[ANN] ConnectCoin — Pay and get paid for verified HTTPS connections|RandomX PoW

ConnectCoin — Mainnet is live
A cryptocurrency with native Pay-to-Connect transactions and RandomX proof-of-work

ConnectCoin Core v1.0.0 — Windows and Linux downloads available

Website | Downloads | Whitepaper | Discord

Introducing ConnectCoin

Hi Bitcointalk,

I'm Papaulo, the developer of ConnectCoin: an open-source cryptocurrency built from Bitcoin Core, with its own blockchain, RandomX v2 proof-of-work, and a native transaction type called Pay-to-Connect (P2C).

ConnectCoin supports ordinary payments to public keys, but it also lets users create connection-proof bounties: coins that anyone can claim by providing qualifying cryptographic evidence from a compatible TLS server.

The idea is to make authenticated TLS interactions usable as a native condition for spending coins. A bounty creator chooses the domain, reward, and proof requirements. Claimants search for qualifying proofs, and the blockchain verifies the evidence without requiring every node to contact the website.

Mainnet launched on October 1, 2026.

ConnectCoin Core v1.0.0 is available with ready-to-run Windows and Linux distributions. You can run a full node, use the graphical wallet, mine with your CPU, create P2C bounties, or participate in Automatic Claims.

ConnectCoin is its own blockchain, not a token deployed on another network. The public testnet remains separate, and testnet coins do not convert into mainnet coins.

What is Pay-to-Connect?

An ordinary payment assigns coins to a public key. Spending those coins requires an authorized signature.

A P2C payment instead creates an output associated with a domain and a set of TLS proof requirements. Anyone who produces a qualifying proof can spend that output.

The reward comes from the coins deposited by the bounty creator. P2C claims do not create new coins.

Here is the process from beginning to end:

1. Someone creates a bounty.

The sender chooses a domain, deposits a reward, and specifies a connection-work target and the supported certificate/signature parameters.

The result is an on-chain output waiting for a qualifying claim.

2. A claimant generates a TLS proof.

The claimant prepares a transaction spending that bounty and interacts with a compatible TLS 1.3 server for the specified domain.

The handshake includes a challenge derived from the claim transaction and its input. This binds the resulting evidence to that particular claim, including the payment destination committed by the transaction.

3. The proof must satisfy the bounty's requirements.

The certificate chain, domain, server signature, and claim binding must be valid. The connection-work hash must also meet the bounty's target.

In the standard claiming workflow, the claim pays the bounty to the claimant, with the transaction fee deducted from the reward.

4. Nodes verify the submitted evidence.

The claimant broadcasts the transaction with its proof. Nodes check the evidence locally, including certificate authentication, the server signature, claim binding, and work target.

Validating nodes do not need to connect to the website themselves.

Once a claim is confirmed, the bounty has been spent. Like any other UTXO, it cannot be spent again by another claimant.

Compatible servers use their existing TLS functionality; they do not need to install ConnectCoin software. However, not every HTTPS server supports the TLS version and cryptographic profile required by P2C.

Certificate authentication uses a versioned root-certificate bundle defined by the protocol.

Read the P2C protocol specification

Hash targets: off-chain search, on-chain verification

A valid authenticated transcript is not necessarily a winning proof.

Each bounty includes a hash target. The connection-work hash must be less than or equal to that target. Lower targets make qualifying results rarer.

For example, a target requiring ten leading zero bits gives each independent, uniformly distributed candidate hash a 1-in-1,024 chance of qualifying. That means 1,024 candidate attempts on average—not exactly 1,024 attempts for every reward.

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 accompanies the claim transaction. Unsuccessful attempts remain off-chain.

Nodes verify the submitted result rather than receiving the entire search history. The proof does not grow with the number of unsuccessful attempts that preceded it.

This lets bounty creators choose both how much to pay and how selective the proof requirement should be.

The bounty's target is separate from RandomX block-mining difficulty.

P2C proves that qualifying authenticated evidence was produced; it does not prove an exact number of physical connections, page views, or independent visitors. In particular, a party controlling the server's signing key can produce authenticated responses without ordinary independent-client interactions.

Connection-work specification

Mining and claiming are different activities

ConnectCoin has two distinct mechanisms:

RandomX mining secures the blockchain by finding proof-of-work blocks. Miners receive the applicable block subsidy and transaction fees.
P2C claiming spends existing funded bounties by supplying qualifying TLS evidence. Its rewards come from bounty creators, not additional monetary issuance.

ConnectCoin Core includes an optional RandomX v2 CPU solo miner. It is not a pool or Stratum client.

The graphical wallet also includes Automatic Claims, which discovers eligible bounties, generates and verifies proofs, and submits qualifying claims.

In the standard workflow, claiming does not require a pre-existing wallet balance because the fee is deducted from the bounty. There must still be an available reward and a qualifying proof, and a competing claimant may spend the output first.

Both activities are opt-in in Core. Simply opening the application does not start mining or Automatic Claims.

Use conservative CPU and connection settings. Automatic Claims creates network traffic, and participating does not guarantee earnings.

Network parameters and distribution

Ticker: CONN.
Proof-of-work: RandomX v2.
Target block interval: 10 seconds; actual intervals vary.
Initial scheduled ordinary block subsidy: 15 CONN.
Halving interval: 3,000,000 blocks—approximately 347 days at the target interval.
Precision: 10 decimal places. One CONN contains 10,000,000,000 connects.
Nominal supply budget: 100 million CONN.

Genesis allocation

The genesis coinbase contains 10 million CONN, divided into two allocations:

Development Fund: 5,000,000 CONN. Allocated to hosting and rewarding independent developers of official projects and valuable ecosystem contributions. Expenditures are to be explained publicly.
Developer's Fund: 5,000,000 CONN. The founder's personal allocation, intended to support living expenses and continued work on ConnectCoin.

The remaining nominal 90 million CONN belongs to the ordinary mining subsidy schedule.

The published fund policy limits cumulative withdrawals from each fund to an allowance increasing by 1 million CONN per year, beginning at launch, with unused allowance carrying forward. This is a published commitment, not a consensus-enforced annual timelock.

The genesis outputs and their public aggregate keys are documented openly.

Integer rounding means the exact maximum scheduled issuance, before weight-related reductions or unclaimed subsidies, is 99,999,984.9955 CONN. Actual issuance can be lower.

ConnectCoin also reduces the available block subsidy according to non-coinbase transaction weight, reaching a 10% reduction at the full block-weight limit. This creates an explicit block-space cost that transaction fees must compensate.

Genesis, allocation addresses, and verification details
Economic policy and technical whitepaper

ConnectCoin Core: wallet and full node

ConnectCoin Core combines a graphical wallet with an independently validating full node.

Features include:

Sending and receiving CONN through native public-key outputs authorized by Schnorr signatures.
P2C bounty creation with a domain, reward, and work target.
Automatic Claims with configurable connection limits.
Integrated CPU solo mining with selectable thread count and reward destination.
Payment URI support for opening compatible connectcoin: payment requests and reviewing them before sending.
Wallet management, transaction history, and backups.
Command-line tools for headless nodes and integrations.

Download ConnectCoin Core v1.0.0

You no longer need to compile from source to use the published Windows and Linux builds.

Windows x64

MSI installer for Windows 10 version 1809 or later, including Windows 11:

Download Windows MSI

The installer includes the graphical wallet, full node, and command-line tools. It is unsigned, so Windows may display an unknown-publisher warning.

Linux x86_64

Choose the package suitable for your distribution:

DEB package — for compatible Ubuntu, Debian, and Linux Mint systems; tested on Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 and Debian 12.
RPM package — built for Fedora 43.
AppImage — a portable application for compatible Linux desktops.
Portable tar.gz archive — extract and launch without installing a native package.

The AppImage and portable archive require a compatible glibc-based system with glibc 2.35 or newer and the necessary host graphics libraries. They are not universal builds for every Linux distribution or architecture.

Linux SHA-256 checksums

Official release page and all downloads

Source-build instructions for additional supported configurations, including macOS and BSD, are available in the repository. This release's ready-made downloads are Windows and Linux builds.

Source installation instructions

How to get started

1. Download and install the appropriate build.

On Windows, run the MSI installer.

For the DEB package:

Code:

sudo apt install ./connectcoin-core_1.0.0-1ubuntu22.04_amd64.deb

For Fedora 43:

Code:

sudo dnf install ./connectcoin-core-1.0.0-1.fc43.x86_64.rpm

For the AppImage:

Code:

chmod +x ConnectCoin-Core-1.0.0-x86_64.AppImage
./ConnectCoin-Core-1.0.0-x86_64.AppImage

2. Open ConnectCoin Core.

Use the installed application shortcut, or run connectcoin-qt.

Mainnet is the default network. A fresh installation does not require a -chain=main flag.

If you previously used a testnet build, check for an existing configuration or shortcut explicitly selecting testnet4. Explicit network settings still take precedence.

3. Create a wallet and synchronize.

Choose File > Create Wallet, or open an existing compatible mainnet wallet. Back up the wallet and let the node synchronize before relying on its displayed chain state.

4. Choose how to participate.

Use Send and Receive for ordinary payments.
Use P2C to create connection-proof bounties.
Use Automatic Claims to configure and explicitly start claiming.
Use Mining to choose CPU threads and explicitly start the solo miner.

For a headless machine or VPS, connectcoind and connectcoin-cli are also available.

Getting started and headless-node instructions

ConnectWallet: a separate desktop light wallet

ConnectWallet is an additional open-source desktop wallet for users who do not want to download the blockchain or run a full node.

Its current mainnet source supports:

Creating and restoring wallets with BIP39 recovery words.
Locally stored, password-protected wallet keys.
Sending and receiving CONN.
P2C bounty creation and Automatic Claims.
Copyable connectcoin: payment links and matching QR codes, with optional amount, label, and message.
Pasting payment links or valid addresses directly from the clipboard.
Light, dark, and system appearance settings.

Payment labels and messages are not written to the blockchain. Compatible wallets can save them locally, and anyone who receives the payment link or QR code can read them.

ConnectWallet keeps signing keys locally, but it relies on a server for chain information and does not independently validate consensus. Its current RPC transport is unencrypted. It does not include a CPU miner.

ConnectWallet is currently available through its source repository; it is separate from the published Core installers linked above.

ConnectWallet source and setup instructions

Explore both networks

Two explorers are available, one for each network:

Mainnet Explorer
View mainnet blocks, transactions, addresses, and network activity.

Testnet Explorer
Inspect the separate testnet4 network used for experimentation.

Use the explorer matching your wallet's network. Testnet balances are not mainnet balances.

Join the community

Discord is the main ConnectCoin community hub.

Join to ask questions, get help running a node or wallet, discuss P2C, share mining experiences, and follow development.

Join the ConnectCoin Community on Discord

Questions and discussion are welcome in this thread as well.

Project links and feedback

Official website
Core v1.0.0 downloads
Core source code
ConnectWallet source code
Whitepaper
P2C protocol specification
Mainnet explorer
Testnet explorer
Project explanation video
Discord community

I'm interested in feedback from users, miners, node operators, and developers examining the implementation.

For reproducible bugs, include your operating system, application version, reproduction steps, and relevant sanitized logs. Never upload wallet files, recovery phrases, private keys, or passwords.

Report a reproducible bug on GitHub

The mainnet is open. Download the software, inspect the protocol, and join the discussion.