[ANN][VOID] VoidCoin revived-preserved, v1.1.0 merge-mining with Bitcoin SHA256

[solarsurfer]

VoidCoin revived – source preserved, v1.1.0 merge-mining (auxpow) with Bitcoin from block 56,500


Hi all,

I'm Andy from Shears Mining https://sha256-mining.shears.co.uk, a small solo/merge-mining pool for home SHA-256 miners.

As some of you will have noticed, the VoidHash-Crypto GitHub repository has gone (404), and the developers can no longer be reached: emails bounce. We've been running VoidCoin nodes and mining the chain, and we didn't want the coin to disappear with the repo. So:

1. The source is preserved. We had a full clone of the original repository, and it's now public, unchanged, with all of the original developers' commits and release tags (v1.0.0 - v1.0.5):
https://github.com/Shears-Mining/voidcoin

All credit for VoidCoin goes to the original VoidHash-Crypto team, and VoidCoin itself is built on Kvanta5-Core: the quantum-resistant ML-DSA-87 / P2QR code is the work of the Kvanta5 developers.

2. VoidCoin Core v1.1.0 is out, adding merge-mining (AuxPoW) with Bitcoin from block 56,500. Bitcoin miners will be able to mine VOID with the same work at no extra cost, which brings far more hashrate to secure the chain. The AuxPoW code is ported from Namecoin Core.
- Chain ID 0x56. Normal (non-merge-mined) blocks stay valid, so direct miners carry on as before.
- Nothing else changes: 50 VOID reward, VCIP-2 bounty blocks, 0.1 VOID tail, 1-minute blocks, P2QR quantum-resistant addresses.
- Tested: v1.1.0 re-validated the whole live chain (identical to v1.0.5), plus 22 merge-mining checks on a test chain.
- Downloads (Linux, and a Windows wallet) with checksums: https://github.com/Shears-Mining/voidcoin/releases/tag/v1.1.0
- Pool operators: doc/merge-mining.md in the repo.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: v1.0.x nodes will stop following the chain at block 56,500 (the chain is at about 53,800 now). If you run a VoidCoin node or wallet, please upgrade before then. Your data folder and wallet carry over unchanged. Back up your wallet first anyway.

Public node: addnode=stratum.shears.co.uk:9779

To be open about where things stand: right now our pool is the only miner and our nodes are the only ones online, so more nodes and miners are very welcome. If you're an original developer or long-time holder and you're still around, please get in touch here, or open an issue on GitHub. We'd be glad to hand things back or work together.

Thanks,
Andy - Shears Mining

Original (locked) announcement: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5587143.0

[lightbit]

Really appreciate seeing someone step in to preserve a project rather than letting it disappear when the original developers become inactive.

Keeping the original commit history intact and introducing AuxPoW while maintaining compatibility with existing direct miners is an interesting approach.

One thing I'm curious about: since Shears Mining is currently the only active miner, do you have plans to attract independent pool operators and node runners ahead of block 56,500?

The post-quantum address support combined with Bitcoin merge-mining makes VOID worth following. Would be great to see the network become more decentralised as the revival progresses.

[solarsurfer]

Really appreciate seeing someone step in to preserve a project rather than letting it disappear when the original developers become inactive.

Keeping the original commit history intact and introducing AuxPoW while maintaining compatibility with existing direct miners is an interesting approach.

One thing I'm curious about: since Shears Mining is currently the only active miner, do you have plans to attract independent pool operators and node runners ahead of block 56,500?

The post-quantum address support combined with Bitcoin merge-mining makes VOID worth following. Would be great to see the network become more decentralised as the revival progresses.

Thanks, that's exactly the goal. A revival run by one pool isn't a revival yet, so here's the plan for before and after block 56,500:

- Time to upgrade: we've paused our own VOID mining so the chain doesn't race to 56,500. The switch-over will land around mid-November, giving anyone who runs a node or wallet time to move to v1.1.0. The exact date depends only on when mining resumes, and I'll post a heads-up here a few days before.

- Nodes: our public node is open now (addnode=stratum.shears.co.uk:9779). Anyone running v1.1.0, even a small VPS or a Raspberry Pi-class box, makes the network more robust. Post your node here and I'll add it to the README as a seed.

- Pool operators: doc/merge-mining.md in the repo has everything needed (chain ID 0x56, the standard createauxblock/submitauxblock RPCs). Any pool that already merge-mines Namecoin-style coins can add VOID as one more aux chain. I'll contact some of the smaller merge-mining pools directly, and I'm happy to help anyone test against our node before the switch.

- Miners: once merge-mining is live, VOID will be free to merge-mine on our pool for a month, so lots of independent Bitcoin miners will be finding VOID blocks to their own addresses, not ours.

- Visibility: we'll list VOID on MiningPoolStats as soon as a second pool is mining it.

If any of the original developers or Kvanta5 folks want to be involved, the door is open. The more hands on this, the better.

Andy - Shears Mining

[Akka 007]

Really appreciate seeing someone step in to preserve a project rather than letting it disappear when the original developers become inactive. Keeping the original commit history intact and introducing AuxPoW while maintaining compatibility with existing direct miners is an interesting approach. The post-quantum address support combined with Bitcoin merge-mining makes VOID worth following. Would be great to see the network become more decentralised as the revival progresses.