:

• Staking-only unlock: a checkbox in the unlock dialog lets you unlock specifically to enable staking without enabling spending — useful for wallets left running unattended
  
• Live staking status on the Overview page
  

Older wallets still send/receive fine but don't include staking support.

Downloads

Windows wallet, Linux node + CLI, source:
https://github.com/CivicLight/CivicNet/releases/tag/v3.0.0

Bug Fixes

• Fixed civicnet-wallet CLI failing to build
• Fixed a block validation ordering issue affecting coinstake handling

Happy to answer any questions about the design or implementation below.

[sdnz]

How does the new PoS mining work? Are PoW and PoS depending on each other?
More interesting to know whether the dev can effectively mine 99% of PoS block (based on the blocks mined + 3.15M premine) 

[CivicLight]

How does the new PoS mining work? Are PoW and PoS depending on each other?
More interesting to know whether the dev can effectively mine 99% of PoS block (based on the blocks mined + 3.15M premine) 

Good questions — let me address both.

Are PoW and PoS dependent on each other?

They're independent block-production mechanisms on the same chain, with one structural link: an anti-clustering rule requires at least N PoW blocks between any two PoS blocks. This means PoS can't happen without PoW continuing to run alongside it — mining doesn't stop or pause when staking occurs, and staking doesn't require anyone's specific participation for PoW to keep working. The anti-clustering rule exists specifically to prevent PoS from ever crowding out mining, not to make one mechanism gate the other's ability to function.

Can the dev effectively mine 99% of PoS blocks via the premine?

No, and this is worth walking through with actual numbers, because it's exactly the failure mode the design was built to prevent.

Staking weight in this system is proportional to the square root of balance, not balance itself. This isn't a minor detail — it's the entire anti-whale mechanism, and it changes the math completely:

• Dev premine: ~3,150,000 CIVIC → sqrt(3,150,000) ≈ 1,775 in staking weight
• A single holder with 100,000 CIVIC → sqrt(100,000) ≈ 316
• 1,000 different holders with 100 CIVIC each → sqrt(100) × 1,000 = 10,000 combined weight

That last example is the key point: 1,000 addresses holding 100 CIVIC each (100,000 CIVIC total — a fraction of the premine) collectively outweigh the entire 3.15M premine's staking odds by more than 5x, purely because square-root weighting rewards distribution over concentration. A large holder gains far less proportional advantage than they would under linear weighting.

For the premine to actually reach anything close to 99% of PoS blocks, nearly every other CIVIC holder would need to hold and stake essentially nothing — which becomes less true over time as PoW continues distributing new supply to miners at 77 CIVIC/block, every 60 seconds.

None of this is a claim I'm asking anyone to trust blindly — the formula is in the source (public repo, IsProofOfStake() and the kernel-weighting logic in pos_kernel.cpp), and you're welcome to run the numbers yourself or point out if you think the math is wrong. Happy to go deeper into the implementation if useful.

I suggest you take the time to read and understand our whitepaper.

[CivicLight]

Update — Hybrid PoW+PoS Activation Postponed

Straight to the point: we're not activating PoS on the originally planned date. An external technical review of the public source turned up real, consensus-level bugs — the kind that matter (things touching supply integrity and chain security) — and we're not rushing something this important to hit a date.

What happened

Someone with real technical depth went through the public source tree and reported several findings, ranging from critical to low severity. We verified every single one directly against our own code before touching anything, and every finding checked out.

What we did about it

All findings have been fixed and pushed publicly:
https://github.com/CivicLight/CivicNet/commit/7d165fb6d

This included consensus-level fixes (transaction value validation, block header validation, timestamp enforcement, arithmetic precision) and a block-signing mechanism binding staked blocks to the specific coinstake transaction that produced them.

Where things stand

• All known code-level issues: fixed and public
• A second seed node is now live, improving network resilience
• We're in contact with the reviewer and awaiting their follow-up

No new activation date yet. We'd rather announce one with confidence than guess again.

Mining continues completely unaffected throughout all of this. Thanks for your patience — happy to answer questions.

[sdnz]

It seems new fixes change consensus so it would be better to increase the version or similar
so it's obvious to force old nodes to upgrade instead of forking chains.
Is the current version, 0.21.5.5?
Is this official explorer?
https://explorer.civiclight.xyz/

Seems good to show the Network info correctly rather than having empty space.

[CivicLight]

CivicNet Network Update — Sync Issue Resolved

Hi everyone,

Wanted to give a transparent technical update on a network issue we identified and fixed today.

What happened

While rolling out security hardening for our upcoming Hybrid PoW+PoS consensus system, we ran into several backward-compatibility bugs that only surfaced once deployed against the live network:

• Header/compact-block relay bug: a new PoS-related field (block signature, added as part of a security fix) wasn't being handled consistently across all P2P relay paths, causing malformed data to be sent between nodes running different binary versions.
  
• On-disk block storage compatibility: older blocks in the chain were stored without this new field, and the updated node software wasn't able to correctly read that older data, causing sync to briefly fail.
  
• Historical difficulty validation mismatch: a difficulty-retarget calculation change (part of the same security hardening) didn't exactly reproduce the values used when older blocks were originally mined, causing valid historical blocks to be incorrectly rejected.
  

All three issues have been root-caused and fixed. The fixes are live on the network and published in our public repo.

Impact

The main visible impact was a period of roughly several hours where new blocks were propagating slowly/inconsistently across the network. Miners connected during this window may have experienced stratum disconnects or stale work. This is resolved — the network is fully caught up and stable.

If you run your own node

Some full nodes/solo miners on the network are currently connected but stuck at an old block height (not actively rejecting anything, just not resyncing on their own). Simply restarting your node (stop and start civicnet-node) will trigger it to catch up automatically.

If you're running the older v3.0.0 release binary, please update to v3.0.1, which includes all of today's fixes:
https://github.com/CivicLight/CivicNet/releases/tag/v3.0.1

Other updates

• A second DNS seed node is now live, improving network resilience for new nodes connecting for the first time.
• Our Hybrid PoW+PoS system remains on hold pending completion of a full external security audit. We won't activate it on mainnet until that review is complete — a separate announcement will follow once we have a timeline.

Thanks for your patience, and apologies for any inconvenience during the maintenance window. Happy to answer any technical questions below.

— CivicNet Team

[sdnz]

Can you update the node version when major version changes? Currently it shows "CivicNetCore:0.21.5.5" consistently from the beginning of the project.

[CivicLight]

Can you update the node version when major version changes? Currently it shows "CivicNetCore:0.21.5.5" consistently from the beginning of the project.

Good catch, thanks for flagging this!

You're right — the reported client version had been stuck at 0.21.5.5 since the project started, even though we've shipped several major updates (civiclight v2 hardfork, PoS work, and today's sync fixes). That was simply an oversight -- the version constants in the build config were never bumped alongside the actual releases.

Fixed as of v3.0.1 -- the node now correctly reports its version as 3.0.1.0, matching the release tag. You can verify with:

Code:

civicnet-cli getnetworkinfo

or

Code:

civicnet-node --version

Updated binaries (Linux + Windows, core + Qt wallet) are up on the release page now:
https://github.com/CivicLight/CivicNet/releases/tag/v3.0.1

Appreciate you keeping an eye on the details -- feedback like this genuinely helps us keep the project tight. Let us know if you spot anything else!

[CivicLight]

📢 Official Announcement: Hybrid PoW+PoS Activation

August 9, 2026, 09:00 UTC

Hi everyone,

We're confirming the official activation date for CivicNet's Hybrid Proof-of-Work + Proof-of-Stake consensus system: August 9, 2026, 09:00 UTC.

From this exact timestamp, both CPU mining and staking will produce blocks on the same chain. This is a hard consensus-level activation, so please read this update carefully before that date.


⚠️ IMPORTANT: Re-download the binary, even if you already updated to v3.0.1

If you downloaded the v3.0.1 release before this announcement, please download it again now. We identified and fixed several additional compatibility issues after the initial v3.0.1 release, and finalized the exact activation timestamp only after those fixes were fully tested — the earlier build you may have downloaded still contains a provisional (much later) placeholder activation date, not the real one. The binaries currently on the release page are the final, correct versions.

Download: https://github.com/CivicLight/CivicNet/releases/tag/v3.0.1

If you run a node, or mine/stake CIVIC, please update before August 9. Nodes still running older binaries will not correctly recognize PoS blocks once activation happens, and may fall out of sync with the network.


🔒 On security review

We want to be transparent about our process here. CivicNet has not undergone a formal, paid third-party security audit — at our current project scale, that kind of engagement isn't realistic or proportionate yet, and we'd rather be upfront about that than imply otherwise.

Instead, our approach has been rigorous internal review: the staking implementation went through multiple rounds of internal code review (including a source-level review as part of an exchange listing process, which surfaced real findings we fixed), followed by extensive multi-node testing — including forced fork/reorg scenarios, competing stakers, and independent node deployments — to validate the consensus logic holds up under real network conditions, not just in isolation.

We're committed to continuing this "self-hardening" approach going forward: if the community finds an issue, we investigate and fix it promptly, with full transparency about what was found and how it was resolved.


Recap of what's included:

• Hybrid PoW+PoS consensus, activating August 9, 2026, 09:00 UTC
  
• Fixes for node sync compatibility (both between nodes and with historical chain data)
• Wallet: new "staking-only" unlock mode + live staking status indicator
• Windows wallet (Qt), Windows node/CLI, and Linux node/CLI all available

Downloads: https://github.com/CivicLight/CivicNet/releases/tag/v3.0.1

Happy to answer any questions — especially technical ones about the staking design or the upgrade process.

— CivicNet Team