ConnectCoin
A cryptocurrency with native Pay-to-Connect transactions and RandomX proof-of-work
AI disclosure: This announcement text was generated with AI assistance.Hi Bitcointalk,
I'm Papaulo, and I'm developing ConnectCoin: an open-source cryptocurrency built from Bitcoin Core, with its own blockchain, RandomX proof-of-work mining, and native Pay-to-Connect (P2C) transactions.
ConnectCoin supports ordinary payments to public keys as well as payments that can be claimed by supplying a valid TLS connection proof. Each P2C bounty has a creator-selected hash target, allowing substantial off-chain search effort while recording only a qualifying proof with the claim.
The public testnet is available for anyone who wants to run a node, try the wallet, mine test blocks, create P2C bounties, or test automatic claiming.
Current status: public testnet. Mainnet has not launched, and testnet coins do not become mainnet coins.Join the ConnectCoin CommunityOur Discord is the main community hub for ConnectCoin. Future announcements, development updates, questions, and day-to-day discussions will be centered there.
Join to follow the project's progress, get help running the testnet, share your experience, and discuss ideas with other users, miners, and node operators.
Questions and feedback are welcome in this thread as well. For ongoing community interaction and future announcements, Discord is the best place to stay connected.
Project linksSource code and installationWhitepaperBlockchain ExplorerWhat is Pay-to-Connect?An ordinary payment assigns coins to a public key. A P2C payment instead creates an output associated with a domain and a set of proof requirements.
Anyone who produces a qualifying proof can spend that output. The reward comes from the coins placed in the bounty by its creator.
The process works as follows:
1. Create a bounty.A sender funds a P2C output, specifying a domain of the HTTPS website, a connection-work target, and the supported certificate and signature parameters.
2. Generate a TLS proof.A claimant prepares a spending transaction and connects to a compatible TLS 1.3 server for that domain. The handshake includes a challenge derived from the claim transaction and its input, binding the resulting evidence to that particular claim.
3. Submit a qualifying claim.The authenticated transcript must meet the bounty's work target. The claimant attaches the proof to the transaction and broadcasts it. In the standard claiming workflow, the transaction pays the claimant from the bounty, with the fee deducted from that reward.
4. Validate on the network.Nodes check the proof carried by the transaction: the certificate chain, domain, server signature, claim binding, and work target. They do not need to contact the website themselves. A confirmed claim spends the bounty like any other UTXO.
Compatible servers use their existing TLS functionality; they do not need to install ConnectCoin software. Certificate authentication uses a versioned root-certificate bundle defined by the protocol.
Read the P2C protocol specificationHash targets: more off-chain work per on-chain proofA key part of P2C is that each bounty sets its own hash target. Producing an authenticated TLS transcript is only part of the requirement: its connection-work hash must also be less than or equal to that target.
A lower target makes qualifying proofs rarer. This lets the bounty creator adjust the expected search effort without requiring every unsuccessful attempt to be recorded on the blockchain.
For example, a target requiring ten leading zero bits gives each independent, uniformly distributed candidate hash a 1-in-1,024 chance of qualifying. Finding a qualifying candidate therefore takes 1,024 attempts on average. When each candidate requires a fresh interaction with an independent server, this corresponds to the same expected number of TLS interactions.
Only the qualifying proof needs to accompany the claim transaction. The unsuccessful attempts remain off-chain.Nodes verify the submitted proof rather than receiving and validating the entire search history. The proof does not grow with the number of attempts that preceded it. This separates the expected effort of finding a qualifying result from the amount of evidence that must be stored and checked on-chain.
The bounty creator can choose the reward and target together: how much to pay, and how selective the proof requirement should be. This target belongs to the individual bounty and is separate from RandomX block-mining difficulty.
The number of attempts is probabilistic: a valid proof demonstrates that the target was met, not that a fixed number of connections occurred.
Connection-work specificationWhat can you do with the current wallet?The ConnectCoin Qt wallet includes:
- An integrated full node for synchronizing and validating the blockchain.
- Standard payments using pay-to-public-key outputs authorized by Schnorr signatures.
- P2C bounty creation for funding connection-proof rewards.
- Automatic Claims for finding available bounties, generating proofs, and submitting qualifying claims.
- Optional CPU mining using RandomX.
- Transaction history and wallet management for receiving, sending, and backing up funds.
RandomX mining and P2C claiming are separate mechanisms. RandomX is used to mine blocks. P2C claims spend existing funded bounties.
Both CPU mining and Automatic Claims are opt-in. Simply opening the wallet does not activate either one.
How to get started1. Build ConnectCoin.The README provides dependency installation and source-build instructions for Windows, supported Linux distributions, macOS, and BSD systems. Follow the section for your operating system and version.
Installation instructions2. Launch the wallet.After compiling, open a terminal in the connectcoin source folder.
Linux, macOS, and BSD:
./build/bin/connectcoin-qt
Windows, using the documented native Release build:
.\build\bin\Release\connectcoin-qt.exe
Depending on your operating system and desktop environment, you can also launch the executable from your file manager.
3. Create a wallet and synchronize.Choose File > Create Wallet, or open an existing wallet. The beta selects ConnectCoin testnet4 by default, without requiring a network flag or configuration file.
4. Choose what you want to test.- Use Send for an ordinary public-key payment.
- Use P2C to create funded bounties.
- Use Automatic Claims to configure and explicitly start claiming.
- Use Mining to explicitly start the CPU miner.
Automatic Claims does not require a pre-existing wallet balance in the standard workflow: fees are taken from the bounty. It does require an available bounty and a qualifying proof; competing claims may spend an output first.
Start with conservative CPU and connection settings, leaving resources available for the node and your other applications.
For a headless VPS, the build also includes connectcoind and connectcoin-cli. Instructions are in the README.
Getting started and headless-node instructionsFeedback and discussionI'm particularly interested in hearing from people who try the software or inspect the protocol:
- Can you build, synchronize, and use the wallet on your operating system?
- Are bounty creation and Automatic Claims understandable without reading the source?
- Do nodes remain responsive while processing claims and blocks?
- Are there problems with claim binding, replay protection, certificate validation, or competing spends?
- What would make the documentation and developer interfaces easier to use?
For reproducible bugs, include the operating system, commit or build version, reproduction steps, and relevant logs. Please remove private information and never upload wallet files, private keys, or passwords.
Report a reproducible bug on GitHubThe code, protocol documentation, whitepaper, and explorer are public so the implementation can be examined alongside the description.
To follow future announcements, ask questions, and take part in the ongoing discussion, join the ConnectCoin Community:ConnectCoin Community — Discord
