[ANN][XCN] Cryptonite | 1st mini-blockchain coin | M7 PoW | No Premine

[ltcnim]

some heavy buying going on. xcn is up 350% today 

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[bitfreak!]

bitfreak would you make the windows wallet less laggy/bugs please

We can't fix it until we discover what is causing it. The bugs only seem to affect a small percentage of Windows machines so it's hard to diagnose. Cryptonite-Qt works absolutely fine on all my Windows machines so I have no clue what the issue is. And our main developer doesn't even use Windows.

[fiatpete]

bitfreak would you make the windows wallet less laggy/bugs please

We can't fix it until we discover what is causing it. The bugs only seem to affect a small percentage of Windows machines so it's hard to diagnose. Cryptonite-Qt works absolutely fine on all my Windows machines so I have no clue what the issue is. And our main developer doesn't even use Windows.

Have you tried leaving the wallet closed on one of your windows machines for a couple of weeks so it's forced to do a resync? That seems to be one of the main issues. I just opened up my wallet for the first time in  two weeks and it crashed on a resync with the below error message:-

EXCEPTION: N5boost10filesystem16filesystem_errorE       
boost::filesystem::remove: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process: "C:\coins\cryptonite\blocks\index\000081.sst"       
C:\coins\cryptonite\win64_cryptonite-qt_14091021.exe in Runaway exception 

[bitfreak!]

Have you tried leaving the wallet closed on one of your windows machines for a couple of weeks so it's forced to do a resync?

Yes and it usually works fine.

EXCEPTION: N5boost10filesystem16filesystem_errorE      
boost::filesystem::remove: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process: "C:\coins\cryptonite\blocks\index\000081.sst"      
C:\coins\cryptonite\win64_cryptonite-qt_14091021.exe in Runaway exception

The good news is you've provided a descriptive error message to help pinpoint the issue. The bad news is this seems to be a problem which has exist for several years in other altcoins such as litecoin and still hasn't been fixed: https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=10746.0

EXCEPTION: N5boost10filesystem16filesystem_errorE
boost::filesystem:remove: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process: "C:
\Users\Owner\AppData\Roaming\Litecoin\database\log.0000000001"
C:\Program Files (x86)\Litecoin\litecoinqt.exe in Runaway exception.

My naive guess would be that you might have cryptonited already running in the background or something.

[fiatpete]

Have you tried leaving the wallet closed on one of your windows machines for a couple of weeks so it's forced to do a resync?

Yes and it usually works fine.

EXCEPTION: N5boost10filesystem16filesystem_errorE      
boost::filesystem::remove: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process: "C:\coins\cryptonite\blocks\index\000081.sst"      
C:\coins\cryptonite\win64_cryptonite-qt_14091021.exe in Runaway exception

The good news is you've provided a descriptive error message to help pinpoint the issue. The bad news is this seems to be a problem which has exist for several years in other altcoins such as litecoin and still hasn't been fixed: https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=10746.0

EXCEPTION: N5boost10filesystem16filesystem_errorE
boost::filesystem:remove: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process: "C:
\Users\Owner\AppData\Roaming\Litecoin\database\log.0000000001"
C:\Program Files (x86)\Litecoin\litecoinqt.exe in Runaway exception.

My naive guess would be that you might have cryptonited already running in the background or something.

I thought the code was forked from bitcoin rather than litecoin as that what it says in the description.
I guess the other altcoins don't have the same need for resync as the don't use the mini blockchain scheme. Cryptonite seems to need a resync if a node hasn't connected for over a week. Looking back at the debug.log file the following error is from when I ran the client the other day:-
'Warning: saved state too old. Fast forward sync may not be possible. Run Resync!!!'
This is when I clicked resync and after that it crashed with the error I posted before. It was the only copy of cryptonited running at the time, I don't think it's even possible to start two copies at the same time.
After the crash I no longer have a blk00000.dat file so I get the following error messages when I try to start the client:-
2015-01-31 20:15:46 Unable to open file C:\coins\cryptonite\blocks\blk00000.dat
2015-01-31 20:15:46 ERROR: ReadBlockFromDisk : OpenBlockFile failed
2015-01-31 20:15:46 ReadBlockFromDisk: Could not find block 000000000669d21da5b787ed397a3e10600c5708cb89a227948d98d73409c9f8
2015-01-31 20:15:46 *** Failed to read block2
2015-01-31 20:15:57 Cannot fastforward chain because of connecttip fail: 000000000669d21da5b787ed397a3e10600c5708cb89a227948d98d73409c9f8
2015-01-31 20:15:57 Requesting shutdown
It spends a while on the splash screen saying 'loading block index' and then it fails with 'failed to read block2'

It should work if I do the usual trick of deleting everything bar the wallet.dat including the registry entries to re-install the client. But I'll leave it in the current state in case you need any more logs from it as I don't need to make any transactions now.

[bitfreak!]

I guess the other altcoins don't have the same need for resync as the don't use the mini blockchain scheme. Cryptonite seems to need a resync if a node hasn't connected for over a week. Looking back at the debug.log file the following error is from when I ran the client the other day:-
'Warning: saved state too old. Fast forward sync may not be possible. Run Resync!!!'
This is when I clicked resync and after that it crashed with the error I posted before.

That is not an error it's only a warning, you might not have to do a resync, if you let it run for a while it may be able to catch up. But if you're way behind and do need to resync then you'll need to start Cryptonited or Qt with the -resync flag. We've always known that clicking on that resync option in Qt will cause a crash, it also happens on Linux systems. Are you experiencing any problems apart from that?

It should work if I do the usual trick of deleting everything bar the wallet.dat including the registry entries to re-install the client. But I'll leave it in the current state in case you need any more logs from it as I don't need to make any transactions now.

I highly doubt your registry has anything to do with it. Deleting everything in your data directory except the wallet.dat should be enough.

[kalon]

It would be nice to get the messaging system implemented better. It seems NXT has a way of encrypting messages within it's network. Perhaps that could be used as a model. Seems they are limited to 1000 characters which seems sufficient. What's the limit within Cryptonite?

[bitfreak!]

It would be nice to get the messaging system implemented better. It seems NXT has a way of encrypting messages within it's network. Perhaps that could be used as a model. Seems they are limited to 1000 characters which seems sufficient. What's the limit within Cryptonite?

I believe there are now a few coins which support encrypted messages but they all have issues. The main thing you need to realize about encryption is that both parties typically need to be in possession of the secret encryption key(s). A typical symmetric encryption algorithm such as AES requires that both parties share a common secret. However that's not very useful for encrypting messages in transactions because it requires both parties to be in communication. But if you wanted to send an encrypted message using Cryptonite you could use the AES algorithm to encrypt a message and send it to someone who knows the secret key. There's nothing preventing anyone from doing that right now, but as I said it's not very useful.

Of course Cryptonite and most other altcoins already use public key cryptography (aka asymmetric encryption), and that opens the door for a more convenient message encryption mechanism. Anyone can encrypt a message using the public key associated with some address, then the owner of that address can decrypt the message using their private key. Now the problem is that you can't figure out the full public key just from an address. In order to know what the public key is you either need the person to send you their public key or you need to search the blockchain to find a transaction where that address has already been used as an input (because the public key can be derived from the signature), but it may not have been used previously.

I'm not sure how they implemented message encryption in NXT but I doubt they have solved these fundamental problems. The basic issue is that you can't encrypt a message and expect the other person to know how to decrypt the message unless you're in communication with that person or you have some other way to discover their public key. Thus we haven't implemented message encryption in Cryptonite, because I see no compelling solution to this problem. And to answer your question the limit for Cryptonite messages is 64 characters if I remember correctly. The intended purpose of it is just so people can attach a bit of extra info to the transaction, like maybe an order ID or something. It's not there so people can embed novels into the blockchain.

[digicoin]

It would be nice to get the messaging system implemented better. It seems NXT has a way of encrypting messages within it's network. Perhaps that could be used as a model. Seems they are limited to 1000 characters which seems sufficient. What's the limit within Cryptonite?

What is the motivation behind such a messaging service?

[Jamil.Kamil]

Cryptonite how get easier please tell me. ?

[ltcnim]

Cryptonite how get easier please tell me. ?

you can buy them here for example: https://poloniex.com/exchange#btc_xcn

[bitfreak!]

Cryptonite how get easier please tell me. ?

If you're asking how to get free XCN see here: http://www.xcnfaucet.com/

[bitfreak!]

Also I forgot to mention that I added a new page to the explorer which shows a list of peers connected to the explorer node. This may be helpful for anyone seeking active Cryptonite nodes.

http://explorer.cryptonite.info/?page=peers

[ltcnim]

Also I forgot to mention that I added a new page to the explorer which shows a list of peers connected to the explorer node. This may be helpful for anyone seeking active Cryptonite nodes.

http://explorer.cryptonite.info/?page=peers

Very useful, thx! It would be perfect if up-2-date clients would show up green or something (compare with block-explorer client for example)

[Eugen123]

Mention of mini-blockchains in IBM's ADEPT white paper:

“Multiple efforts like sidechains, treechains, and mini-blockchains are ongoing to address this problem. While each approach has its merits and demerits we are yet to see consensus on a common approach across the board. A blockchain to cater to hundreds of billions of devices needs to be scalable.”

http://www.coindesk.com/ibm-reveals-proof-concept-blockchain-powered-internet-things/

[bitfreak!]

Mention of mini-blockchains in IBM's ADEPT white paper:

“Multiple efforts like sidechains, treechains, and mini-blockchains are ongoing to address this problem. While each approach has its merits and demerits we are yet to see consensus on a common approach across the board. A blockchain to cater to hundreds of billions of devices needs to be scalable.”

http://www.coindesk.com/ibm-reveals-proof-concept-blockchain-powered-internet-things/

Interesting stuff, good find.

[nachoig]

The idea behind this coin is fantastic, specially when people are fighting because of the size of the blocks in Bitcoin. It's a shame that this coin gets less attention than a lot of coins with zero innovation.

BTW, others are trying to avoid the blockchain bloat: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=949880.0

[bitfreak!]

BTW, others are trying to avoid the blockchain bloat: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=949880.0

They've been trying for many years. The OP of that thread is suggesting something very much like the mini-blockchain scheme except he's suggesting the storage of unspent outputs instead of balances, which is very much similar to the ultimate blockchain compression scheme that gmaxwell mentions. The OP is basically reinventing ideas that have existed for several years.

[MaxDZ8]

I was slacking around and I was thinking about trying this out. I noticed there are only an handful pools. Besides 1GH the others seem to be rather small... either everyone is solo mining this or I'm missing something.
Any news of an open AMD miner BTW? I think this is holding back.

[bitfreak!]

I was slacking around and I was thinking about trying this out. I noticed there are only an handful pools. Besides 1GH the others seem to be rather small... either everyone is solo mining this or I'm missing something.
Any news of an open AMD miner BTW? I think this is holding back.

People just prefer mining at 1GH for a few different reasons, it's already been discussed a few times. And no news that I know of.